I am always astounded that the week has come to a close and I am writing to you. It feels to me that we have just begun, but when I stop to write to you and I realize how much we have done. This week we have practiced being more thoughtful when reading, we have worked to understand how arrays work with multiplication and division and we have considered how different details and description can make a piece of writing more interesting.
Responding to Reading
We ended last week by setting reading goals of how many books we thought we might be able to read in one month. If it takes about a minute to read a page of a “just right” book and we read at least thirty minutes a day, we figured that is 150 pages a school week. We worked from that number to set our goals. Next we began recording the titles we are reading both at school and at home. And finally we have been learning about different ways to respond to reading.
It is helpful to stop and think about what we are reading because we understand more. Stopping to think helps us visualize, question and infer. As a class we have been recording our thoughts about each chapter as we read The Quirks – Welcome to Normal. That type of reading response is called a “Novel Reflection.” We have also tried a two-word response, a three-circle map and a book commercial. Each of these types of responses supports thinking, analyzing and synthesizing information so that reading leads to deeper understanding. We realize we read to understand more about ourselves, how people get along and to learn information.
Blogging
We hope you will begin checking out our blogs. This week we began posting on our individual blogs. We started by creating a book commercial. Some of us wrote commercials of favorite picture books like Those Shoes, King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub or Watch Me Throw The Ball. Others hope to encourage you to read chapter books that were recently finished like Galaxy Zack – A Galactic Easter or Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot.
We are trying to get our blog posts done so that we are ready when we partner up with other classes across the country and/or North America as part of the Primary Blogging Community.  We will  read and comment on their blogs and they will do the same for us too. We’ll be learning who our partners are next week.  The class was  excited to learn that they were the only ones who would be able to write in that space and share information that was important to them. I also find it exciting to know that their ideas and understanding will reach a wider audience.What a wonderful thing to know how powerful your thoughts and ideas can be and how far reaching at 8 and 9 years old.

Understanding Multiplication and Arrays
Because we have been working with these concepts for most of the year, it seems as though many of the children understand how multiplication represents repeated grouping. As they select problems each day, they are more independently able to understand the math story, represent it with an equation and solve it efficiently.
This week we learned about the commutative property. If one student has six plates with two cookies each and another student has two plates with six cookies each, they both have the same amount of cookies. That means if we know the multiples of 2, we also know some of the multiples of six. We are trying to help the children develop strategies for knowing these facts, just as they learned strategies for addition and subtraction facts last year.
Last week at the curriculum night I said the children were responsible for knowing the basic facts for all four operations to twenty. That may have been confusing. To clarify: they are responsible for knowing facts to twenty with addition and subtraction and facts through the tens for multiplication and division. Next week in your child’s homework folder we’ll be sending home the first round of timed fact assessments and different activities that will help support your child’s math fact knowledge.
Multiple Intelligence Theory – Knowing Ourselves
After reading about many different people we feel we have a clearer sense of what the different intelligences are and how they look. We know that it may be more challenging to recognize some of the intelligences because they are ways of thinking and being and don’t show on the outside. It might be challenging for someone to know if they are logic – or self – smart. This week we completed a questionnaire that might help us see how we are smart in all eight ways. We are looking forward to discovering this about ourselves.
Team Estimation – Building Relationships
This week we had to work to solve two problems with Mr. Caron. First we had to use estimation skills along with cooperation to complete a bridge-like structure. The posts were in the ground and we had to figure out which lengths of wood fit between then. Of course we had to complete that part of the challenge in a short enough time span so that we could find a way to help the whole class cross the bridge to the other side. We had to work quickly, but safely. We had to work patiently and cooperatively. We had to work logically and communicate our ideas so that all the parts of the challenge would be done. The class felt a real sense of accomplishment when we found a solution to each part of this challenge.

Bits and Pieces:

• Ask your child about The Quirks – Welcome to Normal to find out what has been happening in the story and to see what he or she thinks might happen on Normal Night.
• Every one in 3E has written and posted a poem that we read together each day. Some are about our topic of study – reading and writing, and others are about favorite things, people and activities. We will have to find a way to share them all with you.
• We reached a conclusion with our Chromatography experiment, only to discover we had more questions and more ideas to experiment with. That’s the beauty of learning and discovery. The more you know, the more you want to know. We’ll keep experimenting and exploring.