Special shares

We have had so many special shares in our classroom!  Last week, we had friends playing the keyboard and sharing artifacts from Thailand and Hong Kong.  Thank you.

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We are in the middle of our unit on Colonial America and the children love to learn about our country's history.  This week, we learned more about the voyage over to America and the history of the Mayflower and Speedwell.  We also learned about John Carver and the Mayflower Compact.  We discussed the purposes behind the Compact and made a connection to our own classroom contract.  We also learned about Colonial education this week.  We were so inspired when we compared education back then and today that we decided to rearrange our desks to resemble a colonial classroom.  We also used our pretend quills in writing and math.  Ask your child to tell you more.  I have linked a colonial website by Scholastic below this post if your child wishes to learn more about Colonial America.  We will visit this site in school as well, but it has so much information on it, I wanted to give you an opportunity to access it at home as well.  Stay tuned for more updates on Colonial America.
We had another 4 Winds class this week.  This week, the students learned about rocks and minerals. Through small group explorations, they learned about different rock types and the rock cycle.  We ended the class with a yummy treat.  Thank you volunteers for making these classes possible.
Lastly, I wanted to remind you that we have outdoor recess every day and since the weather is getting colder, it is important that your child has a warm jacket, hats and gloves.  Thank you.

Maria

Colonial America web-site

Dear Friends,
I have linked a Scholastic web-site on Colonial America.  Please click on the link to learn about Colonial houses, Plimoth Plantation, and Thanksgiving.

Colonial America Website

From,
Mrs. McCormack

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
Thank you for supporting our trip to the Book Fair this week.  The children did a great job carefully selecting books and helped each other find books at the fair.  Some children even came prepared with a list of books to purchase.  Great idea!

As mentioned in earlier blog posts, we finished our team-wide workshop rotations on life cycles and adaptations.  In our class, however, we celebrated the unit by creating a Voicethread.  A Voicethread is an online tool that allows us to share our thinking in various multi-media platforms.  Each student has an online avatar, which is their self-portraits that we created earlier this year.  That way, we have a safe online picture. For this particular Voicethread, we choose to share our understanding of spiders, bats, insects, snakes and the Venus Flytrap by podcasting or typing.  I uploaded pictures representing each science workshop and the children choose which animal they wanted to share something they learned.  Please click on the link below and listen to what they had to share.  They learned so much and did an amazing job using this new digital tool.  Voicethread also allows anyone with a Voicethread account to comment, so I invited our learning buddies and our global friends on The "Flat Classroom" to respond as well.  Hopefully, we will get some comments soon.  Last year, we received comments from children all over the world when we shared a Voicethread on what it means to be safe, kind and responsible at Allen Brook.  This year, we created a video instead!
Here is the link to our science Voicethread.  Please feel free to comment if you'd like.

Last week, we started studying Colonial America, the Mayflower and Thanksgiving.  We have learned so much already.  We started by exploring different books about the Mayflower and Colonial life in partnerships.  We listened to various read alouds, practiced taking notes on post-it notes and created a KWL chart for our classroom.  Throughout this unit, the children will participate in many different creative projects and yesterday, the children created a collage picture of the Mayflower.  Ask your child to explain who Squanto was and why he is so important to American history.  Perhaps your child also remembers how many passengers were on the Mayflower and how long it took for this wooden ship to cross the Atlantic? Throughout this unit, we will also study many different words in context.  So far, we are learning the words pilgrim, colony, colonial and freedom.  Ask your child to explain.  Next week, we will learn about colonial schools, games and the different roles boys and girls had in society.

Lastly, I wanted to apologize that I have not noticed until a student mentioned that the pictures from our butterflies did not upload properly when I posted them back in late October.  If you recall, we had two days off from school, October 17th and 18th, and our butterflies had just hatched.  I had to release them when the children were on this extended break from school.  I took the butterfly pavillion home and released the butterflies in Underhill.  The pictures never uploaded.  Well, here they are.  Sorry about the delay!  The butterflies did well and should have had plenty of time to make it to warmer weather!

Have a great weekend,
Maria

Weekly update

Dear families,

Our school celebration this afternoon was a huge hit. Circus Smirkus came to visit and showed some of their amazing acts.  It was also extra spectacular because some of our former students were part of the performing group. Thank you Cirkus Smirkus for coming and thank you kids for being safe, kind and responsible every day so we can fill the school beehive. 

This week, we started the Kindness Challenge from Ms. Tatlock, our school counselor. She has challenged the entire school to do 100 acts of kindness in each classroom. We are writing down these acts on colorful strips of papers, which we hang together as a paper chain. In our class, we have already written 62 cards! 

This week, we also had some very special shares. One day, a student performed on her violin, and another day, a student brought in a Venus Flytrap to share.  Thank you.  Next week, we are on week 1 again.  Do not worry about keeping track of our sharing schedule at home.  We remind each other in the classroom every day, and if a student forgets his/her share, we usually share something from our writing folders or book boxes.  The students always help each other come up with something to share about!

Lastly, I would like to remind you about our trip to the Book Fair next Wednesday.  We will ride the bus over to WCS and visit the Book Fair between 1:30-2pm.  We will return to ABS for regular dismissal.  If you wish, your child can purchase books at the fair.  If your child can purchase books, we encourage parents to send in a small amount, such as $5-$10.  Keep in mind that financial assistance is available upon request. Thank you.
Taxes will be added onto the purchase price of the book.  We will discuss this in school, but it certainly helps if our children hear this many times, as the additional tax cost is confusing to many children.  Thank you. Some children do not want to purchase books with the class but choose to browse and return later.  That is fine too.  Students can fill out "Wish Lists" which they bring home to their parents to purchase later. Lastly, all the teachers on Harmony encourage students to only purchase books at the fair.  Thank you for supporting this approach and let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Launching Writer's Workshop Movie

Our movie from our Writer's Workshop Launching unit in September and October is finally published.  Please enjoy the pictures from our writing together earlier this school year.(The music is Chopin, played by the pianist Yundi Li)

Weekly Update

Dear Families,
We had a very productive week together.

In science, the students on Team Harmony participated in their last rotation of science workshops learning about animal adaptations and life cycles.  In this unit, the students explored spiders, insects, snakes, bats and the Venus Flytrap while applying next generation science standards, inquiry skills and problem solving.  The students will have the opportunity to apply this new knowledge in their own classrooms while writing an "All About" book on their chosen animal.  We started already in our classroom and the students are doing an amazing job sharing their knowledge as experts on all of these animals!  We look forward to sharing these stories with you soon.

In reading, the students continued working on non-fiction books in their reading groups.  They perfected their comprehension skills while applying their knowledge of non-fiction elements, such as headings, glossaries and captions, to name a few.  Next week, the students will start reading fictional stories again in their guided reading groups.  We will explore characters, setting, problems and solutions.  The students will also deepen their understanding of the author's craft and how we can synthesize information and make connections.  We are very excited to read some fictional stories together.

Our class is scheduled to attend the he annual Book Fair at WCS on Wednesday, November 13th.  We will ride the bus over to WCS with Ms. Crowley's class and return to ABS for regular dismissal.  If you are interested in joining us there, we will be at the Book Fair between 1:30-2pm.  If you wish, your child can purchase books at the fair.  If your child can purchase books, we encourage parents to send in a small amount, such as $5-$10.  Keep in mind that financial assistance is available upon request. Thank you.
Taxes will be added onto the purchase price of the book.  We will discuss this in school, but it certainly helps if our children hear this many times, as the additional tax cost is confusing to many children.  Thank you. Some children do not want to purchase books with the class but choose to browse and return later.  That is fine too.  Students can fill out "Wish Lists" which they bring home to their parents to purchase later. Lastly, all the teachers on Harmony encourage students to only purchase books at the fair.  Thank you for supporting this approach!

Have a great day,
Maria