Newsletter: January 18, 2017

The kids are settled in to read biographies for their current book clubs.

Dear Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend with the kids. With Monday being a holiday, this is a short week for us. We are working to understand and respond to non-fiction texts, calculate area of various 2-D rectilinear shapes, learn about rhyme scheme through songwriting, and explore the American Revolution.

Our studies of biographies has been going very well. The kids are excited to learn about interesting historical figures as well as share this within their book clubs. Last Friday the kids chose three or four people they'd like to read about. Our MAT, Ms. Wilson, used these selections to put together the book clubs that are in action this week. There are daily pages set for their reading. They read these pages, take notes, write short responses, and then build conversations around their new learning.

Groups are reading about King Tut, Harriet Tubman, JFK, Queen Elizabeth, Daniel Boone,
Houdini, Anne Frank, and Neil Armstrong.

We begin with a short mini-lesson in which I present a skill of some sort and then
the kids go out and put this to practice. So far this has included marking important
information and naming it on a post-it as well as responding to the text with
questions, connections, emotional reactions, and so on.

The kids have shared some interesting information with us. For instance, did you know
Queen Elizabeth's father had her mother killed for not having given birth to a boy? He remarried
just two weeks after.

As we move forward with these book clubs, we'll work to build on the ideas of others
with greater depth as well as use the text to support our ideas/thoughts.

In writing we are continuing our study of songwriting. Our state standards each year call on us to study elements of poetry. Last year we put together a formal inquiry into poetry. This year we are addressing many of the same standards but through song. This unit will find us inviting musicians into our classroom to talk to us about their personal songwriting experiences.  Our first guest was Mr. O'Keefe from right next door. Mr. O has been playing guitar for forty years, give or take, and has spent much of that time writing original songs. He showed us a few examples of how often begins with vague ideas and slowly (or quickly) drafts and revises them until they sound and feel just right. The kids especially enjoyed hearing him share one of his songs with us - an older piece about his old yellow dog.

Classroom guests are always a source of great excitement. Next week the owner of
Freeway Music, Don Russo, is coming in to tell us about his own songwriting process as
well as perform a few original tunes for us.  

Finally, here's a video of Mr.O's visit. I'm not sure this will post correctly. If it does, I'll try to add more videos in the future of the kids at work.

Have a great rest of your week,
Chris and Shanna