Homework: October 29 - November 5, 2012

1. Nightly reading log
2. Math sheets and nightly multiplication review of the 6s
3. Gather resources for your biography expert project. You need at least one non-fiction book and two or three electronic resources (print these out). You can work on this at explorations if your home computer is not working properly. Also, if you can find a picture book on your person that would be great. The topic for these expert projects are "People Who Have Made a Difference."

Homework: October 22 - 29

There is only one assignment this week - a reading log. I promised last week that those who have been doing their class jobs on a regular basis would not have homework this week. So only a fraction of the class is bringing the log home. However, they know they should ALL be reading each night.

Thanks,
Chris

Newsletter: October 19, 2012

Dear Families,

Thanks to everyone who has sent in their camping form. Our trip is just two weeks from tomorrow and the kids are excited. If you have not sent in your form just yet please try to do so in the next day or so. It looks as though we will have around 55 - 60 people. That's a good crowd!  I've been following the weather forecasts.If the overnight lows are in the 50s, we'll all be fine. If it gets cooler than that you'll want to make sure to have a pad or air mattress beneath you and a good sleeping bag or collection of blankets. If the overnight temperatures look as though they are going to be outside your comfort zone please feel free to make the best choice for your family in regards to staying the night. Of course, during the day and evening we'll have lots to do and a nice big fire!

Here is a quick review of our week. We became backed up a bit as we worked to finish up a few projects and other loose ends.

Math - We have been working on division. We have taken these problems and worked them out using both manipulatives and illustrations. We've also begun looking at how multiplication and division are related. We'll continue this work next week.

Writing - We wound up using a good bit of our writing workshop to plan, draft, conference, and publish letters to Dr. Mueller about our ideas for adding a nature garden on the playground. Some have finished these letters. The others will do so on Monday. Next week we'll get to the reflection/goal setting I had intended for this week.

Reading - We read a Ruby Bridges biography twice. The first time we read it as readers to discuss the story. The second time we read it as writers to see what we noticed about the types of information the author chose to share. We noticed he really spent the most time on Ruby's first year attending a desegregated school. We came away with the thought that biographies will often slow down certain parts of someone's life while fast forwarding through other parts. Deciding which parts to highlight is very important. This will support the work we do on our future biography expert project. We're planning to begin those in a few weeks.

Social Studies - We continued our study of Native Americans. The kids enjoyed a short movie on the Eastern Woodland Native Americans. It shared the many ways they used resources from nature to make tools, build shelter, and so on.

A letter to Dr. Mueller showing the revision notes from a classmate.

Lots and lots to finish up. We spent a few hours Friday morning and still did not quite reach the end.

Homework: October 15 - 22, 2012

1. Read for at least twenty minutes each evening. There is space on the log for a brief weekend reflection.

2. Have someone drill your multiplication tables (1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 10s, and 11s) for five minutes each night.

3. Cursive practice sheet

4. Multiplication sheet

These are due back in next Monday. I am providing the kids with a nightly HW log sheet to help them pace themselves on these assignments. The goal is that, other than reading, they will not need to spend more than 10 - 15 minutes on homework any given evening.

Thanks,
Chris

A Few Favorite Songs We're Singing Right Now

Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins
Practice this song at home and we'll work on it some more in class as well. Also, be sure to show your parents that sign toward the end of the song.

Upside Down - Jack Johnson
What a fun song!

Together We Can Change the World - Performed by orphans with AIDS to raise money
Another great song. This is one the whole school enjoys singing together.

With My Own Two Hands - Ben  Harper and Jack Johnson
Here's a preview of one we'll be learning soon!

We Are Going to be Friends - Jack Johnson
Maybe this one one???

Newsletter: October 12, 2012

Thanks to everyone who made it out for Curriculum Night last night. That was a record crowd! I know the kids enjoyed sharing their work with you.

As I work to write progress reports over these few weeks, I will scale the newsletters back a bit. Here is a simple run down of what you should know:

Reading - This week we highlighted a different biography each day of the week. This was designed to support the work the kids have been doing at home to prepare a short biography of someone who has been largely overlooked by history. We will continue to read biographies next week in preparation for an upcoming expert/research project.

Writing - We are currently between units so we used some of this time to co-write our new song. We've been using the tune of Down on the Corner to create lyrics. The kids have worked in groups to write a verse or two and I will now take the next few weeks to weave their lyrics together and create an original tune for the song.

Math- We read a book called One Hundred Hungry Ants. It was about a group of 100 ants who were marching to a picnic. They kept stopping to reorganize themselves (divide) into different formations. For example, they began as one row of 100 (100 divided by 1 = 100), moved to two rows of 50 (100 divided by 2 = 50), tried four rows of 25 (100 divided by 4 = 25), and so on. The kids then worked in pairs to find all the possible ways of dividing other numbers of "ants" into rows. Rather than ants we used blocks and counters. This work required us to learn what a remainder is. You may have noticed this problem on the board last night: 17 divided by 3 = 5 r. 2. We'll continue with this work next week. Eventually these discussions and engagements will lead us to discuss fractions.

Social Studies - We've been researching different Native American tribes from South Carolina. We've also been reading/watching different texts about Christopher Columbus and wondering why one source might provide a different set of facts than another.

Next week...

Reading - biographies, reading goals, lots of independent reading (we're building up our reading endurance)
Writing - Reflecting on our growth as writers over the past year and setting goals for ourselves
Math - division
SS - Exploration in the "New World"/Motives/Colonization (does this exist anywhere today?)

Have a great weekend,
Chris

Sample Reading Goal Reflection for This Weekend's HW

Sample Reading Goal Reflection

Reading Goals 

Goal I Made Up -        Make more time for reading fiction books.

Goal Mr. H Made Up- Try some new authors.

Class Goal -                Read the same books at home and school.

This week I read a few books for my USC class. One was Literacies of Power and I cannot remember the name of the other book. I read the USA Today each morning while I ate my breakfast and also read a few articles about the Cardinals baseball team on espn.com. Before bed each night, I read Alabama Moon to Muluken and Ty.

I read two fiction books. One was called The Lone Ranger and Tonto Get into a Fistfight in Heaven. I’m not sure I like this book very much. It is full of short stories but I have not read them all yet. I’ve only read the first two or three. Maybe it will get better. The other fiction book was Alabama Moon. It is very good. There are a few bad words in it but we have talked about how hearing a bad word doesn’t mean we have to say it. We are old enough to understand this.

Both fiction books I am reading are by authors I have never read before. One of them is Sherman Alexie. He has another book I think I might like to try called The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian.

Because I spend our reading time meeting with the readers in our classroom I do not really get to read in class. I do all my reading at home. I do read Swindle each day as well as other picture books to the class but I cannot read these at home because these are stories we all share together.

****Notice how I told what books I read this week and then talked about each of my goals. ****

Homework: Oct. 8 - 15, 2012

1. Read for at least twenty minutes each night. At the end of the week complete the reflection sheet I provided you. You should use this sheet to tell me how your reading went, what you read, and how you feel you did in terms of working toward the three reading goals we have worked together to set for you. Be sure to provide support. Don't just say "I think I did good." Tell me what specifically you were able to do this week that makes you feel you did well.


2. Write a brief biography on someone from history that does not get recognized all that often. We know we will learn about George Washington, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Thomas Jefferson over the next year or two. I would like for you to use this as an opportunity to introduce someone to us that does not get mentioned enough. Your parents will most likely need to help you think about this. I provided a list to help you begin thinking of people in our last newsletter. I have sent home an example of this assignment to serve as a model. Some people have asked about doing this project on a family member. I think that is a great idea but I would like to hold off on family members right now because I want these assignments to help the rest of us think of someone we might want to conduct an Expert Project on. In a few weeks I'll provide an opportunity to highlight a family member. Of course, you could tell about a special family member and what they did any day of the week by adding them to our Social Justice/Positive Action journal!


3. Finish publishing your poetry book. This is due on Monday and needs to look very nice!

Curriculum Night

Curriculum Night is this Thursday. The format is different this year. We are splitting the night up in hopes of making it easier to spend time with each of your children. From 6:15 - 7:00 will be K-2 classroom presentations/engagements. During that time I will keep our kids in the classroom with me so you can focus your full attention on your younger children. If you do not have a child in K-2 then you will not need to show up until a little before 7:00. Our curriculum night, as well as all 3-5 classrooms, will be from 7:00 - 7:45. Again...

6:15 - 7:00  Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade Curriculum Night. If you are here please bring your 3rd grader to me and we will have some fun while you are with your younger child.

7:00 - 7:45 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade Curriculum Night. Leave your younger child with their classroom teacher.

We are focusing our first Curriculum Night on social studies. I will discuss my goals for the year and then the kids will share some things they have been learning about current news, the election, South Carolina geography, Native Americans, and Christopher Columbus. Next we'll have an engagement you can do alongside your child. I"ll end with information about the class camping trip on November 3rd.

I anticipate our evening playing out as such...

7:00     Welcome and preview of 3rd grade social studies
7:10     Kids share out some things they have been learning
7:25     Engagement with your child
7:35     Camping trip information
7:45     Head home

I hope to see you on Thursday!

Two Videos to Share

Here is a short video from our trip to the zoo last week. It is fun, if not polished. Sorry I couldn't get everyone into the video. Our groups were spread throughout the zoo and there were a few I did not run into until the very end.





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Here is another video I created as part of a class assignment at USC. The course focuses on how readers respond to texts - namely, the way in which we create meaning from a text based on our own experiences, moods, expectations, and beliefs. In this video a group of our readers talk about a book Ms. Ruff read them about a Native American boy who goes off to live with the seals. I am using the video to explore whether young readers are aware of the fact they learn things from all sorts of texts - even those meant to entertain. This, of course, has been a theme we have explored in the past.

Newsletter: October 5, 2012

Dear Families,

This sure seemed like a quick week. That may have been due, in part, to the fact we seemed to have more things to accomplish each day than the clock would allow. We started the week off with a little quiz over the four river systems and six landform regions of South Carolina.While we enjoyed exploring different maps, paying special attention to their many features, our South Carolina state standards called for the memorization of these river systems and regions. Thank you to everyone for helping your children prepare last weekend. The completed quizzes will come home on Monday.

Here we see that some strategies are not well designed for larger collections of numbers. In this case we found that adding the ones, carrying, and then adding the tens was the most reliable method.

Speaking of social studies, we preceded our study of Native Americans by browsing our textbook to take stock of the pictures in each chapter. Led by the question "Whose history can we expect to learn this year?", we found that there were 128 photos or illustrations of men and 53 photos or illustrations of women. Of these, 102 were white, 47 were African-American, and 15 were Native American.

"Wow," I said. "Why do you think there are fourteen Native Americans in the first chapter but only one in the entire rest of the book. What happened to them?

A few hands shot up. I asked the kids to turn and discuss this with a friend.

"Maybe they went back to India?" someone guessed.

Ha! Dispelling the logical notion that American Indians are from India has been a part of our discussion most days. Following Clolumbus' route on a globe next Monday may well help to clear this up.

On Wednesday we found a map that stated in 1300 there were around 15 - 18 different tribes living in what is now South Carolina . Our state standards call for us to memorize a few facts about three of them. Again, I asked "How do you think they decided which tribes were most important to know about? What about the others?" Most responses centered on the idea that these tribes were the largest or most powerful. I, of course, did not know the answer but that seems like an awfully logical guess. Much of our history is told from the perspective of the larger dominant groups that often are most powerful. I shared with the kids that the history of both our country and state is enormous and to simplify into something we can learn in just one year someone had to select what was most important to know and what was not. The selection of these facts and events form a story that we come to believe as the history of America. However, many stories get left out.

I know we will spend this year learning all about the King's Proprietors, colonists, the American Revolution, the Civil War and the names of bunches of generals and so forth. These are the specific items that will be tested in May. Beyond this I would love for us to open ourselves up to the stories that otherwise would become lost. Stories of...

tribal leaders
civil rights activist
suffragists
Japanese-Americans who spoke out against "war relocation camps"
anit-war activists
African-American soldiers in the Civil War
those who have worked and/or fought on behalf of others

Of course, these name just a few of the categories you may think of in terms of groups of people who are not often talked about in history. To help with this I am asking each of the kids to do a BRIEF study of someone they think the rest of the class should know about. Because these names will not be at the tips of their tongues they will most likely need your help. In case you get stuck, I am providing a list of potential names at the end of this newsletter. Please do not feel as though your child is limited just to the names on this list. Your choices are endless. Help your child pick someone that would be interesting to share out. I asked the kids to provide only a paragraph or two about their person - not an entire biography. Here is the example I provided in class:

Crazy Horse - He was part of the Lakota tribe. He was very quiet but a strong leader. He had a vision that told him "keep nothing for yourself." In keeping with this vision, he owned nothing. He was fierce in war but kind with his people. He was killed after riding into Fort Robinson to talk of peace.

I am asking the kids to bring this assignment in on Monday, October 15th. We will talk about it more when we return on Monday.

The kids have been bringing in really great information about each of our presidential candidates. Many of these items have allowed us to think about issues such as big government. Someone shared today that President Obama and his wife want to pick what we eat. After discussing whether they would suggest or pick foods for us (reflecting back on what we heard about the soda-size law in NY) I asked the kids what they would do if they were president to help reverse the rising obesity problem in our country. After discussing this with their friends they responded:

"Only have two bakeries in each city."
"Make healthy food cheaper."
"Make people pay more for hospital bills."
"Let people choose for themselves. Leave them alone."

Each response was well received and made for a nice discussion. This tied back to the notion of big government. When should a government mandate things in the name of health and safety? Should they at all? Please, please share your thoughts with your child at home. Help them think about issues of power and what, in your opinion, constitutes right and wrong.

For next week...

Reading - biographies
Writing - finishing poetry and writing our next song
Math - fractions
Social Studies - Columbus, Native Americans, current events, the election

And finally, here is the promised list of names. You will notice it is VERY incomplete!

Maria Tallchief

Squanto

Sacajawea

Pontiac

Geronimo

Tecumseh

Sitting Bull

Black Hawk

Sequoiah

Hiawatha

 Ella Baker

W.E.B. Dubois

Marcus Garvey

Medgar Evers

Thurgood Marshall

Jesse Jackson

Stokely Carmichael

Frederick Douglass

54^th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers

 Dr. Feng Shan Ho

Dalip Singh Saund

Susan B Anthony
Jane Addams

Have a great weekend,
Chris

Homework: October 1st - 8th

1. There is a new reading log this week. It was developed, in large part, by the kids. They came up with a list of different ways they might share their reading with me on a log. This week's reading log provides them the opportunity to choose from this list. They will be logging their reading both at school and at home this week. A significant goal for the week is to read the same book at both home and school. I've asked them to have you sign or initial their log each day next to their entry.

2. Please bring in something to share about either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama by next Monday that speaks to their beliefs or desires for the country. We will use this information to help us better understand the differences between the two candidates. For example: Mitt Romey believes we should pay fewer taxes each year. Or, Barack Obama believes we should trim the defense budget. The kids need only share one fact about whichever candidate they wish. Please help your child rehearse how they will share this information.