Homework: January 28 - February 4

1. Read each night for at least twenty minutes. Hopefully by now you no longer need to watch the clock for your child. They should be reading a good bit of their books and stopping when they get to a comfortable break in the story. Most of the kids are now reading more than just twenty minutes each evening which is great! Those that did not get their logs in on time (as well as those whose logs were incomplete) have another reading log this week. Everyone else has the week off from logging!

2. A set of graphs will come home on Tuesday. The kids will collect the loose change in the house and graph the years each coin was made. There will be separate graphs for quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. These are due back on Friday. We'll connect all their graphs and see what our cumulative findings are. We are currently working to graph the change in the classroom and, so far, have been surprised to find that most of our pennies date back more than fifteen or twenty years. If our home graphs show different findings we'll have to consider why the data sets show different results. If they are the same we'll consider why this might be.

3. There will be a civil war study guide coming home on Friday. The kids need to study over the weekend. We will have a quiz on Monday.

Newsletter: January 22, 2013

Dear Families,

Here is a quick update on the work we're doing in the classroom:

Reading: We have just started a new novel. Titled The Music of Dolphins, it's about a feral child who is "rescued" and brought back to the States where a doctor uses her to study the effects of socialization and language acquisition. The conflict comes from the young girl's desire to return to the ocean to be with her dolphin family. We are reading this book together each day while working to build conversations around literature, use adjectives to describe the characters, and come to understand the concepts of protagonist and antagonist.

Writing: Our new MAT Mr. Chris helped us launch a study of memoir writing. The kids started by looking back through their writer's notebook to identify life topics they often write about. Topics ranged from family to places to friendship. In the coming days we'll work to take our ideas, develop them, and "write small" (stretching out small moments).

Math: We are beginning a study of money. During the next week or so we'll be counting money, making change, solving puzzles, finding out how money is made, and exploring the many questions the kids want answered. I'll also be introducing logic puzzles.

Social Studies: As we continue our study of the Civil War, we'll be talking about reasons for the war, Abraham Lincoln, and SC's role in the war as a Confederate state. South Carolina State Standards call for us to identify states' rights as one reason for the war. This will be put within the larger context of a war fought to maintain slavery. However, as we explore the idea of states' rights we will consider individual rights/choice as opposed to the role of government to make decisions for us. You'll see a small homework assignment come home on Wednesday dealing with issues relating to this topic.



Social Studies:

Homework: January 14 - 21, 2013

Homework for this week is:

1. Multi-digit multiplication sheet. We JUST started with this so I anticipate the kids will need some help from you.
2. Study for our abolitionist quiz next Tuesday. A study guide came home tonight.
3. Read each night. Most of the kids have a reading log. Over the coming weeks and months many of the kids will no longer be asked to keep a log.

All this is due next Tuesday.

Thanks,
Chris

Framing Our Photographs

Today we looked at a number of different photographs and talked about how the photographer drew our attention to certain objects within the whole picture. We figured out this is done by some combination of: (1) framing the subject, (2) bringing the subject to the front, (3) contrasting color, (4) putting the subject in the center, and (5) choosing interesting things to highlight.

The kids practiced this in the room with the Palm Pilots and then we went outside to shoot some photos. In addition to being a lot of fun, the work we're doing now will help us capture photos in the coming weeks and months around topics we are exploring in class.

The kids will be going to the lab later today to learn how to create a folder, transfer their photos from the Palm Pilot to the computer, and select photos to print.

Here is a sampling of the types of photos we took...

Newsletter: January 9, 2013

Yes, that's my awful handwriting even when taking my time to form letters carefully. Each day I record the daily agenda at the far end of the dry-erase board. This week has us launching a study of slavery, abolitionists, and the Civil War. We're also formally beginning our work with photography. We'll begin by learning to frame pictures in all sorts of different ways and move on to using these photos to inspire our writing. Eventually I hope to use photography to explore issues related to our classroom and school - friendship, cooperation, rituals, etc. In math we are stretching ourselves to solve increasingly difficult multiplication problems and to determine when these sorts of problems are necessary within the context of real world scenarios.

And, of course, we had our Biography Share Fair on Tuesday. Here are a whole host of photos from the presentations the kids gave to their fellow schoolmates. Each and every student at CFI came out to hear about their learning. At the end are some photos from this morning. The kids have been using the Chromebooks to research fun games to play outdoors, teach one another new presentation programs (such as Prezi), and to research abolitionists for our unit on the Civil War.

Teaching/learning to use a Prezi.

Taking notes on Sojourner Truth.

Trying to capture a photo of the spider who dropped down from our ceiling during Explorations.

THANK YOU, Many Times Over!!!

As the first half of the school year nears a close I'd like to thank each of you once again for trusting me with your children. It's a tremendous responsibility that I do not take lightly. As much as I enjoyed sleeping in a bit later each morning over break I was awfully happy to get back and see everyone again. Of course, waiting for me was a brand new picnic table. What a wonderful gift! Thank you to everyone who contributed to the purchase and construction of this addition to our classroom garden. I know the kids will love getting out there later in the week to work, eat, giggle, etc. Thank you, also, to everyone who sent in individual gifts before break. The many gift cards, cookies, and supplies were well received!