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.