Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We have so many new and exciting things to share with you this week. We also have some reminders about upcoming events.
First, we had another exciting 4Winds this week. Thank you to the wonderful parent volunteers who run these classes. This week, we learned about earthworms and components of soil. The students began the class inside with a puppet show (which was both informative and funny!) After the puppet theater the students went outside to explore various soil samples from our garden. The students worked in small groups and together examined the soil using magnifying glasses and collection cups. The acted as true scientists, using their senses to describe the soil and what they found. Ask your child to tell you about what the soil felt like, looked like and smelled like. Also ask your child to explain what we found inside the soil! After the soil experimentation, we returned to the classroom for a learning activity exploring earthworms. Once again, the students acted like scientists, using their sense to describe what the earthworms looked like and how they behaved. We ended the class by using our Science Journals, where we record our findings.
In our Science Journals, the students are encouraged to write and think like "real scientists", using their senses (as mentioned above) and including additional, very specific information. For example, the students have learned to always start their writing pieces in science by including the date and time. They have also learned to include information about the weather. All of our Science Journal writing pieces include detailed pictures, with appropriate labels and colors. These are just some of the exciting components of our science writing pieces. We will share them digitally with you soon.
This week in Writer's Workshop, the students practiced another writing prompt. They continued practicing starting their writing with a clear and precise introduction, followed by 2-3 supporting details, and ending with a conclusion. This week's writing prompt was on "Playing outside is fun". We had so many terrific writing pieces, which, once again, will be podcasted and shared with you.
Our Small Moment personal narratives have all been published! We started celebrating our writing this week with "The Author's Chair". All the students take turns reading their completed stories to the rest of the class, sitting in my chair. As the students read their stories, they also share their covers and pictures. After the story has been read to the class, the author asks for "Questions or Compliments". We normally ask for questions or comments in our classroom, but when you have finished a whole book, you need questions or compliments!! We will continue to celebrate these stories next week so all children can share. During the sharing, each child has a choice for how he/she wishes to share this writing digitally. Today, most children chosehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif the program Audacity to podcast. I wonder if it was because I brought in my microphone?? Please visit our podcasting library or podbean page for updates as the students share. Thank you.

Click here for the podcasting library.


In Reader's Workshop, the students began working on just right scripts this week as we explore fluency and intonation together. All the "Book Clubs" are practicing their own scripts and are getting ready to perform sometime soon. We cannot wait to share these plays with you. Thank you for working on fluency at home. I will encourage all the students to bring their Personal Readers home again next week.

Reminders:
We are going to the Flynn Theater next Monday, October 31st. The students need a packed lunch that day. We will also have a small Harvest Party in our classroom. You should all have received an email about signing up for special treats and healthy snacks to share with the class. Thank you Keri (Ben's mom) for organizing this for us!!
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We have parent-teacher conferences soon. Thank you to those of you who have already signed up. The slots are filling up soon. You all received a link to an electronic sign-up in your email. Otherwise, please click here to access the wiki directly, or see the sidebar for a static link. Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.

have a great rest of the week,
Maria