2/9/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 2-9-18Valentine’s Day is Coming in 2 Ma We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Wednesday, February 14 with a party from 2:00-3:00. Each child has been writing a thoughtful, personalized valentine to each of the other children in the class. Students have also made an envelope to receive their valentines. Because of this, students need not bring store bought valentines or valentines made at home. However, if your child has already made valentines and would like to bring them, s/he may do so as long as s/he brings in one for everyone in the class. Harmonica Share will be Tuesday, February 20 from 2:00-3:00! Mark your calendar so you can come! We've been hard at work learning how to play the harmonica with instruction from Mr. Milan. The students have learned to play many songs, and we are trying to decide which songs we’ll play when parents come to listen at the Harmonica Share. Mr. Milan brought in very large and small cymbals to reinforce the concept of pitch and a special drum from Mexico to reinforce the concept that vibration causes sound. Ask your child to tell you about this! The children watched a fascinating video about sound which provided information that enabled the children to confirm a great amount of their learning from our experiments. They also conducted an experiment to learn the pattern for how to change volume. They will take the sound written assessment next week. Math For the past two weeks the children have been working on investigations in Unit 4 which involved collecting, organizing and representing data. They learned how to classify information into categories based on similar characteristics. They also learned how to make a bar graph to represent information. They conducted a survey of Lincoln students to see how many teeth they'd lost and represented their findings in a line plot. The students discovered graphs must include a clear title and labels. They also learned to interpret data on graphs. They created line plots of teeth lost by "mystery classes" then matched the graph to the class based on the data. Finally, the children took the assessment for this investigation, and they did a great job! Writing Workshop In writing, the students have been writing letters to classmates with their opinions about their favorite books. The children have learned to structure their letters by identifying their opinion, explain the reason for their opinion, and provide examples from the text to support their opinions. They have learned how to craft good leads that hook their reader right from the start, and to create endings that remind the reader of their opinions. I've seen their love of books grow with this unit along with their conversations about what makes a good book! Word Work Last week The children compared words that are spelled /aw/ paw, crawl, hawk, lawn and /au/ as in cause. They discovered that words are spelled /aw/ when it comes at the end of the word/syllable or is followed by l, k, or n. Words are spelled /au/ when it comes in the beginning or middle of the word word/syllable. This week they compared words that are spelled /ow/ as in plow, howl, and down, and /ou/ as in count. They discovered words that make this sound are spelled /ow/ when it comes at the end of the word/syllable or is followed by l or n. The sound is spelled /ou/ when it comes in the beginning or middle of the word word/syllable. Some students also worked with words spelled /ou/ and make the short u sound such as rough. Reading We continued reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate Di Camillo. We talked about how good readers notice literary language and stop to think about what the author wants us to think based on the language. Students worked with a partner to read the same book and notice literary language as they read. We also talked about how partners can work separately then come together to share their thinking about a story. We discussed how good readers hold on to longer stories by thinking, "What is important in the section I just read?" and writing their thinking on a sticky note. We did this work together with the read aloud and students did this independently with their shared book and books they are reading on their own. Parent-Teacher Conferences I've conducted several assessments as I prepare for upcoming parent-teacher conferences. I look forward to sharing your child's progress with you soon!
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Mystery State!Mystery state for June 1 Did You Know...New evidence links handwriting and educational success.
Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information. "When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated,” said Stanislas Dehaene, a psychologist at the Collège de France in Paris. “There is a core recognition of the gesture in the written word, a sort of recognition by mental simulation in your brain. And it seems that this circuit is contributing in unique ways we didn’t realize,” he continued. “Learning is made easier.” Parent's attitudes about mathematics affect their kids!
"A 2015 study showed math-anxious parents who frequently helped their elementary schoolers with homework saw their kids learn significantly less math by the end of the year than kids whose parents didn't express an aversion to math." (Heidi Stevens, Balancing Act and Chicago Tribune) According to Jennifer McCray, Principal investigator at the Erikson Institute's Early Math Collaborative, "Statements from parents are extremely powerful in terms of helping a child decide, 'Who am I going to be relative to math" How should I feel about math?'" If you're a math-averse parent, the article linked above has great tips for addressing this! Archives
June 2018
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