Newsletter: April 2nd

A'ja Wilson poses with the class during her visit to the classroom last Friday

Dear Families,

There's lots and lots going on in the classroom right now. First, we will be MAP testing on both Wednesday and Friday of this week. We also have a share fair on Thursday for our CFI peers and then again on Thursday night as part of our Second Grade Curriculum Night. Lastly, we have a slew of classroom guests coming in to speak with us this week (as will be detailed below). It's good to stay busy and we've certainly done that!

If you weren't able to make it out for our Gathering last Friday let me tell you... the kids did an absolutely fabulous job. I was so proud of them for working hard to prepare and presenting with such confidence. One of our classroom families commented it was one of the very best Gatherings they'd seen in their many years here at CFI. I was sure to pass that praise on to the kids this week. They're a wonderful bunch.

Here is an update of projects and content we've been exploring together:

Science - We just launched an inquiry into states of matter. We began this work by looking at an assortment of solids and working in small groups to define the attributes that tie them all together. We were answering the question What makes a solid a solid? The kids defined this state of matter as one that can be broken, cannot have  hand passed through it, has a shape, and comes in different sizes, shapes, colors, and materials. We then worked to define liquids and solids as well. Over the coming weeks we'll explore these in greater detail as well as engage in a number of demonstrations and experiments to see how matter can change from one state to another.

Math - Over the past few weeks we've continued our work with computational strategies as well as explored geometry, fractions, and additional aspects of measurement. Most recently we've been working to calculate the area and perimeter of various shapes.

Social Studies - After concluding our inquiry into the idea of normalcy, the kids came up with a list of big ideas (or take-aways) from our work together. These included: (1) there's no such thing as normal, (2) we should celebrate our differences/it's okay to be different, (3) you shouldn't have to change for others to accept you, and (4) we have the power to stand up for ourselves and for others. This work led beautifully into our country studies as we explored the many similarities and differences found between various cultures.

Writing - Our work as social scientists has fueled our work as writers as we construct non-fiction books sharing all we've learned about our various countries. To write these books we needed to learn about topic sentences, paragraphs, and sharing information in an engaging way that makes sense to the reader. This called on us to work toward writing multiple sentences about each topic rather than a simple one-sentence fact.

Reading - After concluding our study of non-fiction text and visual features and conducting our country research we moved into a novel study of Andrew Clements' book Frindle. This is a fun book about a boy who creates his own word only to find that it gets him into some serious trouble at school. This book offers such a great opportunity to explore how words are socially created. In regard to our reading curriculum, we're using the book to talk about the relationship between the characters, setting, and plot.

And now, here's some photos of our work...

This is the news article that started our work researching the contributions
and accomplishments of many great women in our world, country, and state.

This article about Dr. Matilda Arabelle Evans inspired one of our
girls to share about her at last Friday's gathering. She's definitely
on our list of women who deserve to be considered for a street name.

Our list is growing and growing. We're now on our second page and will likely need
a third before it is all said and done. The names have come from a variety of places. Some
came from news articles, others from books, and some from recommendations made by
our classmates. We've also been inviting classroom guests to come in and share their
own knowledge and recommendations.

On Monday Dr. Mills taught us about Miriam Wright Edelman. Later this week
we'll be visited by one of our school board members, the author of the original article
in the state speaking to the lack of representation in city street names, and our district's
head of diversity, Dr. Helen Grant. Eventually we'll make a formal presentation to
Mayor Benjamin about this. I'll also be inviting anyone interested to join
me at a city council meeting to speak there as well. As we discussed this
yesterday I warned the kids some people may try to just pat them on the head
and comment on how cute they are. To this, one of the girls responded "People
tell me I'm cute sometimes when I 'm trying to talk about something.
I don't like that. I want them to take me seriously!" You have to love that passion.

Here's a pic of the kids hard at work collecting information for their
country projects using scdiscus.org.

This wasn't at all a project where we were simply trying to make cool non-fiction books. Not
at all. Rather, this whole project (and it was definitely a BIG one) was developed to teach
the kids many aspects of non-fiction reading and writing. In this picture we're learning
how to organize our notes into a logical order then create a topic sentence letting readers know
what they're about to learn about.

This also allowed us opportunities to see how writers organize their writing into paragraphs
to make it easier for the reader to make sense of what they are reading.

My former class, now fifth graders, were kind enough to come in and work one-on-one
with the kids to help them edit and revise their writing before publishing. 

This was a great learning engagement for both the mentors and mentees. 

The final books are looking great. About half the class have finished up. The others are working
hard to be ready to share with you all on Thursday night at our  final Curriculum Night of the year.