Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
Thank you for taking the time to sign up for our parent teacher conferences starting next week.  I am very excited to see you again and share your child's progress at school.  Please be respectful of the limited time we have together.  If we need additional time to discuss your child's time at school, I am delighted to set up another time, outside of these conference time slots.  Thank you!

Reading:
The students continued to participate in guided reading groups in class to receive direct instruction on specific reading strategies that address the needs of each student.  I hope you see some of these reading skills used at home as your child continues with his/her homework. Thank you for supporting your child's reading at home and helping your child complete the weekly reading logs.

As a class, our Mo Willems author study continued with a focus on the importance of the setting.  The students participated in a series of lessons and discussions on how the setting helps us understand the story and how it also adds interesting details to the plot.  Then, the students carefully crafted their own settings for the characters in the books we're currently reading because many times the setting is absent altogether in the books by mo Willems.  We look forward to sharing these creations with you.  Some students decided to place the character Pigeon in space, while others wanted Pigeon to visit ABS and our classroom!  Ask your child to tell you what he/she decided!

We also had the opportunity to see a Reader's Theater performance by some of our friends this week.  In a Reader's Theater, the students focus upon fluency and deliver a script so it sounds like spoken language.  They did great!

Writing:
The students continued their personal narratives this week.  We continued work on developing good writing habits. The students are currently learning to decide if they need to add more to their pictures, more to their words or start a new piece. We will share these stories at our conferences next week as well.  In the next few weeks, the students will choose one story from their writing folders and publish it.  Then, they will meet with a writing partner, check on grammar and punctuation as well as create a cover for it.  We will celebrate our publications and keep you posted on how we will do that.

Science:
The students acted like scientists this week in our mini-unit on magnetism.  They practiced making reasonable predictions about a variety of objects that might be magnetic, and then they tested their thinking by using real magnets to check and record the actual outcomes.  We met in a Scientist's Meeting, a time when we share our scientific observations and wonderings, to share our results.  They did a great job.  For example, they discovered that different magnets have different strengths (or magnetic fields) and they also noticed that an object can be magnetic on one side, but not the other depending upon what it is made of!

Our love of science continues with amazing shares.  Thank you families for supporting our love of nature and learning.  Here is just one example of a child who brought in a butterfly as a share.  With the help of technology, we could zoom in and really observe it closely!

Technology:
We continued our work on digital citizenship this week as well.  We shared what it means to be safe, kind and responsible online in a flipgrid (online video).  We also used google classroom to share our understanding of the Pigeon books.

The Power of Yet:
In our class, we discuss the importance of not giving up and trusting yourself when we learn something new.  Learning can sometimes be frustrating and hard, but by having a good attitude and trusting ourselves, and our own abilities, we can start seeing that the frustration that we sometimes feel, is a natural part of this process.  We use words like optimism, perseverance, and growth mindset.  Here is a picture of our bulletin board.

We also listen to this song sometimes, to remind ourselves of this powerful message.  Perhaps you will listen to it with your child as well?


Have a great weekend,
Maria