Sorry it's been so long....

When report card time falls right at the same time as Halloween, my oldest son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons coming to visit for a week, and just regular 'ole Mom duties...the blog gets left in the dust...

The good news is, your kids don't get lost in the shuffle...they're a HUGE part of my daily juggle and I wouldn't have it any other way!  We've been having a grand old time and I have SOOOO many pictures to share with you!!

In Language Arts we have been working on reading literature with short stories...we used the Junior Great Books program that is published particularly for advanced learners...the kids are required to delve deep into excellent literature and learn to defend ideas and argue respectfully with others' ideas using evidence in their arguments.  It is a strategy called "Shared Inquiry" and we ask and answer tough questions about the texts.  As a teacher, it was SO much fun.  I love hearing their different points of view and then posing questions to make them question themselves.  SO many of them are very confident learners and have no problem giving it right back! (using evidence of course!)  Reading literature has been our focus for the last three weeks, but now we will head back into reading for information...continuing to work on main idea and details of difficult pieces of text...doing close reading for text evidence to support our thoughts, etc.

This ties nicely with our writing for quarter two.  As you are aware, your child finished their first published piece...the narrative.  This week, the kids took a pre-writing assessment where they were able to bring an article or book from home about a topic they are interested in...they then had 40 minutes to plan, draft, edit and revise an informational piece showing everything they know about this type of writing.  We will spend the next quarter building our toolkit for this kind of writing, so that they have a better understanding of all that is involved and needed to write an informative piece.

In Math we are heavy into multiplication and division and we are all over the place...some kids have mastered the algorithm and their facts...they are focusing solely on solving multi-step word problems.  Some kids are working to represent multiplication and division using manipulatives, drawings, etc...they are making sense of the concepts, while others are working on the algorithm because they've mastered the concepts...and EVERYONE is working on solving word problems and SHOULD be working on mastering their basic facts!!

I will be sharing with you their updated fact scores at conferences so that you have an idea if they are improving...this will help us determine how much more they need to be practicing...these facts need to be memorized...this is something I expect the kids to do at home...and their mastery will help them SOOOO much as we head towards long division!!

Our Science unit "Aquariums" has been a lot of fun...we're headed into the home stretch...discussing food chains and webs...producers, consumers, decomposers, carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, prey, predators...we have studied many particular organisms...especially daphnia, snails, fiddler crabs, and newts...they kids have made predictions and verified those predictions, they have done lots of observing, and have drawn some conclusions along the way.  We will be having a science test in a couple weeks. No worries, a study guide will come home and they will have a week to prepare.

Over the past month we have met with our Buddy Class TWICE!  The first time we met the kids got to know each other...the third graders interviewed the kindergartners and shared info about themselves, and the kindergartners read the third graders a book they had written...it's fun to get to third grade and finally be the "biggger kid buddy class"!!  Below is our first meeting...second meeting will be part of the Fall Festival post!  Enjoy!

A day late...and ALWAYS a dollar short! Haha!

I really do have the best of intentions...but one thing led to another and last night ended and no post was made. Thanks for your flexibility...

We had a great week last week!  Here's how it went down...

The kids are crazy excited about SCIENCE.  We are building aquariums and studying organisms. So far our aquariums have elodea (a plant), duckweed (another plant), algae, and snails. This week we add the bigger organism...but I can't tell you what it is...it's a secret!!  We've also been studying the micro-organism, daphnia. The kids have looked at it with the aid of a magnifying glass and have labeled it's body parts. Weve read articles about the daphnia and discussed the variables that effect the increase or decrease of daphnia population, AND we've been recording data about our daphnia population. We will add them to the aquariums this week. We all agree Science is interesting and SO FUN!!

Our Reading Informational Text and Social Studies units are culminating in the creation of travel brochures. The kids are working diligently to produce quality brochures that will convince any traveler  that their state is THE state to visit.  These brochures will be on display in the classroom and out for your viewing at parent conferences. 

In MATH we are rapidly multiplying...numbers that is!  Multiples of 10, 100, 1000...different strategies for solving multiplication...properties of multiplication....and the straight up algorithm have been a lot of our focus. We will be working with the distributive property this week as well as solving difficult word problems using multiplication. Some of you may be wondering, "Why does my kid have to show their thinking using strategies when solving multiplication? My child already knows the algorithm!"  Thanks for asking...let me explain.  Many of your children have known the algorithm since they could walk...and that's awesome!  However, a lot of times it is a memorized operation and does not necessarily mean they understand the concept. Understanding the concept is exceptionally important as they work to use multiplication solving difficult word problems. Making sure they can use strategies is my job. Making sure they have the concept is my job. Once I know they do...using strategies to solve rigorous word problems is THEIR job. :-)

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS

1.  The times for Pumpkin Math need to change. My apologies, but I am the teacher representative on the Feasibility Study for the renovation/modernization of UES. We have a big meeting Thursday morning the 30th at the Board of Education and I will be out of school that morning. So I would like to move Pumpkin Math to that afternoon...1:00-2:15 pm. As of right now I have three parents who have volunteered to come help. I will send a confirmation email to those parents. If you would like to join us, please send me an email.  And thanks to those of you that have offered to donate the pumpkins and other supplies.  It will be a very fun afternoon!!

2.  Post-it Notes...we use a lot of post-it notes. If you ever see any post-it sticky notes on sale and would like to pick up a pack to donate, that would be sooo appreciated. (Thanks, Mrs. Petrolle!!)

3.  Our Fall Festival party is Friday, October 31st from 11:20-12:20.  Thank you to Mrs. Petrolle and Mrs. Foster for organizing this fun event! Reminder that you must be a trained volunteer to help out at events. The training is on our school's website.   With that being said, you're all welcome to come in and help out/visit with your child during this party. We'd love to have you! Please contact Mrs. Petrolle or Mrs Foster (use class directory...not sure I ever thanked Mrs. Kilgore for creating our class directory!!)

Have a great week...we plan to!