Hello,
Your children have been doing a wonderful job being social but respectful in the cafeteria. The classes earn yards on a football field for each green cup or great day in the cafeteria. We have had just a few yellow cups but we've been steadily marching up that football field this year. Our class, Bartholomew's Bats, were the FIRST class in the entire school to make a touchdown! This means that we have earned a Reward Party!
Reward Party!!!!! Yeah!!!!
We have decided to celebrate our HOWL behavior by having a pajama day AND an electronics party on Monday, October 18. The children are encouraged to wear pajamas
(they still need to meet dress code). The students may bring in ONE electronic item. No cell phones, please. It must be able to fit in their back pack because it will remain in the backpack until the party at the end of the day. Any games that come to school for the party must be rated E for Everyone. I-Pods or MP3 players are only listened to by the person who brought in the I-Pod or MP3 player. If your child or you are not comfortable bringing in an expensive and special electronic item from home, that is completely understandable. The school laptops will be available to play games from our links page on our web page. Let me know if I forgot anything about electronics parties or if you have any questions or concerns about our party. The children are VERY excited!
Reading-This week in reading we read lots of traditional tales (fairy tales, legends, myths, fables, tall tales, etc...) and have been independently choosing projects from a project menu to complete about the books read. We also have been practicing making inferences as we read. (Background Knowledge + Text Clues = Inference) We used a book by Jane Yolen called Encounter on Tuesday. It is a book about Columbus written from a Native boy's point of view. I read it to them without using the illustrations and they did an amazing job using the context and their knowledge to make inferences. We also read an article about the Titanic and made inferences about the meanings of tricky words in the article. We will be doing more work with expository text (nonfiction) and procedural text this week. We will be looking at the text structure to help us comprehend the material in a more effective way.
Writing-A variety of poetry books were read this week by your children. They were immersed in poems to give them some models to try writing our own poems. We each took an entry from our writer's notebook and underlined key phrases or important parts. Then we listed those parts and thought about how we could turn our words into poetry. This is not an easy task but the poems written by your children are creative, poetic, expressive, and just plain amazing! We will be finishing these up next week and publishing them. I think you will be impressed. We will also be writing essays for the Red Ribbon Week Contest which is due on Oct. 25.
Math-Who ever thought algebra was difficult? Your children are working hard and figuring out how to apply algebraic equations to patterns and tables. They are doing quite well. We are using models to show the patterns and then using drawings and numbers to progress from the concrete to the abstract. We will continue to practice our multiplication, addition, and subtraction using problem solving with patterns and tables next week. Thank you for your continued help at home practicing math facts and finding real life situations to practice math in daily life.
Science-We have been classifying matter this week. We did a demonstration using balloons to show density and various liquids which stack themselves in layers in a graduated cylinder depending on their density. We completed a webquest about density and practice weighing objects in grams using triple beam balances. We will continue next week learning about changing states of matter.
Next week, I will be at a three day training to become TAG (talented and gifted) certified. I will have a substitute teacher on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I am excited to go to this training to learn more about challenging your children and pushing them academically and creatively. This class is full of kids who need this extra nudge. I think that they will be excited as well!
Friday, October 22-PEN PAL VISIT TO FOREST CREEK! Our pen pals will be coming to our school on Friday. We are so excited to see them again. We made fall-themed invitations from each child to encourage them all to attend. We will be interviewing them about their favorite holidays and hopefully hear some exciting holiday stories from their lives. We will also interview them about their favorite things as children and compare them to our own favorite things now. The children and the pen pals will create some fall art projects together and will also enjoy a snack prepared by the children after reading and following procedural texts or recipes. (see reading above)
It would be wonderful to have at least four parent volunteers to help with the activities. I plan to have four tables set up in the library and have the pen pals and children stay at one table while we move the activities from one table to the next until everyone has completed all four activities. The pen pals should be arriving at about 10:30 and staying until almost 12:00. We would love to have your assistance if you are available. It is also wonderful to see the children and the elders interact. Let me know if you can come!
Dates to remember:
PTA donations being collected until Oct. 29-Haniya won a door prize already! Thanks to those who have supported our PTA.
October 25-29= Red Ribbon Week
October 29=Harvest Festival at FCE from 5-8pm
November 4=PTA Reflections Contest entries due
Have a wonderful weekend! Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Thank you for sharing your child with me.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
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