Weekly Update October 12, 2015

An important reminder that there is no school on Monday and Tuesday this week. Monday is Columbus Day and Tuesday is a full day professional development day. I will look forward to seeing the students on Wednesday.

Although it's going to be a quick week, we will still have a lot of time for learning in the classroom.

During writing, we will continue working on our personal narrative stories. This week, the students will brainstorm ideas for a story about a special celebration in addition to the piece they will brainstorm for at home. Then the children will get to decide which story they would like to write first. The kids are being encouraged to write the story in chronological order, to add transition words or phrases to move their story along, and to use descriptive words and language to paint a picture for the reader. The kids are really beginning to apply these features to their writing, which is coming alive before our eyes!!

Our Guided Reading groups this week will focus on the strategy of "Making Connections." This strategy helps with reading comprehension. The students will be asked to make either a text to self connection, text to text connection, or a text to world connection while reading. This is a strategy you can use at home too when your child is reading.

We are excited to begin our first social studies unit of the year, "Apple Economics." This unit will begin with an overview of non-fiction features and using them to read a book about apples and apple production. We will also discuss important vocabulary (consumer, producer, goods, services) and use this knowledge to help us perform plays within the classroom that demonstrate economics in action.

In math this week, we will discuss solutions and revise the work the children did last week on a practice Open Response question. The children will also have time to explore the counting up strategy for solving problems and we will revisit odd and even numbers and shapes.

We look forward to our second Community Meeting Assembly on Friday when we will discuss the first compassion project, which is donating to the Westford Food Pantry.

Homework:  Due to the short week, there will be no spelling this week. In place of spelling, we are asking that you help your child with a writing assignment. They will need to find a photograph of an important recent event/moment in their life. Then they will need to brainstorm some ideas about the moment that they may use in school to write a personal narrative story. They are not required to write the story at home, just brainstorm ideas.  This assignment will come home with your child on Wednesday.

*Jess Pilat has graciously offered to help with the planning of the Harvest Party on October 30^th.  If you haven’t yet turned in your classroom party form and donation, it would be helpful to have them by the end of this week so she can plan accordingly.  Thank you!