It is challenging to build momentum with short weeks and so many stops and starts. We keep on moving forward though.

The Global Kind Project – S.E.L.

This week we’ve continued to participate in the Global Kind Project. After reading Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler we decided to challenge ourselves. Ask your child how it’s going. Kindness is something that grows with attention. We began to talk about empathy and why trying to understand things from another person’s perspective is important. We read Ada’s Violin and watched a short video clip of The Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay. It is interesting to consider how fortunate we are as we discover some of the many difficulties and challenges people across the world deal with that we don’t even think of.

We’ve also explored the concept of gratitude. The children created a “top 10” list. They are pretty amazing. It could be an interesting family activity. We have so many opportunities and choices that so many others in the world do not. Reading Those Shoes and The Last Stop on Market Street added to our thinking as we continue on considering what it means to be kind.

This week we made bookmarks for the library to share. We made another kind of bookmarks for the 6^th grade and we created cupcake pencils for the 4^th grade (and ourselves). We plan to share smiles with more and more people. Ask your child how kindness can grow like it did for Ordinary Mary.

Reading About the World

In reading this week we’ve explored what it means to be a global citizen and the class has shared some of the things they are learning about as they research. Each of the children is trying to identify wonders from their country. This can be challenging to do when you’re 8 and 9. We’ve also continued with our Global Geography book clubs. I’m finding that it is a challenge for the children to record their thinking and to stop and wonder at what is happening as they read. We’ll spend some more time developing and deepening comprehension strategies in the weeks to come.

Elaboration Strategies

We’ve continued to explore how we can expand our writing through detail and description, adding action and dialogue and connecting with readers. We’re thinking about word choice and considering the difference between “said” and “grumbled.” We are trying to revise and to look at our writing with a more critical eye.

Place Value and One Step Adding and Subtracting

We’ve been reading large numbers and working to convert tens to hundreds, hundreds to thousand and so forth. There is a general feeling that thousand turn into millions so we are exploring ten-thousands and hundred-thousands too. We are learning about the standard algorithm, but slowly so it doesn’t become a procedure without understanding.

Here’s hoping for a 5-day week soon!