It has been nice to have a week that seems back to normal and with our usual routine.  Thank you again for all your support in helping the children explore the history of North Hampton and our world through the homework collections.  1912 was an interesting time.  We have been looking at pictures and collecting artifacts.  It is challenging to think of how thing were way back then.  We will be using all this information to generate timelines helping us consider changes through history.

Showing Respect in Both Big and Small Ways

            This week we expanded on our conversation about respect.  A wide variety of books help us think of how even the smallest things we do may matter.  Not smiling back at a person we don’t know well, only sitting with certain friends or always leaving papers out at our workspaces are acts of kindness and show respect (or not) to others.  Small acts can add up and they can leave others bewildered.  Not taking the time to say excuse me or I’m sorry for small bumps or interruptions can matter.  The book Each Kindness reminds us that sometimes we don’t have the opportunity to make things right.  It doesn’t feel good to be ashamed of what you’ve done.

We talked about why we treat people differently.  We treat people differently according to how well we know them.  We also treat people differently according to our moods or they way we feel in different situations.  We all agreed we could not be perfect, but we could work to make sure other people around us felt safe and noticed.  We are going to think about being careful when we walk by the preschool and kindergartens.  We are going to try to be quieter as we go by the first grades.  They are trying to work after our lunch when we go by.  Little things matter and we are going to try to pay attention to them.

Learning More About Our World

            We have begun reading books and poems and sharing songs about the world, geography and mapping.  This has fit in nicely when thinking about differences.  We think that people everywhere have the same basic needs – how we get them looks differently according to where we live.  It is interesting to learn more about the differences across the world as we study geography.

It is also interesting to learn more about the changes in the world and North Hampton as we explore history.  We gained understanding and information from the illustrations in Mailing May and Wonder Horse.  They helped us know about lighting, everyday clothes and interests.  We know those are both true stories from the early 1900’s and they helped us notice some details about that time we hadn’t thought about, and also to wonder more about daily life.  How was it different in towns and cities?  What was a lot of money then?  Did people travel or did they stay in one place most of the time?

The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs

            This week we began reading another book by Betty Birney – she also writes the Humphrey series.  This week we finished Mysteries According to Humphrey and many of the children have read other books from that collection.  Sassafras Springs is a rural town in the middle of Missouri.  Eben, the main character, finds it terribly ordinary.  He longs to travel and wishes to see something amazing like the Seven Wonders of the World. His dad challenges him to take notice of his town and tell him if he can find seven wonders in seven days he’ll send him on the train to Colorado to see snowy peaked mountains and the cousins he’s not met.  And so the search begins…

We are going to use this as a springboard text to launch our own exploration of North Hampton.  We’ll soon be searching for wonders as well and helping the children understand how their town’s history and cultural heritage shape they way we live today.  Hopefully the children will start looking and noticing the wonders that are around them.

Bits and Pieces –

• We have begun to explore contractions.  We are working to think about them and make sure we use them properly and spell them well.
• We are exploring the meaning of “detail.”  How do you define it and how can actually identify them?  The children know they are good.  In writing they add interest and excitement.  Details convey emotion and feeling in writing.  They set the tone of the piece.  But what are they and how will we know the difference between using enough and using too many.
• This week as we worked with The Numbers of the Week we used base-10 blocks to create a model of 37,416.  We are beginning to understand amounts in the thousands and how they work.  We also have the first glimmers of understanding of how rounding off and estimation can help us become more accurate in our exact calculations.
• We are beginning to practice two Readers’ Theater Play with Mrs. Sherouse.  We will perform them at Barnes and Noble in Newington in early December.  (exact date to follow)
• We have an Outdoor Challenge on Tuesday – the children may need to warm clothes it we are on the Nature Trail.  Check the weather.  Thanks.

Each time we finish a chapter read aloud we do a little project as a celebration of our reading accomplishment together.  This time we made cards for Humphrey similar to the card he made for Mrs. Brisbane when she was missing.  They are hanging on a mobile in our room.  Here are some of our cards and messages.  Humphrey is an “unsqueakably” great classroom pet!

Dear Families,

With the final questionnaire and the final make up test Friday morning, 3E will have successfully completed the NECAP testing program for 2012. They worked very hard.  You would be proud of their effort and surprised, both, at what they know and what they don’t understand.  The language of the test is challenging  – if it’s greater than 25 but fewer than 75, children wondered “do you count the 25 that is one of the choices or not”, “figures”, “shade in” and “congruent” were among the challenges to deal with and your children did their best.  Thank you again to the families who sent in snacks this week.  We enjoyed them very much.  I think most of the children would say the NECAP’s were not that bad and some would say they were fun.  It will be nice to be back into our routine and see what we can get done.

Numbers of the Week

            This week we began a new exploration of numbers.  Our numbers of the week were 33 and 288.  They were chosen because Monday, October 15 was our thirty-third day of school and the two hundred and eighty eighth day of the year.  Each day this week we did something different with those amounts.  We learned the standard, expanded and work forms.  We learned about generating patterns that were 10 terms long.  We learned about rounding off and using estimation to check accuracy of answers.  We learned about sums and differences and the children worked to develop their own problems to solve that made them think.

Through the numbers of the week we are trying to understand that they are amounts with meaning.  When children read C-A-T they see more than the three letters, but when children see 1-2-3 they do not always see more than a count. We are trying to give the children the tools they need to think about and understand how they are working with amounts rather than training them to do rote procedures.    Hopefully the children will begin to see that numbers are richer than symbols on a paper and that one number can be studied and looked at in many different ways.

This week we introduced the daily routines and hopefully in another week all of the children will understand the meaning of the steps and will be working to explore the complexities of numbers and mathematics.

(Next week’s numbers will be 277 and 37, 416 – Steve Cotler told us that these are the number of pages and words in Cheesie Mack.)

Thinking about How Respect Shows

SEL – working on social awareness and self-management

            This week we began tackling “RESPECT” and working to understand how and why it matters.  Being respectful is one of our classroom rules.  The children are very good at talking about it but not great at following through as a class.  Many of the children are always respectful.  They want to do well and they want others to do well.  They know the times to be silly and the times to listen.  They know the times to share ideas and the times to keep their thought inside.  They know how to make choices that consider themselves and others.  They know how to move safely and with consideration.  Others, more than half of our class, do not act in these ways or make these choices.  They want to feel good and do well, but they don’t yet realize the impact of their choices on either themselves or others.  When a thought occurs to them they blurt it out whether it adds to the learning or not.  If they feel the need to have a conversation they do regardless of how it stops others from working, keeps them from working or interrupts a lesson.  If they can do something to make someone else laugh, than being funny is a first choice.  Shouting or running in the hall, yelling while others are working, ripping erasers out of pencils are seen as okay because “we’re just kids.”  They would feel comfortable saying they were writing even though they had chatted for 30 minutes and wrote 5 or 10 word because their writer’s notebook had been open in front of them.

It is true they are children but it is also true that each individual chooses his or her behavior, attitude and effort.  We are working to consider choices more closely.  You might want to ask your son or daughter how they think they are doing in showing respectful behavior.  Are they aware if they are following our rules and meeting the expectations of the classroom?   When they leave the rug after a lesson, do they usually know how to get started on the work?  Do they notice directions or feedback so they can do better?  Do they focus more on the assignments or on talking about the assignments? If they are talking, do they think about keeping their voices are low or do they fill the room?   Do they use time well?  Many of the children are not aware of how they are impacting others.   We’ll keep working on this to see if we can make the atmosphere of our classroom more purposeful and productive without losing any of the energy and fun.

Bits and Pieces – you might want to ask your child about:

Mysteries According to Humphrey – our 4^th completed chapter read aloud this year,

the importance of a 1909 penny or the Mouse Plot,

learning the qualities of a good paragraph, or

what he or she is reading and writing each day.

We have reached the six-week milestone.  We are settled into our classroom routine.  The children seem to be feeling happy and settled into our classroom.  We have fun together reading, writing, “mathing” and creating together.

Knowing Yourself and How You Are Smart

            Since the beginning of school we have been exploring how we are unique and have been examining how we are smart.  We have been talking about how we can stretch and grow our intelligences through the choices we make.  We have determined that we will each work to become our best selves – both as individuals and as a collective classroom community.

This week we have been thinking more of what it means to be a mathematician.  When I first asked that question there was no response.  Then someone shared that a mathematician solved problems and another said they had to visualize the problem and make a plan.  Finally another said they needed to know numbers.  This process was very different from our discussions of what it means to be a reader or a writer.  I realized that we may not spend enough time learning about the process of becoming a thoughtful mathematician – we do math and we solve problems.

We shared the book Blockhead, a biography about Fibonacci.  We talked about how he always thought of numbers, patterns and amounts.  For several of the children it was the first time they had thought about Roman numerals or that counting and math were invented.  Later we read The Cloak of a Dreamer where the characters create patterned cloaks to meet a deadline.  From these two views of mathematics our list of what it means to be a mathematician expanded to include looking for patterns, measuring both distances and time and being creative.

I think our list is surprising to some of the children.  It is very much like a list we generated in the first week of school about what it takes to be successful.  I hope we will be able to stay with this work a bit longer so the children are able recognize the thinking strategies they use as they understand the language of mathematics and how they are the same as those they use to understand as they read and craft pieces of writing to communicate ideas.

School Alphabet Project

          We have completed photographing our school alphabet.  The children know more about using the camera and about light and composition.  We had to retake some of the pictures because they were too dark or because the people in them made it challenging to know which letter the photograph actually represented.  The plan is that the children will begin to use those skills to take pictures for the blog.

Those photographs will illustrate our growing  handwriting model for the classroom.  We know all the manuscript letters – shapes and sizes; and we are learning more and more of the cursive letters.  This week’s set is the kite string letters.  Perhaps your child can show you how some of those go.

The final piece of our alphabet project was to plan and create an alphabet book.  We have read many alphabet books this year.  They are not as simple as we first thought.  Some of them are challenging like Animal Stackers with an acrostic for each animal featured on the page.  Some are informative like Africa – ABC that is full of information and photographs for each letter.  Some are quite funny like Alpha-Oops and Z is for Moose.  We liked the funny ones best, but we also enjoyed the ones that challenged us to think.  Our idea combines both.  We will work to get our book done so we can share it with you next week.

Compound Word Puzzles

            We have been having fun with compound words and thinking about how two seemingly unrelated things come together to name a totally new thing.  Last week we read the book Punnidles.  That inspired us to make some of our own.  They are outside our classroom door.  If you happen by the school you might like to come down to see them.  Compound words are a fun way to explore word categories.

NECAPS Underway

            Thank you for the wonderful snacks.  The children are enjoying the treats.  Tuesday, our first test was fun.  The second test on Thursday was a bit more challenging.  The passages were longer and more varied and the questions seemed to require more inferencing.  It was challenging and exhausting.  You could feel the fatigue in the room.  None-the-less, the children are working through them and doing their best work.  You can be very proud of their effort.   The reading sections will be done this week and then we launch into math.

Dates to remember –

NECAP dates – Math Tests – October 15, 16 and 18

Author Visit – Steve Cotler – October 17

 

Dear Families,

Our time zips by each week.  I am surprised each Friday morning when I sit down to write to you that is it time for that to happen.  It always seems that our week just began moments ago.

Final Preparations for NECAP

This week we continued to explore the NECAP formats and vocabulary so the children will feel comfortable with them as they start next week.  They seem ready and aware of what we’ll be doing.  They are certainly committed to doing their best and working hard to meet the challenge.

We learned about justification and how to provide proof for the things we say and write.  We talked about evidence and details.  We practiced using them in our daily reading responses while listening to chapter read aloud and we practiced using them on release items from the test. Each of these habits is important to continue beyond our testing weeks.  We hope you will begin to see more complete, thoughtful responses to a variety of learning explorations as the year progresses.

We explored vocabulary they are almost certain to see on the NECAP – suffix, prefix, perimeter, fewest and blackline drawings of coin (most often shown as tales).

Continuing to Explore How We Are Smart

SEL- Knowing Yourself as a Learner – Knowing Your Place in the Learning Community

            We began to learn about paragraphing while writing about our eight different intelligences.  The children know that the most important facts about themselves in each of the areas lead the paragraphs.  These leads are supported with evidence and details to create a picture in the reader’s mind.  We started to think about engaging leads and why they are important in connecting the writer and the reader.  This is a challenging task.  The children are struggling to find words for what they feel and know.  You may want to ask your child how they are describing their different intelligences.  Talking about it may help make find the words when they go to write about it easier.   We often talk about being good at things and not so good at others, but we don’t often go further to discuss the proof.  In this exploration we are not exploring good or bad.  We are exploring what is and beginning to think about the reasons why we make the choices we do.  How are you smart?  Have you ever stopped to think about that – you are some of all eight intelligences.  How would your pie chart be divided?

The major theme of our work in the first six weeks of school has been to examine how we work together as a community of learners so that each person can be honored as an individual as well as an important part of the whole.  Along with learning about the Theory of Multiple Intelligences we have also explored our strengths as readers, writers and mathematician.  We have considered different way to capture what each of the children is able to do at this time in the year.  We are collecting samples, photographs and audio samples to establish a starting point for our year.  From this point the children will set goals for themselves as learners.  They will share these, along with their Multiple Intelligence descriptions in a fall student led conference at the end of October and beginning of November

Exploring Place Value and Patterns with Number

            This week we continued our work with estimation and understanding and visualizing the amounts larger numbers represent.  We counted collections and provided justification for our counts by choosing a representational strategy to organize the materials.  We counted by 30’s and 200’s and we looked for patterns in the numerals as they grew from 130 and from 5,200.  It was interesting to note that as we approached the 9,200…9,400… count children began excitedly to whisper “we’re going to get to 1 million.”  We did not.  We did reach 12,000 and had a rich discussion about how patterns grow differently with odd and even amounts.

Through our work children are developing a more secure understanding of place value.  I am hearing less of “ add 3 and 4 and that’s 7” when they are dealing with hundreds.  They are actually saying of the amounts as 300 and 400 – an important thing before we teach the standard algorithm.  Children are also learning about the periods of number and gaining greater understanding of our number system beyond 100’s.

Learning About Genre

            This week we added another step to our daily record of reading – indicating the genre.  The children have the list we are using in the classroom in their homework folders to use on their home reading records as well.  If children complete their reading records accurately, over time they will be able to learn more about their reading habits and how their choice lead to success.  That is what it is all about – being successful at what you both need and want to do.

Different genre require the children to think in different ways in order to understand them – poetry is different from folktales that are in turn different from historical fiction which is different from informational text too.  All can be about elephants, but understanding and trying to discover the authors’ intent requires a different combination of strategies.  Over the course of the school year the children will be reading different genre, responding to them and examining the traits of each type of text as a way toward understanding.

Many of the children are consuming the graphic novel series we have in the classroom.  Graphic novels are quick reads, but their stories are often complicated and mysterious.  That is just what the children are looking for.  They are transitioning from formulaic series and looking for more complex plots.  They are stuck in an interesting place – many series lack the depth they seek, but the next step seems too dense.  Some of the children have found chapter books they love, but many move daily from title to title because they want more complex stories, but they have not yet developed the stamina to stick with a longer book.  To understand the characters, setting and get introduced to the plot, children generally need to stick with a book through the first 4 or 5 chapters.  If they are working mightily to understand what they are reading, that is hard to do.  It will happen, but it will take time.

Also ask your child about:

Mysteries According to Humphrey

Counting Collections

The incredible poems about learning members of our class are writing

And working to be funny at the right times…

 

Have a fabulous weekend!