Newsletter: February 18th

Dear Families,

There's been so much going on of late. As social scientists, we've been exploring stories of people who have worked in deliberate ways to address inequities and injustices. Thank you so much for playing your part in this inquiry with the home reading projects. The kids came back poised to share the book you read together and field questions from their classmates about educational opportunities, segregation, workers' rights, voting rights, and so much more. They did a wonderful job. 

After we finished sharing these books, I read a book to them detailing all the ways people take action in peaceful ways to address issues that are important to them. 

From the this text as well as the books they read with you at home, we created a poster showing many of the ways people take action.

Finally, we created a graph showing which of these forms of actions took place most often in the books we'd read.

One big theme we noticed was that in most cases people took multiple forms of action when trying to fight back against something they felt was unfair. As the year progresses, the kids will be choosing an issue that's important to them personally. I'll ask them to come home and discuss this with you so you all can be an integral part of helping them select something that is important to your family. From there, the kids will begin researching to learn more about the issue then develop and implement a course of action that feels appropriate to them. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this will go. These kids are amazing and so full of questions and ideas. 

Another highlight of this week was the fact we were able to see our first grade reading buddies again. After taking a break from this work due to a spike in quarantine cases across the school, the kids were so excited to see their buddies again. If you haven't heard about any of this yet, be sure to ask your child. 

Here's a quick description of other work we are doing...

Math: We've transitioned from our inquiry into fractions to a short study of missing integers. These are problems such as 14 + b =27 or f - 7 = 21. For those who were ready for a challenge, we also worked on problems such as (b - 4) x 11 = 44.

Reading: As part of our study of biographies,  the kids have been researching someone they want to learn more about. In doing so, they're learning to read to find information, paraphrase information into their own words, organize facts into sub-topics, and ask questions that furthers their research.

Writing: In writing, we've been immersed in an author study of Kate DiCamillo. This has helped us learn to "read like a writer," meaning we are reading a text not just to enjoy it but to learn more about the craft of writing. The kids use what they learn to stretch their own writing practices in new ways. They are now in the final stages of editing and revising these pieces. Next week they'll have an opportunity to share them as well as reflect on all the ways they're growing as writers.