Newsletter: February 8, 2014

Ms. Nozsa is hard at work on her own Expert Project of South Africa.

Dear Parents,

There's a lot to share this week. Stepping away from our typical format, Ms. Nozsa and I are going to break these down into key points highlighting upcoming events as well as curricular studies in the classroom.

* Student-Led Conferences are next week! Please arrive about five minutes before your scheduled time. These conferences offer an opportunity for your child to reflect on their work and their learning so far this year. They will share with you the highlights from what they have accomplished as readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, and social scientists. At the end they will identify three "pluses" about themselves as learners and friends and then conclude with a goal they would like to work toward over the remainder of the year. You will then be asked to offer your own three pluses and a goal for them. Be thinking! Here's the schedule...

Tuesday, 2/11: 7:45 Gregory; 8:15 Chloe; 4:00 Kaleel; 4:30 Nadia; 5:00 Ralph
Wednesday, 2/12: 7:45 Jada; 8:15 Eli; 2:30 Gracyn; 3:00 Marina
Thursday, 2/13: 12:30 Joshua; 1:00 Dominique; 2:30 Emma; 3:00 Sophie
Friday, 2/14 7:45 Liam; 8:15 Ratish
Monday, 2/17 8:00 Olivia R
Wednesday, 2/19: 3:00 Matthew

* Friendship Day is next Friday. On Monday we will be assigning one name to each student. This will be the person they will write their Friendship Day letter to. On Monday we will also work collaborative to identify all the wonderful interests, qualities, and strengths of each person in our classroom. The kids can then use these to help them write a full one-page letter of appreciation to their assigned classmate. I'll model this for them on Monday as well. Expect to see them coming home with a sheet or two of card stock, some white paper, and a sheet of ideas for their letter. In addition to being one full page, their letters should also be aesthetically pleasing (photos, illustrations, stickers, etc) and include one small sweet (a sucker, fun size M&M, etc). On Friday everyone will have an opportunity to come to the front of the class and personally read their letter to the recipient, who will be sitting next to them. We'll also have a light snack and juice. We'll do this between 1:30 - 2:10. Feel free to join us if you'd like!

* A rash of behavior letters have been coming home in the past week or so. For whatever reason, there are always a few moments in each year when things become a bit messier than normal. People lose focus, struggle to transition from one thing to another, don't get their work in, and so on. Some people blame it on a full moon. Others on the weather. I doubt either of these have anything to do it. Maybe it's the teachers. Maybe it's the kids. Most likely, though, it's both. So we've been working to address these developing issues before they become actual problems. This is such an incredibly sweet group but even the best of us have our hiccups along the way. I know I certainly do. If your child has written a behavior letter explaining an issue they have had in the past week or so please know we're just working to reestablish expectations to make sure we're getting the very most out of our time together each day. If there were ever an issue that was a significant concern I would contact you personally.

* This weekend the kids are bringing home their Expert Project information to complete and rehearse.  The posters they completed last week were for the purpose of quickly sharing out information with large groups of people. They will do this during our Share Fair the week after next in the Gathering Room. The non-fiction books they are writing (these are the ones coming home this weekend) are much more significant. They have been working on these in the classroom over the past two weeks or so. The non-fiction books have provided us an opportunity to learn about the many features of non-fiction texts (table of contents, bold and italics, photos and captions, maps, etc) and then utilize these in our own writing. In all honesty, the books the kids have created, which range from ABC to Question and Answer to narrative, are some of the very best I've ever seen. I couldn't be any prouder of the hard work they have put into their work. This weekend a few of the kids need to finish up their books. Everyone needs to practice presenting it to an audience. I did this with my own book on Friday. The kids watched as I not only shared facts about my country but I also talked about the features within my book and how I went about putting it together. So...this expert project is not just about countries- it's about non-fiction writing as well. I told the kids to shoot for 4-5 minute presentations. We'll begin presenting on Monday. Here's the schedule of presenters...

Monday: Gregory, Emma, Alex, Chloe
Tuesday: Ms. Nozsa, Dominique, Eli, Sophie, Ralph
Wednesday: Joshua, Jada, Kaleel, Marina
Thursday: Gracyn, Liam, Nadia, Olivia R
Friday: Krissy, Matthew, Olivia L, Ratish

Here's a more detailed account of our work with these projects, as described by Ms. Nozsa:

As we have finished up the research portion of our expert projects, we have begun working on our own nonfiction books that will share our newly found facts. We have studied many types of nonfiction books such as lyrical, story, and question and answer to investigate craft moves that those authors were using in order to formulate ideas of how we could possibly organize and present our nonfiction books. The kids seemed to really enjoy the different non-fiction books, especially the question and answer. They were really inspired by the craft moves of those authors and some students even used some in their own writing pieces. The students are extremely excited about their nonfiction books and are really taking pride in what their books are becoming. It has been joy and quite rewarding to watch them grow their nonfiction pieces and create such outstanding work.

* Wow, addition with "carrying" is hard! There have been moments when we weren't sure the fog would lift from our math workshop. And then...it did! The kids are really beginning to better grasp this brand new skill. Expect to see a homework sheet come home next week with lots and lots of these problems. Please take the time to sit beside your child and help them feel successful. As I have learned, even a little time away from this practice can produce lots and lots of new confusion. Your one-on-one assistance will go a long way!

* We've been watching commercials in class. Well, not just any commercials. As part of our Current News, we watched the Coca-Cola commercial so many people are upset with. It played during the Super Bowl and presented a rendition of "America the Beautiful" sung in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, and others. I played it for the kids and let them talk about it. Then I shared a news article about the controversy and let them talk about it again. As always, it was interesting to hear all their ideas. Often times there are at least a few voices in the crowd who disagree with a certain position. This time, though, everyone agreed it was a nice commercial and that there's nothing wrong with American citizens being proud of their native languages. We also noted the scene toward the end where a family of two dads are hugging their son. I'll post the commercial below in case you haven't seen it. You may well want to discuss it with them at home. Next week we'll watch the Cheerio commercial that erupted in controversy, as well, because it showed an interracial couple with their daughter. In the coming months I'll begin asking the kids to bring our news stories home to discuss in hopes of adding all your insights, questions, and concerns to our classroom discussions. One of our primary focuses will be to listen to multiple perspectives and consider how these change or support our own thinking.