Friday November 20, 2015

In math this week, we finished our addition and subtraction with big numbers and started out multiplication and division unit. We measured each other with index cards and skip counted with big numbers.

In writing this week, we started our expert books and we finished our expert books today,  November 20th. We had a publishing celebration.

In science we were assigned planets to write about and study we made postcards from the planet.

We also made bracelets about the solar system to help us remember the order of the planets.

In social studies this week we finished our salt dough maps and brought them home.

This week we saw a chemistry show with a teacher from St. Mike's college

I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving vacation! I think we all need the break -- the students are all a little excited and squirrely this week!  I always look forward to January; it is the best month for teaching since the holidays are behind us and spring hasn't started yet!

Despite the excitement, we have managed to get a lot done this week. The students have learned many of the basic facts about the Solar System and are ready for their assessment tomorrow. For the assessment, they need to know what makes day and night and what the relationship is between the Earth and the sun. They know this well!  Today we made Solar System bracelets. Some are not done yet, but by tomorrow everyone will have one.

Our expert books are also finished. Tomorrow we will put them out and do a class museum walk. All of the students will get a chance to see the books created by their peers, and those who want will share with the group. They have done a fabulous job with organizing their information and trying to add some opinions and ideas as well.  After the vacation, we will begin our Opinion Writing unit. I am looking forward to that, as I know the students have a lot of strong opinions about a lot of things!

As you know, we use technology for a variety of things during the week. We use our Chromebooks for FASTTMath as well as for research periodically. Since many of the sites we use have sound or music, it can become rather loud in here! If you have any inexpensive earbuds lying around and want to send them in for your child to use, that would be wonderful. Maybe you can consider this for an additional holiday gift for your child?

Our class economy is ending tomorrow, and we will have our final store at that time. This has been a really fun way for the kids to learn some basic economics, and I am sorry to have it end... On the other hand, I am running out of "stuff" for them to buy!  Once again, thank you all for sending in things for me to put in the store.  It has been really helpful!

I  hope you all enjoy a happy and restful Thanksgiving and get to spend a lot of time with loved ones. I will miss all of the students but will look forward to hearing all about their Thanksgiving adventures when we get back to school!

Please see the following message from Caryn Munroe regarding Four Winds.

Hello fellow Ms. Ehtesham class families!
I have volunteered to be the class coordinator for the Four Winds program. One of my responsibilities is to find 2 family volunteers for each of the 6 monthly workshops.

Many of you are familiar with the program and may have even volunteered to do a training or two over the years.I don't consider science to be one of my strengths but this is really easier than I expected and a lot of fun!

Each month there is a 2 hour training class where a 4 Winds instructors walks through the curriculum information for the workshop.  For volunteer convenience, they hold a training session in the morning (8am-10am) and in the evening (6pm - 8pm).

Below are the dates of the trainings as well as the dates and times for the classroom workshops.  Let me know if any of these topics or times interest you and I will ensure you get signed up and that you feel comfortable and fully prepared.

Topic	Training Date	Class Date	Class Time
Snags and Rotting Logs	11/2/2015	11/6/2015	8-9am
Squirrels	1/4/2016	1/22/2016	9-10am
Staying Warm	2/1/2016	2/18/2016	9-10am
White-tailed Deer	3/7/2016	3/11/2016	8-9am
Forest Birds	4/4/2016	4/8/2016	8-9am

 Note: Jeff Hill has volunteered for "Forest Birds" but we still need 1 more volunteer.

If you have any questions, please let me know. I am hoping to finalize a volunteer list as soon as possible. The class truly appreciates these special learning opportunities.
Warm regards,
Caryn Benevento-Munroe
(one of Jack's moms)

It was so much fun to wear pajamas to school on Tuesday! I'd like to have pajama day every Monday -- wouldn't that be nice? We were all pretty relaxed on Tuesday in your pj's, but we still managed to get some work done.

This week, we started our unit on the Solar System in earnest. So far, all we have really done is discuss the importance of scale models, make a scale model that shows relative size, and one that shows relative distances. We also learned about what elements are a part of our Solar System. Many of the students believed that there are millions of stars in our Solar System, and it was good to uncover this misconception so we could discuss it. This is a quick unit, and the most important concept we learn about is what makes day and night and how all the planets and moons revolve around the sun. We will have our end-of-unit assessment at the end of next week!

We also began learning about division this week. It is quite a shift for the students to go from understanding multiplication to understanding division, even though they are different sides of the same coin!  Being able to read a story problem and understand that the larger number is being divided into equal groups is hard work! We have worked on this for a few days now, and we have discussed remainders. More practice is coming!

Our reading work has focused on wearing different "lenses" for fiction and non-fiction reading, and being able to identify each. We have also discussed how to tackle difficult words by looking "in and around them." The students have practiced figuring out new vocabulary words from the context. This is not easy, but practice makes all the difference.

We have done some similar work in writing, as we are finishing up our expert books. The students have been working on putting "expert words" into their writing. Some are even creating glossaries!  Their books are coming along, and we have a range of topics from football to having a baby brother!

Thank you all so much for making donations to the classroom store. I think everyone "bought" at least one item today, and they all seemed really pleased with their purchases!  One more week to go, and we will end our classroom economy. We will come back to the economics unit after Thanksgiving and relate it to Vermont.

Ask your kids about: Magic Science, our scale model made out of food, Boots flying off the mountaintop, revolve and rotate.

Next week's sharing: Something that is older than you!

Have a fabulous weekend.

November 6 2015

In reading this week we started our non-fiction unit.  Today we are reading National Geographic Explorer.

In social studies this week, we finished our unit on the geography of Vermont. Do you know what Vermont means in french?  It means Green Mountains!

The 4 Winds presentation was on rotten logs and snags. Professor Von Hobie Dobie came to our class to log aging invention! 

In math this week, we finished + - and started x. We have broken big arrays into multiple small arrays.