Thank you for all you have done, and are doing, to support your children by working on their floats, helping them with homework and celebrating their passions and interests. They are involved and interested in so much   They are working, but they are tired.   Any things you can do to encourage them to focus on completing the many great projects we have in process – the Wonders presentations, the class magazine about their animals, portfolios and food chain mobiles – would be greatly appreciated. I know everyone in the class would like everyone to be included in each of these projects. Your encouragement and support are greatly appreciated.

Gratitude – what are we thankful for?

            This week our Social Emotional Learning focus has been an exploration of gratitude and treating both, ourselves, and others with kindness. We have been thinking about what is important and what we are grateful for.  We have been delving into what rights and opportunities and thinking about what we have available to us.  We’ve explored books like I Have the Right To Be a Child, We Are All Born Free, Gleam and Glow and The Sneetches to help us consider differences and opportunities. We’ve also talked about how we can help ourselves be more open and available when we trust and believe in ourselves.

            We based some of this discussion on the Maya Angelou quote, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Added into that discussion was our wish to be given a second chance (and even a third or fourth) if we’ve made a mistake. We all said we didn’t want to be judged as “wrong” forever. We all wanted a chance to learn and change after having made either academic or social mistakes. Academic mistakes are a bit more private. Social mistakes are public – we talked about not ganging up, not blaming but rather working with empathy and forgiveness. We are thinking about opportunities to grow and learn from mistakes. We are working to focus on positive self-talk and the magic of the word “yet.”

            You would have been very proud of your children and the things (not things at all) they appreciate and are grateful for.

Wrapping Up Wonders Research and Writing

            Now that the Parade is a week away the children are beginning to feel the importance of using their time wisely, completing their research and writing about the Wonders. I think a few of them are feeling concerned about what they will have finished to put on display that evening. Several of them have commented that they could do it at home because their mothers would tell them what to write. (Please don’t do that.) This is challenging work but doable. It requires using inferencing skills and finding words to describe the images they have in their minds. Because of the effort required, some of them have resisted it. They have spent time scrolling through images or copying recipes or listening to their state song. I hope we can help them learn from this. They’ve had over six weeks to research and write about their Wonders. Our goal in this writing project was to learn how organization is important in writing. Some of the children have used this opportunity to develop leads and conclusions for their writing. Some have put them main ideas first and supported them with details they found interesting. They have attempted to add voice to their pieces and truly hope you will be interested in their Wonders.

It is interesting to note what each of them finds striking about their states and what interest them. Regardless, all of the children are more curious and interested in our country. Geography was already a favorite thing for Ollie, so since the start of this study, he has been writing posts sharing state symbols for all of the states alphabetically. This week he completed the V’s – next week he’ll be on to the W’s and completion. If a state is important to you – go to his blog and leave a comment there. He’ll be really pleased.

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 of foods that represent foods special to our states. 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 are building our portfolios to present to you in the last weeks of school.
• We have continued to care for our broccoli plants and to add to The Diary of Broccoli each week.  It is amazing to note the growth and changes.  We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping we are able to sample our vegetable. (Our project and picture was in the Hampton Union on Tuesday.)
• The Parade of the States is coming. The Parade of the States is coming. Please see the separate memo outlining the schedule for that night in this week’s folder.