Newsletter: January 31st

Dear Families,

I hope you're all healthy! What a week we've had in regards to the flu. I told the kids that in my entire career I can only think of a one or two cases of the flu reaching my classroom yet last week we had no fewer than six confirmed cases. We were spraying and wiping like crazy while also trying to remember to keep our hands clean and out of our mouths. It looks like it's now winding down (knock on wood). In the next day or two we should have everyone back with us.

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out for our Gathering last week. The kids truly did a fantastic job. That wasn't a surprise to me at all. They were rock solid both times we ran through it earlier in the week. It's great to see how clearly they can communicate information as well as how brave they are in front of such a large group. We have one more Gathering this year. I don't remember the exact date but I predict it'll be sometime in late March or early April. I'll let you know when I find out.

Here's an update of our learning...


Morning Meeting

Our Morning Meeting is developing so nicely. Sitting and watching the kids
pay increasingly careful attention to one another while building on and even challenging
the ideas of their peers, I can't help but think back to the beginning of the year. The kids have
grown into engaged listeners who are eager to construct knowledge alongside their
peers. 

The content of our Morning Meeting comes in two forms: classroom journals and
current news articles. I love that I never know what we'll be talking about from one
day to the next since the kids are the ones posing the questions and speaking about
events and issues in our community and country.

The Culture Journal is a particularly interesting journal. It's a place for questioning
social norms, beliefs, and practices. Sample questions and comments have included: "Tomorrow is
my aunt's baby shower. I wonder what it will be like?", "I am fasting. I didn't eat breakfast.",
"Does every country have New Year's resolutions like ours?", "Why do China's car drive in the other seat?",
"Why does Canada have different coins?", "Why do some countries not have access to clean
water?", "Why don't a lot of Black people get to be in shows?" and "Why do people think there
are girl colors and boy colors?"

I'm often blown away by the kids' ability to observe the world around them
and ask questions that are always interesting and at times powerful. We don't always find solutions
to these questions but we do learn to value the need for asking them as well as for listening to the thoughts
and feelings of others in the room.

Be sure to ask your child what they shared in a class journal last month. We have
multiple journals in the classroom, of which the Culture Journal is only one. There
is also a Language, Math, Classroom Community, and Science journal.

Reading

In reading we've been studying ourselves as readers to identify and name all the different
sorts of thinking we do when reading a text. The purpose of this inquiry is to help us see that
reading is much more than decoding words. Rather, reading is thinking. In the photo above
we have created a tally chart to show how often we have accessed each sort of thinking
to help us make sense of the text. 

Math

In math, we’ve been exploring measuring with snap cubes.  The students will estimate how many 

cubes they see and then count the number of actual cubes.  The students then determine the difference 

between their estimate and the actual measurement.  The purpose of this assignment is to help them 

learn to make estimates while working on their subtraction skills.

The students have been continuing to work on their estimation, and learning inches and centimeters.  

The students gather items to measure using centimeters or inches.  The students first estimate the 

items visually and then measure each item and document it on their metric measurement sheets.

The students were read this book and we discussed how measuring items with our feet are a

 nice way to estimate items; however, they are not as accurate as measuring because everyone has different size feet.

The students continue to work on their daily math warm-ups.  In this example, the students were 

given word problems to help them increase their understanding of addition.  We want them to 

understand problems in different ways, rather than having them to just add numbers together.  In doing so, 

it allows them to think about the many ways a problem can be written.

The students worked in teams of three to arrange broken circles into complete circles.  

Each student was given an envelope with different parts of the circle.  The students had to figure 

out how to work together, without talking to each other, to ensure that everyone in the group had a 

complete circle.  We want to continue building on the idea that students need to work together 

to confirm that everyone understands the problem and not just one person.

The students use playing cards to continue building upon their math skills.  The math game 

helps solidify their current knowledge of addition and subtraction while serving as a review 

without having to only supply a test to check their understanding.

Social Studies

In social studies we are currently engaged in an inquiry into the concept of normalcy.
We began by trying to define what we think people mean when saying something
or someone is "normal." 

The kids then came home and interviewed you to find out
what sorts of experiences you've had with being teased and mistreated. The discussions
that grew from these experiences was so rich. Thank you for sharing these important
stories with your kids as well as our classroom community. the x's are the number of times
you all reported having been teased about a certain thing and the numbers at the bottom are 
the number of times the kids said they had been teased for something similar. I work extremely
hard to help ensure the kids not only never tease others but actively stand up for those who
are being mistreated.

We are now reading a wide variety of books that directly or indirectly address issues of
normalcy. For each book we're considering: (1) What is being positioned as normal?, (2) Who
has the power to decide what is normal and what is different?, (3) What conflict does this cause?,
and (4) Who disrupts this? How? What is the outcome?

This is one of the books we read. It was about a boy who wanted a doll but was told
no by his father. In the end his grandmother argues that such a toy will help him
grow into a loving, caring father.

The Name Jar tells the story of a Korean girl who is teased because her
name is different than the other children's. 

This title tells the real story of Malala Yousafzai who continues
to fight for the rights of all children (and particularly girls) to receive
an education all around the world. 

Next week the kids will be bringing home a book to read alongside you so they
can have similar discussions at home and draw upon your experiences and perspectives before
coming back into the classroom to build book discussions with a small group of peers.
Ruby's Wish (as well as the books below) will serve as the texts for this home-school engagement.
If you see one that looks particularly interesting let me know and I'll be sure to make certain your
child is placed in that group and brings the book home to share with you. Otherwise, I'll assign
groups based on other criteria.