Happy Ground Hog’s Day! I don’t think there will be a shadow, unless there’s some rapid clearing … and so, six weeks until spring. We can do that! This week as I read through book club work, responses to reading, blog posts, daily writing projects and math problems, I was struck by thinking that is happening in our classroom. Your children are puzzling through a lot. On top of that, I’m noticing that more children are willing to stop and put effort into an assignment, rather than jot one or two quick partial sentences to be done. That’s refreshing. They are beginning to notice the rewards of thoughtful time and effort.

Global Kind Project – Global Geography

This week we’ve been taking note of and appreciating the many opportunities we have. We are trying to understand how different life is around the world. We have explored books that share the stories of refugee children, currently and from the past. It is hard for us to fully imagine, but their stories have helped us become more aware of how we might use our voices to promote action to make the world an even better place.

We have begun exploring the World Health Organization’s Sustainable Development Goals and are trying to think about what our hopes are and how we might contribute to a more peaceful world. We watched Young Voices Count – for the World We Want in 2030 a couple times. After we learn a bit more about the goals and the reasons behind them, we’ll try to make our own video. What can we do for a more peaceful future? You might like to watch the video with your child as well and talk about what you notice and note about the plans and dreams those children shared.

We’ve set a date for our next class museum. In it we will share the information we are discovering about the Wonders of our countries. It will be Thursday, March 15. Many of the children are concerned that this is not a good choice for them because they have other commitments. Thursday was the most chosen day of the week. We hope that by knowing in advance, families may be able to make arrangements to attend. Sadly, though, we do understand if it is not possible for some to present their work in the evening. The museum will be open in the afternoon from 2:15 to 2:45 and later again in the evening from 5:30 to 6:30. Further details will be shared as the children make their plans.

Reading Is Thinking

During this round to book clubs, it became apparent that we needed to spend more time thinking about what we are reading. We needed to learn how to stop and consider the choices the author was making and to notice how event connects and builds the story or information. We are trying to uncover the main idea of each chapter or section to figure out how each part contributes to the authors’ message.

We’ve been trying to notice our questions as we read and to follow them with more questions and ideas. We’re trying to build stronger mental images and consider, “what if” more often.

As a class we’ve spent the week exploring an article called, “The Killer Smog” by Lauren Tarshis. It is an event that happened in London in 1952 that seemed to spur the environmental action like the Clean Air act in the 1970. Talk to your child about what they learned about it. You may want to help them understand why we burn coal and more about manufacturing. They are just beginning to be able to understand that each choice and action has a consequence and reaction. It’s complicated.

Understanding Place Value

This week we’ve been exploring the standard algorithm with addition. It seems that the children are secure in their understanding of place value and are aware of how amounts combine. Over the course of the week the children have showed their understanding of how tens combine to hundreds, hundreds combine to one-thousands, one-thousands combine to ten-thousands and on. This understanding is key. It means the children are doing more than working through a rote procedure with little awareness of the actual amounts they are recording. Next week we’ll continue to build in this process by working with the standard algorithm and subtraction.

You may have noticed that we’ll be doing another math fact check next week that will include all four operations. Our goal is to improve scores by at least 5 problems – 10 would be terrific. Thank you so much for your support with this goal. There is not enough time in our day to make sure that the kids the play games often enough to give them the opportunity to internalize the facts. Worksheets are quickly done and offer little reward. The games sent home like Tiguous, Circles and Stars, Multiplication Top-it or games you might have like Farkle or Yahtzee offer lots of practice opportunities. Thank you for your help with this!

Bits and Pieces –

• Thank you to the group of 8th graders who were able to  come into the classroom to help us create our learning journals.  We are so grateful for their help.  We couldn’t have done it without their time and help.
• We began Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes this week. We’ve looked at images of the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima – before, after and now.
• We’ve continued to collect acts of kindness as the class did in Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler. You can see our progress, from last week to this.
• We’ve continued to share smiles (we hope) and fun throughout the school through our participation in the Global Kind Project. We left cupcake pencils at the office, created monster pencils for 3^rd grade and name pencils for the Preschool. It feels good to make others happy.
• 3^rd Grade is collecting cereal for the 100^th Day Food Drive. Our class has contributed 24 boxes so far. The first grade is organizing and counting all of the contributions. They’d appreciate if all donations could be made by next Friday so they have time to prepare the display for February 12, our Hundredth Day of School. Thank you so much to supporting this school-wide Service Learning Project.

Have a Wonderful Super Bowl Weekend!