Thank you for taking the time to talk to your child about the choices he or she has been making to use time wisely for learning. We are improving. We are learning how to behave together as a class to help each other learn. I am proud of the efforts the children are making to stay focused and to not get sidetracked by attempts to be funny at the wrong time. We’ve had lines in the hall this week that were thoughtful and respectful – less chatting = more opportunities to create and do. Our week has been full of beginnings. We’re beginning our second research project. We’ll be learning about a country. We’re beginning “Humphrey” book clubs and we’re GLAD-GLAD-GLAD! And we’re continuing to explore fractions and money, fables and morals.

Mapping and Learning About Our World

            We began our week with a mapping challenge. The children were asked to use a variety of everyday classroom materials to create a map of the classroom. We learned that planning was key to start and collaboration was key to finish. It was interesting for the children to see how different classroom groups thought about representing the classroom.

From that mapping challenge, we spent three days exploring the countries of our world by looking through atlases, learning about flags, reading about countries and continents and thinking about how countries might be compared in size and location on our globe.

We added this knew information to what we already knew about the countries of the world (according to our resources, there are 195) to create a class alphabet of countries. Once that was complete, the children selected a country they were interested in exploring. We hope to begin the research process this week in the library. Our goal is to present information to you about our countries by mid-February. I am wondering if a more intense, structured research time will help the class stay focused and on task. Learning about the countries of the world is challenging for 8 and 9 year olds. Understanding different ways of life is challenging with so little background to rely on. It would be helpful for you to talk to your child about what he or she is discovering each day. If you have time to go online and explore, sharing you read and see on various websites together would be wonderful help. Of course, only if your child is interested in that support.

Words To Live By

            We have begun reading fables. We’ve looked at the a few versions and begun to make a list of generalities. We’ve looked at fable collections and fables that have been turned into full picture books. We read a bit about Aesop so we know that he was a slave who earned his freedom through his wit and ingenuity as a storyteller. We realized he has taught the world many lessons for over 1,500 years.

We’ve enjoyed looking at and reading different fables to see how illustrations add to our understanding. At the end of this exploration, we are going to create our own fables that share words that we can live by – morals that will remind us of the lesson we need to guide us. I can’t wait to discover what wisdoms our class will share.

Bits and Pieces –

• We’ve continued on learning cursive. We have nearly completed our third set of letters – the loop group. In a couple more weeks we will be moving on to the upper case set of letters.
• We are nearly finished with our second Humphrey book, Secrets According to Humphrey and are preparing to begin Humphrey book clubs in our classroom. The children have selected their books to read and are now learning the expectations of book clubs so they’ll be able to start reading next week.
• In math we added the 3’s table to our multiplication chart. In doing that and practicing those facts each day in addition to the 2’s, 5’s and 10’s we realize that we have mastered most of the 100 basic multiplication and division facts. It is comforting to see.
• We’ve continued using what we know about 5’s and 10’s to work with money. Understanding 4’s also helps us when dealing with quarters.
• Game Club is beginning next week on Thursday. Please look for the separate permission about that and send it back Tuesday. We did our best to accommodate everyone, but know that some children already have activities scheduled on that day. If all goes well, we’ll have another round and perhaps other classmates will be able to join in then.