I can’t thank you enough for the conversations you’ve been having with your children about their work and responsibility to meet expectations.  Self-awareness is such an important component of our social and emotional learning curriculum. The class seems more aware of the consequences of their choices.  There has been a bit less chatting and greater attention to work quality.  The class is making an effort to think of ways to make “good” work, great.  They want their work to be included in the book review collection.  They want to have a page or more in our class magazine.  They want to teach the visitors to the Parade of the States about their state and the Wonders found there.  They can also see that our days are limited and we are trying to make the most of them.  We have set deadlines. I think the children understand that their work cannot be included if these deadlines aren’t met.  I hope they know they can work at home – but that’s an added responsibility too.  They have to bring it back.   I know they will continue to need our reminders and support.  Many are working hard to stay focused.  They are working on self-control and deserve to feel proud of their work and effort.

Forming Naturalist Teams

            We have begun exploring habitats.  On Monday we did a carousel to collect facts and questions about the four main habitats found in our county.  The children chose their top two and tried to think of what they knew about them.  Next we formed Naturalist Teams to learn about grasslands, forests, tundra and deserts.  Each group will become experts and teach the rest of the class about that habitat.  They will be turning a corner of our classroom into a display showing the food webs and chains found in those habitats in our country.  It is another way of learning more about our country and also finding ways we can take better care of our earth.  The children are just beginning this work and seem to be looking forward to creating their habitat models.

Note -Taking – what’s it for?

            We are exploring different ways and reasons for note taking.  We know that note taking helps us hold on to the information we are learning.  It can help us think more deeply about our learning as well by being able to look back and reconsider connections and facts.  We have been taking notes while listening to read alouds throughout the school year.  Many of those notes are captioned sketches that trigger memories of important events in the book.  We have been taking notes in our books clubs.  Those notes have been a sentence or two to capture the main events of each chapter and to wonder about character changes and growth.  As we are learning about the wonders in our state we are working to learn how to take notes when researching.  We are trying to develop the strategy of reading a page or section, looking away and writing what we understand.  After the note is jotted we are looking back in the text to check for specific information – numbers, dates, names…  We are working to develop these habits so we don’t end up copying from what we are reading.  Many of the children have begun to recognize how these strategies help them understand more.  Notes are a way to making thinking clearer and more complete.  Talking to your child about this work may help him or her think about how notes help us remember and understand more.

Fractions – looking closer

We are continuing to grow our understanding of fractions.  This week we spent some time adding fractions with like denominators.  Applied what we are learning to recipes.  We worked to double a recipe to see how that changed how the fractions were recorded.  And we worked to cut the same recipe in half.  This was a fun way to explore fractions and think about the information the different parts of the fraction give us.  If you are using a recipe while you cook at home this would be a great opportunity to explore fractions together.   Next week we will be exploring fractions with linear measurement.  We’ll be exploring fractions as we draw.

Bits and Pieces

• We’ll visit the Book Fair on Monday to create our wish lists.
• We’ll be finishing our Humphrey book clubs next week.  We’ve been looking up new words and learning how to use the dictionary.  We have been looking for evidence in the books that support our claims. We like having Sky and Matt join us each week.  They are helping us to be more aware of meeting deadlines
• We have a challenge on May 8 with Mr. Caron
•  How is the float building going? Most of the children say they are working on the float, or are at least making plans for how and when it will get done.  That’s a great thing because it means you are all thinking about it and finding a way to fit the float construction into your already full schedules.  Thank you so much for your time and effort.  Remember save May 22 for The Parade of the States.

Here are some pictures taken by our class photographers this week.