Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Another week just finished!  Time flies.  It is exciting to see that the days are finally getting a little longer.  Has anyone else noticed that it gets darker a little later every day now?
Report cards are inside your child's backpacks today.  Children who went skiing this afternoon also have their report cards packed inside their backpacks.  Please look at these together with your child and celebrate his/her hard work in school together.  Let me know if you have any questions about our new grading system.  As mentioned many times before, our report cards are now aligned with the common core standards so our reporting scales have changed to reflect this change.  Each report card envelope has an informational flier to explain this grading system to parents.  The School Bell also has additional information if you are interested in digging deeper into this new system of reporting.  Otherwise, just let me know and we can chat about it.  Thank you!

This week, the students wrapped up their studies of the ocean.  Our ream-wide science workshops ended and my class went to the computer lab for one last culminating activity.  The students got the opportunity to show their understanding and learning of the oceans throughout this entire unit by drawing a picture, using one of the many computer painting programs we have used this year.  Some children chose to represent their learning in Microsoft Paint, while others used the online web-tools on crayola and abc ya.  Her are some pictures.

This week, we also had the amazing opportunity to work together with an already published author.  His name is David Martin and he has written and illustrated many children's books.  He sent us an already illustrated story that he made more the holidays for his grandchild.  The story is called "Skelley's apple" and he asked us to write the words.  This week, the students worked together in partnerships and small groups to add words to this story.  I will type them up so we can send this to Mr. Martin and see what he thinks.  It was great to learn and create together in a collaborative writing setting.  Thank you Mr. Martin for including us in the writing process.

Next week, we will continue our non-fiction focus in literacy.  Guided reading groups will emphasize aspects of this genre and the students will continue to deepen their understanding of note-taking and finding evidence in texts.  The students will also continue writing their "All About" books, a writing form that allows them to apply what they learn in reading to writing.  In a sense, we will be reading as writers and writing as readers!

Have a great wekekend.  Regards,
Maria