Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We hope you had a chance to see our previous posts on this blog, particularly the most recent one showing our own Tacky the Penguin puppets. We are very proud of our creations. The students even wrote their own creative stories about Tacky. We will share those at a later date, but as a little preview, we can share that we have stories about Tacky coming to our school as a substitute in our class and in PE. There is a rumor that instead of Morning Meeting, Tacky had a morning pillow-fight! Other stories tell tales of Tacky joining families on vacations, cruise-ships and car rides! Ask your child to tell you a little about his/her creative story.

Team Harmony is going to the Flynn Theater on Monday to see a show about the oceans. We will leave the school around 11:30, so we will eat lunch in the classroom together. Please pack a peanut-free lunch for your child that day. We will return to the school for our regular dismissal. Thank you all for sending in the permission slips.

I started formal reading assessments earlier this week and will continue next week as well. The students did an amazing job reading and talking about their texts. It is so rewarding to see their progress. I hope you celebrate the learning at home as well. Talk to your child about his/her books. Share your questions or wonderings. Ask your child to justify his/her thinking about books. Encourage your child to make connections between texts, authors and your own lives. Literacy is truly a collaborative and social pursuit. Talk, talk, talk about books, and then talk some more!

In writing, as mentioned above, the students have worked on their creative narrative stories about Tacky. They have also continued some constructed writing responses and practiced a more formalized way of writing with introductions, evidence and conclusions. In addition, the students have learned ways to "hook" the reader, ie get the reader interested in the writing piece so he/she wants to read more. There are many ways to do this. The students have learned to use questions as effective "hooks." They use them in introductions to catch the reader's attention and sometimes even place them throughout the writing piece as a way to remind the reader to connect with the text. It is very effective. Ask your child to explain and even show you at home. Moreover, the students have learned to create pictures that "stretch" their stories a little more, to mix words, charts, speech bubbles and thinking bubbles into an interesting reading experience. Lastly, they have learned to advertise and share their writing pieces in book recommendations and book talks in our class. We use a fishing hook as a visual reminder in our classroom so we remember to include these tools as we try to read as writers, and write as readers.



Have a great weekend.
Regards,
Maria