Weekly Update

Dear Families,
It is hard to believe but we have almost finished our 2nd week of school.  It feels like fall now too with cooler temperatures outside.  Thank you for sending your child to school with long-sleeved jackets or sweatshirts.  We have recess every day and the cooler temperatures and winds chill.

In writer's workshop, the students started to decorate their writing folders. We keep our writing inside these folders until we are ready to publish our pieces.  We follow a workshop model at ABS and the students learn that writing is a process, a process that begins with an idea.  This idea is then carefully planned out and put into words and pictures.  After the initial stages of our writing, the students re-read their own writing pieces and make revisions and edits their pieces.  Sometimes we also consult with our editor partners who help us make our pieces even better.  After the students have completed these steps, they choose a piece to publish.  This process takes time to learn and we will explore this over the next few weeks.  This week, the students and I discussed how we come up with interesting ideas for writing.  We brainstormed writing topics together and the students also received a list of these topics that they keep inside their folders for future use.  We will add to this list as our topics as authors grow.  We read the book "Library Mouse" by D. Kirk.  We learned that we are all authors.  We also learned that good authors write about things they know.  So, this week we started writing stories about things we already know something about.  For example, some students are writing stories about their pets or a special trip they took this summer.  Other students are writing books about a sport they play or special hobbies they have.  We cannot wait to share these with you later.   
In reading, we started reading groups this week.  We call our guided reading groups Book Clubs.  On Monday, your child will bring home his/her Book Bag for the first time.  Your child will also bring home his/her Homework folder.  Team Harmony teachers are asking students to read and write every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  We also hope this will not take more than 20 minutes.  In reading this week, the students and I started discussing what a "Just Right" book is.  We explored different strategies for figuring this out, such as looking at the cover, looking at the words and reading some of the words.  We also learned that if we cannot read five or more words on a page, that book might not be a "just right" book for us.  We also discussed that our needs as readers are different.  Sometimes we might want to look at pictures to help us in another subject, and sometimes a "just right" book might be different because we already know about that particular topic. When you read with your child at home, please engage in this conversation.  Ask your child why the book he/she took home is a "just right" book, or not.  Learning how to pick good books help us make sense of reading; and after all, reading must make sense to us.  If you have any questions about homework, reading logs or books, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Today, your child brought home information about our school picture day.  Please read it carefully and return it to school if you are interested in having pictures taken.  Thank you.
Today, some children also brought home a crayon cupcake (our walkers and Part 2 students forgot to get theirs so they will get them tomorrow).  This cupcake is not for eating, of course, but rather for coloring.  We are doing a year-long project on recycling, entitled "Recycling build character".  We are collecting soda and water bottle caps in our classroom, old crayons and marker caps.  Some children have already brought in extras from home.  Thank you.  My daughter Emilie and I baked the old crayon pieces over the weekend and gave the students their crayon cupcakes today.  If you are interested in doing this at home, you can easily google it, but we broke the crayons into small pieces, took the papers off and put them into mini-cupcakes.  We baked the crayons for 10-15 minutes at 250 degrees.  Have fun and be creative with your shapes!!  I look forward to hearing about these projects at home!
We have filled our Buzzy Jar twice already!  The students are showing safe, kind and responsible behavior every day and I am so proud of them!  Last week, we had a dance party/sing-a-long in our classroom.  If you wish to listen to some of our favorite songs at home, I have listed the on our wiki, under "Songs".  It can also be accessed here.
Lastly, I wanted to share with you that we have already had a student reporter in the Bluie & Gold, our school newspaper.  The Blue & Gold is linked on the school web-site, but it can also be accessed in this blog's sidebar.  Click here if you wish to read what the students (and teachers) said about coming back to school. 
Have a great rest of the week and weekend.

Maria