Newsletter (of Sorts): November 20th

Dr. Johnson, Dr. Mills, Mr. O, and me just after our presentation at the
annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of English in
St. Louis, MO. Our session shared the ways in which our school uses picture
books to address issues of equity and justice with our kids.

Dear Families,

Let me begin by saying how incredibly proud I am of the kids. As you know, last week I was presenting at an out-of-town conference with some colleagues at the Center. Our substitute for those two days, Mrs. McLees, is a former parent from my classroom and was kind enough to text me photos and updates throughout the day. When I returned today she had left a note that read "Thursday was great. Friday was even better." The kids and I had worked hard to make sure everyone knew what they'd be working on in my absence as well as the need to help out the substitute since they are the experts in regards to what we do and how we do it. This is such an incredibly sweet group of kids. A huge kudos goes out to the kids for all the help they provided Mrs. McClees. One of the kids asked today, "Can we write her a thank you note?" I strongly dislike missing days of school and avoid it whenever possible. That they had such a wonderful experience helped me to feel more at ease. And I was SO excited to get so many welcome back hugs this morning!

This week I'm just going to provide a quick rundown of what we're working on right now followed by a few important items and dates you need to be aware of.

What are we doing?

Reading - We just completed a focused inquiry into reading fluency in which we identified strong qualities of reading (in regards to its rhythm, pacing, and inflection). Next we will conduct our first author study of the year - Jacqueline Woodson.

Math- We've been building and strengthening a conceptual understanding of place value and applying this to addition problems that require regrouping. This has included opportunities to count money, compare two numbers, and solve word problems. We'll continue at this in the coming weeks as well as move into subtraction problems that also require regrouping.

Writing - The kids will soon be publishing a new piece to share and add to their portfolio. We've been working on "free write" pieces in which they chose from any genre they were interested in exploring. Along the way we've shared our writing with one another, continued to identify strong qualities of writing, and recognized the need to carry forward the things we've already learned this year.

Social Studies - Over the past week we've been exploring maps. When we return from Thanksgiving we'll switch gears and begin an inquiry into hunger and homelessness to provide context for many of the charitable events that often take place this time of year.

Important Notes...

1. There is no log this week. We'll get a new one next week. Thanks so much for helping the kids consistently fill these out. The logs are designed to take no more than one minute so that the kids' focus can be purely on reading as enjoyment rather than reading to complete an assignment. My goal is to eventually get rid of the log once I see we have everyone reading as a daily practice. As of today, we've only had one day all school year (62 days) in which every child brought in a completed and initialed log. That said, it's gotten drastically better over the past month or so.

2. In three or four weeks our class will have a winter feast as a celebratory way to send us off into Winter Break.  We will prepare/cook the items for our feast the day before. If you have any ideas for dishes we could make please let me know. I have a variety of ideas from past years as well. We generally send anything that needs to be cooked home with a parent volunteer or prepare crock pot dishes that can be cooked here at school. To make this afternoon of cooking work we'll need about 6-8 volunteers. If you or any of your family members are interested in helping out please let me know. We'd love to have you! The date for the food prep will be Thursday, December 14th at 1:00.

I hope you all have a wonderful long break with your family this week!
Chris