Newsletter: September 3, 2015

Dear Families,

We've had a really nice week together. After spending time transitioning back into school mode we have now launched studies across all parts of the day. It feels wonderful to know we're beginning to hit our groove!

I generally write in narrative form about the things we are doing in the classroom (curriculum), how we are going about doing them (practice), and why we do them the way we do (beliefs) . However, I've decided to play around with the idea of sharing this in the form of captions attached to class photos. I thought it might be a more reader-friendly format. Let me know what you think.

Social Studies/Science

Thank you so much for helping the kids find a piece of produce at home to add to
our research into where our food comes from. They came back with fruits and vegetables
from all around the country, as well as the world. We listed these on the board.

Once we had them listed we used a US map and a world map to mark the path these pieces
of produce traveled to reach our plates. This was a great way to learn about geography. The
kids had a lot of fun finding and labeling the states and seeing where they were in relation
to our home state of South Carolina.

We couldn't help but wonder why some of our onions come from so close (Georgia) while others come
from so far away (Peru). One of the kids pointed out that traveling that far by plane or truck
is bad for our air and the environment (she actually mentioned something about CO2 levels!). I wondered
if bringing these foods so far might effect their quality. When asked why we might get produce from so far away
(such as oranges from South Africa - 8,000 miles - rather than Florida - 500 miles) some suggested it might be
better quality or maybe because it gets cold here but is warm other places where they can still grow these
foods. I loved the thinking they were doing. We'll be visiting a farm later in the month and be sure to ask
the farmers what they think about the need for and problems with produce from across the country and the
world rather than locally grown foods.

This study allowed us to begin talking about rounding as well. It's much easier to work with
and talk about numbers such as 8,000 than it is numbers like 8,094. There are times when
we need to be exact and times when we only need a "round" number. This was a great example of how
our curricular studies often overlap - as does learning in the real world. There is no "math' part of our
day as adults followed by "reading", "writing", and "science." This all plays into one another. A scientist
is also a reader, a writer, and a mathematician. Learning should be this way as well.

Math

In math we've been exploring computation strategies. This week we gave money values
to each letter of the alphabet and played around with these - figuring out how much various
words are worth. Eventually, we figured the value of our names.

Some of these problems were complex, depending on the letters in each of our names. To
solve these we played around with different strategies. A popular strategy was to group numbers
together to make the problems smaller or simpler. 

Another strategy was to pull out blocks for each letter of our names,
combine them, then add them up. Later in the week we began comparing our names
with our friends and using the "greater than, less than" symbol to show which
is larger and which is smaller. Then we used the blocks again to see how much
bigger one name was than the other. 

I gave them a special challenge. I asked them to write their first name and its
value on a piece of paper large enough for others to easily see from a few feet away.
I then took them out into the Gathering Room and told them to line up in order from
the smallest number to the largest number. The catch: they couldn't talk while they
'were doing it. I feared this might deteriorate into  an ugly scene. But...it was beautiful.
This is very hard to do with twenty different personalities. They did an amazing job. In
total silence (which, believe me, is hard right now) they lined themselves up within a
minute or two. One of the kids walked down the line to make final adjustments
and then I checked them. I was so impressed!

Here's their final triumphant line.

Reading

In reading we are researching the strategies we use when we come to a word
we don't know. To conduct this research, I gave them a piece of text that was
missing some of the words They worked to figure out what these missing words might
be then we talked about what clues and strategies they used to generate these
educated guesses. Since there weren't letters involved (other than sometimes the first letter
of the word) they could not say "sound it out." Sounding it out is a weak strategy and
one that I work hard to get them to see beyond. Soon they'll be asking you what you do
when you come to a word you don't know. We'll add your responses
to our research and begin sorting these into categories.

This sort of work, like much of what we do. was negotiated in a group setting. We think
best when discussing our learning with one another. Though there are times during the
day when we do need to work silently and independently, much of our time is spent in discussion.
This is not the best pic to demonstrate this but the kids truly did talk through this engagement.

Writing

We are now publishing our first writing pieces. When asked what sorts of things they
think they should fix before publishing something for others to read they said: (1) periods,
(2) spelling, (3)capital letters, (4) spaces between words, (5) adding description or more
parts, and (6) adding in missing words. Not bad for our very first foray into editing
and revising. These first pieces are an opportunity for them to show me what they
know about writing and what sorts of things I'll want to add to our mini-lessons
to support them.

Recess

I hope you've heard about some fun games as recess. That's a really  important part of our
day as well. It's where we get exercise and learn how to navigate friendships and
conflicts.

We've been playing "O-Ball" a few days a week. This is a game with two teams, three
soft cloth balls, and lots of getting hit. Fortunately, the rules of the game
don't really allow for anyone being "out' all that long. There's lots and lots
of running and laughing together.

And lastly, a few important items...

1. I am scheduling a field study to City Roots farm in downtown Columbia for Friday, September 25th at 10:30. We'll visit the farm then have lunch at the Clemson Extension around the corner from school. If you're free to join us, please do. Information will come home regarding this trip shortly.

2. Please remind the kids not to keep water bottles inside their backpacks. There have been a good number of soggy packs, books, and folders the first few weeks of school.

3. I have class at USC on Wednesday evenings and take guitar lessons on Friday afternoons. Though I am generally very good about promptly responding to emails, these are two nights when I don't always get to check my inbox as often.

That's all. I hope you all have a lovely long weekend with your families.

Chris