3/23/2018 0 Comments Mayer Memo 3-23-18Social Studies: Working World We wrapped up our study of economics last week with the unit assessment and our visit to Fullersburg Woods. We had a wonderful time at Fullersburg learning how Sugar Maple trees are tapped to make maple syrup. Thanks to Dan Gibbs for chaperoning the event. The children walked through the woods and stopped at stations showing the various steps necessary for making maple syrup. The students learned that maple sap is a renewable natural resource but it is time consuming to make and the trees are only found in certain parts of the world. Because of this, maple sap is scarce, and maple syrup is quite expensive! Science: New Theme - Light We started a new science unit about light this week. The children brainstormed all they thought they knew about light, then they planned and conducted their first experiment. The children discovered that light travels in a straight line out in all directions from the source. We will conduct more tests about this subject after Spring break. Reading For the past two weeks, the children have been reading books in a fictional series. Four groups are reading different series of books and we are having discussions about them. The four series are: Nate the Great, Cam Jansen, Judy Moody and Stink, Ivy and Bean, and A to Z Mysteries. At the end of each reading period, the students answer questions and share ideas about their books with one another. These talks have generated much greater thinking about reading! We look forward to more of this work after Spring break. This week, we finished reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate Dicamillo. Our final comprehension focus for this book was about Synthesis. The students discovered that Synthesis is noticing how their thinking grows as they read. We stopped and jotted ideas as we read to demonstrate this growth in thinking. If you listened in on our talks you'd think you were at an adult book group conversation! The students also created a final project about the book that showed how the main character changed and grew throughout the story, what the lesson or theme of the story was, and/or explained what the character's journey really was in this book. We also read a wonderful realistic fiction book by Patricia Polacco called Thank You Mr. Falker. This book was about a girl who had trouble reading until her fifth grade teacher realized her problem. The students enjoyed the message of this book. Please ask your child to tell you about it. Writing Workshop The children have been writing "Gripping" realistic fiction stories during writing workshop. This unit builds on their knowledge of writing personal narratives, also known as small moments, and allows students to create their own realistic tales. The writers in our class seem to love this work, and they are finding success by creating characters with the same age, same gender, and same interests as themselves. We have done some shared writing about video clips from Toy Story and Sandlot to help students understand the importance of detailed descriptions using adjectives, comparisons, and onomatopoeia. We've also talked about how to build tension in their stories by adding unexpected but believable details. Please ask your child to tell you about his/her work! Math During the past two weeks, students have been working on visualizing, representing, and solving addition story problems with the total unknown. We have also developed efficient strategies for adding 2-digit numbers and efficient methods for notating addition strategies. The two strategies most students use are (1) adding by place and (2) keeping one number whole and adding the second number in parts. Please see the examples of efficient notation for these two strategies below. Efficiency in strategic thinking and notating are critical as students work with larger and larger numbers. The students took the assessment for investigation 3 of this unit on Friday. We will begin Unit 6 after break. This unit will be about linear measurement in standard and metric units. Art Moms
Special thanks to Carrie Horwitz and Keegan Ocepek for sharing the self portrait art of Frida Kahlo. The students made their own self portraits in Kahlo's style and took them home for your enjoyment. News From the Library This week, your child listened to a story in the library about someone taking a trip and mailing back letters and postcards. Mrs. Brauweiler has given everyone a postcard for spring break. It would be really fun if kids filled out the postcards with a note about what they did over spring break and a picture. They don't have to travel - it could be playing in the park or going to the movies - basically anything they did over spring break. When they get back, we read the postcards during library time and hang them on the wall in the library. This is totally optional but the students get a big kick seeing their postcard up on the wall. Please note that postage is not included. If you have any questions about this, please contact Mrs. Brauweiler directly. Summer School District 90's summer school program will be in session from Thursday, June 14th through Friday, July 13th, with no classes on July 4th. Students entering Kindergarten-4th grade will be at Lincoln Elementary and students entering 5th-8th grade will be at Roosevelt Middle School. Registration opens on Wednesday, April 4th at 7:00 a.m. You can find the brochure and the link to register at: http://www.district90.org/about/summer-school
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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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