Weekly Update

Dear Families,
My apologies for the late post, but I encountered some technical difficulties last week.  I hope you all had a great weekend.  The weather is certainly getting colder.  Thank you for sending your child in to school with warmer clothing.  We have outdoor recess every day, unless it is raining.

Our Learning:
Reading: The students continued work in our small guided reading groups.  In these groups, the children receive instruction targeted to their own unique reading needs and read book on their "just right" levels.  These books normally go home in our book bags on Mondays, unless we are reading a longer book that extends our learning over several weeks.  Thank you for supporting your child's reading at home.  daily practice is very important and reading out loud reinforces many skills and strategies worked on in class.  We are currently studying character traits as a class.  The students are learning how to find evidence of what characters say, do and think and how to use their own words to describe these characters.  

Writing; We started our small moment writing pieces a little while ago.  These are personal narratives which we extend over several pages.  We use mentor texts to help us write better.  We read books by published authors and find examples of how that particular author used his/her words to make the story more interesting and then we try to apply those skills and techniques ourselves.  In other words, we read as writers. When the children read, they are encouraged to think about if they read as writers (looking at the text features and the language), or if they read as readers (i.e. we think about the plot, the characters and setting).  To make this distinction as clear as possible, I wear different hats in class when we read our books.  Later this week, the students will make their own "Read as Writers" hats.  

Technology: The students started Typing Club on Friday.  I will send home the link so you can continue working on typing skills at home, if you wish.  This, of course, is voluntary, but the students seemed to really enjoy this program and the feedback it offered them as they mastered each section.  We encountered some problems with my classroom domain link, so I will share this Typing Club link later this week (after I have resolved the technical issues).

Reminders and Upcoming Events:
We will attend the Book Fair at WCS on November 11th.  The bus will take us there and then back again to ABS for regular dismissal from ABS.  Please look for more information as we get closer.

We will start our "Creepy Crawlies" science unit in Novemeber.  The students will participate in workshops and learn about bats, spiders, snakes and the Venue Fly-trap.  Stay tuned.

Our school-wide celebration for filling the beehive is in full swing.  Each classroom decorated a pumpkin and they are currently on display in our hallway, outside the gym and the cafeteria.  The pumpkins were donated to our school by "Foley & Fontaine Farm-stand" right here in Williston.  Thank you! Please stop by to see these creative pumpkins.  
Have a great week.

Best,
Maria