Happy Thanksgiving!

Here our a few things we are thankful for...

Artwork and acrostic poems

Thanksgiving dinner....


Building this amazing shelter and others like it has been the focus for many of us during our outside time.

Tunes from the Moon Toons!

Reminders
Friday Workshop
November 20th: Owen and Sequoia

December 11th - Field Trip
December 18th - Portfolio Share

Math
x? y? Are these confused and lost letters in our math? No, we’re doing algebra! We began our week using manipulatives to help us solve algebraic problems hands-on. We thought of each problem like a scale that need to be balanced. If we knew the "weight" on one side and part of the weight on the other, what would the missing weight need to be in order to make balanced? We used X cubes to help us, especially when some of us moved into trickier problems like 2x +3 + x = 2x + 5, what does X equal? Working on problems like this, we learned to simplify to make it easier and then checked our work by filling in the number we discovered was X. Look for examples of this work in your child’s Thursday packets.

We also played with patterns and algebra equations where the unknown number is variable. We used the image of a magic pot to help us. For example, we have a pot that has the function of x + 3 = y (x is the input and y is the output). Making a T chart, we recorded what we put in and what would come out. With this information, we could predict outcomes without needing to record the pattern for every number. We could see the pattern with the input of 1-10 but could use the function to determine how much would come out if we put in 16, 27, or 88! Next, we will look at T charts and the patterns and identify the function - tricky! Luckily, I have saved this task for Mistress Wonka, who announced today that she would be arriving on Thursday (all her functions (recipes) go all mixed up and they need organizing). She also needs help with creating new candy machines with secret "functions."

Language
The phone walked to the bowl. Huh? MAD LIBS! During Literacy Centers, a new choice is to practice our nouns, verbs, adventives and adverbs by playing Mad Libs with a partner. We have also begun creating our own by writing short stories, songs, poems, etc. and choosing key word to take out. We then label them appropriately with noun, verb, adjective, or adverb and give them to friends! Silly stories!

In Writing Workshop, lessons this week focused on ending sentences. We discussed those little periods, the curving questions marks, and those periods with a big surprised and excited hair - exclamation marks!!! We are all working on remembering that every sentence needs some kind of ending and what we decide affects how it may be read. And besides, those words may just decide to jump up and run away if we don’t put something to stop them! We also practiced using quotation marks when someone is speaking in a story. "And if a child was not already including dialogue in a story, they sure are now!" says Jeriann.

Theme
Wow! Mars has proven to be one of the most fact filled planets! Did you know that the largest inactive volcano in our solar system in on Mars?! Olympus Mon is three times higher than Mt. Everest and the base of the volcano is the area of Arizona! AND, there is a canyon that makes our Grand Canyon look like a little crack. It is as long as the United States! Yes, we had fun finding SO many facts!

As we take our imaginary trip through the solar system, we record imaginative adventures and Mars was quite interesting! It seemed many of us had the misfortune to land right on top of Olympus Mon or deep in the canyon or in the middle of a terrible dust storm. Some of us discovered very friendly aliens who will continue with us on our journey! We will conclude our time on Mars with a "test for life"experiment, probe drop experiment, and designing our own mission to Mars, complete with plans for a rover/probe.

NEWS FROM THE MARVELOUS MARTIANS!

Important Dates and Reminders:

Workshops: November 20: Evan~milkshakes

Field Trips:
December 11~TBA

No school:
Thanksgiving Holiday: November 26 and 27Winter Break: December 19 through January 3Parent Meeting: December 2 @ 6:00

Portfolio Share: December 18 @ 9:00

DROP EVERYTHING AND READ (AT HOME READING) WILL OFFICIALLY BEGIN ON MONDAY!!

Math:


The Suns. Our work with addition continues in many forms! We started the week by creating butterflies that had a standard number of wings, antennae, and legs. Each of us picked a number of butterflies to create and then figured out how many wings, antennae and legs there were all together. We also used color tiles to make arrangements of numbers and divide them into 2 parts, creating addition equations to represent the groups. Looking at all of our work, we discovered many different ways to make the numbers 5 and 6! It was fun learning a new addition game...Tic Tac Toe. To play this game you roll 2 number dice, each with the numbers 1,2 and 3 and then add the numbers together. You then place a marker on the corresponding number on your board and play until collectively you get three in a row! Our week will end with a game that involves adding together handfuls of different objects.

The Ferns. Many of us are excited to have new "Math Packs" (a collection of assorted addition worksheets)! We spent some familiarizing ourselves with the new packs so that we are able to work on these independently during choosing time. We're having lots of fun learning new addition games that are helping us practice our addition facts, as well as challenging us to discover multiple ways to create numbers. In 5 in a Row we roll 2 dice numbered 1 through 6 (with actual numbers, not dots!) and then add the 2 numbers together. We work together with a partner, covering the answers on our board as we go, until together we cover five spaces in a row! So exciting! Dot Addition was a fun challenge! The boards for this game had 4 numbers on them, like 6, 8, 10, and 12 or 8, 9, 10 and 15. The challenge was to use dot cards (collection of dot cards with numbers 2 through 5) to fill in the board. For instance to create the number 9 you might use a 2, a 4 and a 3 or a 5 and a 4 or a 2, a 2, and a 5. After filling a board once, you record your equations and then try to fill it a second time creating a whole new set of equations. Tricky! We will end our week using colored tiles to create groupings for the number 12.

Language Arts:

This was an exciting week! Not only are we publishing our first pieces of writing, but we also had our first experience with reading groups! We spent our Writing Workshop time this week working on "fancying" up our chosen pieces of writing. This process involved rereading, looking for places to add more detail, for words we left out, for words would like to try to spell again, for capitals, or periods. Everyone worked so hard to fancy up their work at a "just right" level, creating pieces of writing that demonstrate their best effort!

In reading groups, one group focused on using the pictures to help them, while another group focused on locating reoccurring sight words and using background knowledge combined with beginning sounds to figure out challenging words, and a third group worked on using an index to locate information and summarizing what they read in their own words. While groups were reading with me, some students decorated their DEAR (drop everything and read) bags, while others worked on word ladders (an activity where you change one letter at a time to make a series of words), all eventually participating in an independent choosing time.

Phonics groups this week will focus on ch, short a, and l blends. All groups will work on word sorts.

DEAR WILL OFFICIALLY BEGIN ON MONDAY!!!!

Theme:

Well...you'll be happy to know that we made a safe landing on Mars, despite the dust storm! We are covered in red dust, but still learning lots! Did you know that Mars had ice on it's poles...2 moons...and has a day almost equal in length to our day? We haven't seen any Martians yet, but we are looking! We've been busy creating Mars pages for our planet books, as well as puppets of the Roman God Mars, the God of War...bet you can guess why Mars the Red Planet is named after this God. We had an interesting discussion about war...I am truly amazed to hear the thoughts students have about big topics like this! This is an amazing group with quite sophisticated thoughts.

With Thanksgiving on the near horizon we have been talking a lot about the things we are thankful for in our own lives. We're are working on compiling a list and participated in a thank you circle, where we all gave thanks to one another for specific things we've done, like helping to make a paper airplane, or for playing a game together, or for sitting next to someone at lunch...a very sweet ritual. This is our first thank you circle of the year, but there will surely be more to follow! We will be learning some of the history of this holiday and will be create a sequence of pictures representing this story.

Investigations:

Our choosing time continues to be a favorite time of the day. Kynex have still been a top choice this week, although there has been a bit of renewed interest in the Casita area!

We learned to draw turkeys step by step (harder than you may think!) and created lovely turkeys that we painted with coffee! Look for these on display soon! Gobble Gobble! By the way, does anyone know the official name for the red thing below the turkeys beak? We've been calling it the "gobble gobble"...very scientific!

News From the Marvelous Martians!

Hello All! I am so excited that our blog is now up and running! A big THANK YOU to Paul for creating this! My hope is that the newsletter brings a deeper understanding of what’s going on in the classrooms each week, perhaps providing a starting point for conversations with your children about their time at school. Happy reading and please know that I welcome any comments or suggestions you may have regarding the newsletter, as it is truly intended as a way to keep y’all in the loop!

Important Dates and Reminders
Workshops: November 20: Evan~milkshakes

Field Trips:

November 13th ~ Kennedy Creek, Olympia Center, Library

December 11~TBA

No school:

Thanksgiving Holiday: November 26 and 27
Winter Break: December 19 through January 3

Parent Meeting: December 2 @ 6:00

Portfolio Share: December 18 @ 9:00

Math

We start our days with Math, which starts at approximately 9:20 and lasts until 10:15. Currently, students are divided into 2 separate math groups, the Suns and the Ferns (ask your child which group he or she is in!). Typically I work with each group for half of the math period. The other half of the period is spent finishing work started during their time with me or participating in an independent choosing time. During choosing time, students have the opportunity to revisit and practice a variety of math games they learned during their time with me, to work on their “Math Packs” (a collection of relevant worksheets), to practice their Math Facts, or to build and create with some of our interesting manipulatives. I will not typically go into detail about the choices offered during this time as they will have been previously explained in the summaries of the weekly explorations of each group.

The Suns. So far this year we’ve explored patterns and have been working on solidifying our sense of numbers…practicing our one to one correspondence (pointing to and counting one object at a time), comparing numbers and gaining a general sense for just how many each number is (for instance a group of 10 pennies looks quite different from a group of 10 chairs, but there is still 10 in each group). Throughout all this, we’ve also been practicing writing our numbers.

This week we are taking our math skills to the next level and have begun work with simple addition problems and are learning multiple ways to solve these problems. An example of a problem we worked on was: There were 3 aliens and each alien had 3 eyes. How many eyes were there all together? The group was given this problem and was asked to solve it however they would like. Some drew pictures and some used cubes to represent the eyes. We compared results and methods and worked on solving a number of problems using similar methods. We are even learning how to represent our work using equations! We will finish our week by learning the game Chips in a Cup (an old favorite for many of the Ferns!), in which you have a set number of chips (we will work with numbers less than 6 to start out) and a partner hides some of the chips under a cup, and you try to figure out how many are hidden by counting the number of chips left showing. This is a great way to reinforce the concept that numbers can be broken into parts and that there are many ways to make a number. This would be a fun one to try at home with pennies!

The Ferns. We have been busy, busy, busy this year! We started the year out with some review work that focused mainly on continuing to build number sense…combining problems (You have 12 cherries and grapes. How many of each could you have?), a variety of number combination games (like Chips in a Cup described above), counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10,s…We have also spent some time practicing writing our numbers. After all this, we began exploring and learning about place value, using our “base-10 blocks”. We practiced building and reading numbers and learned a really fun game Race to 100, which continues to be a favorite during choosing time! Ask y our child for details about this one!

This week we are practicing some strategies for solving addition problems in our head. One method that we learned is called “near doubles”. This is for problems like 4+5 or 4+6, that are pretty close to being a double like 4+4 (we are working on memorizing the doubles up to 10 that we don’t yet know…so this may be something to practice in the car!). The near doubles strategy entails turning problems into a “double” addition problem and then adding on the extra. For instance, 4+5 would become 4+4+1 (the double of 4 plus 1). We practiced this in a dice game called “Near Doubles”. We are also working on memorizing addition facts at a level just right for each of us. We’ve created flashcards of problems that are hard for us to remember. To help us practice one tricky fact, we created story problems, illustrating the solution and writing the equation both horizontally and vertically. These story problems will become a choice during choosing time next week so that we solve each other’s problems!

Language Arts

Language Arts falls right after recess, at 10:50 and lasts until 12:00. We start each Language Arts session with some quiet resting to center ourselves so that we are ready for learning and to help ease the transition from recess. Mondays and Wednesdays are our Writing Workshop days, when we focus on writing. Each Writing Workshop lesson is comprised of a brief mini-lesson (sample lessons include how to sound out words, “fancying” up a piece of writing, and encouraging new genres of writing) followed by approximately 30 minutes of independent writing (this time varies throughout the year, lengthening as the year progresses). Once a week we have “Author’s Chair”, which is a time for students to share a finished piece of work. During the independent writing, I circulate amongst the students offering help sounding out words, brainstorming ideas, and with editing. Once a week we have phonics groups (right now this is on Tuesday, but will be switching to Thursday soon). Students are grouped with others that share similar phonics skills, and each week complete an activity that helps strengthen and build new phonemic awareness. Activities include word/picture sorts, worksheets, and games. We have been learning and practicing a variety of Language Arts games and activities to prepare us for an independent Language Arts choosing time that will begin shortly. During this time I will meet with reading groups. We also spend time each week practicing our handwriting skills. Kindergartners are focusing on upper-case letters, while first graders are focusing on both upper and lower-case letters. Each afternoon we have a Reading Workshop for approximately 15 minutes, which is a time for students to independently read books at their level. During this time I circulate, and make time to read with each student at least once a week.

This is such an enthusiastic and creative group of writers! I so enjoy seeing the topics everyone chooses to write about! This week there was a series of diagrams with a tire and a nail and an uh oh(!) flat tire, a collaborative book about a made up group of beings “the zoo zoos”, a story about a meteorite falling from the sky and having to call the fire department, and a story about the Samhein celebration and jumping off the hay pile! On Thursday, we will collect all of our finished pieces and choose a piece to “fancy” up…to publish (just as someone going to a party might get fancied up, we are fancying up our work to share with others!). The first step in the fancying process will simply be to choose a piece for fancying! Next week we will reread our pieces and look for places where we might have missed a word or would like add more detail. Our phonics groups for this week focused separately on: a review of all the consonants and words that begin with these sounds, a review of all the short vowels, and gr, cr, tr, and br. This week we practiced our handwriting by choosing a space word to write using our very best printing. We will soon make diagrams to go along with these words, creating a matching game for our pocket chart!

Theme

Each afternoon we have theme right after lunch from 1:00 to 1:45. This is the time where the majority of our theme related activities take place…although they are also intertwined with many of our Math and Language Arts lessons. Generally students spend at least one theme time each week in mixed age groups. We call these K-4 groupings “families”.

As I am sure you well know, we have been studying space this year!!! We started our explorations here on Earth learning about our very own rocky planet, what causes the seasons and how the Earth’s rotation causes us to experience day and night! Our explorations then took us to the moon, the sun and even Mercury! We have had so much fun traveling to and studying these far out objects! Our journey has now taken us to Venus where we will be for the remainder of this week (if we can last that long!), before heading to Mars!

We started the week by learning all about Venus and creating a page for our planet books all about Venus. Each page includes fact about the planet, as well as an oil pastel drawing of the planet. It was interesting to learn that Venus is the hottest planet even though it is not the closest to the sun! We also learned about the Roman Goddess of love, Venus, whom the planet is named after…supposedly because astronomers believed that under the cloudy atmosphere of Venus they would find a very beautiful world, much like our Earth, and the beautiful Goddess Venus. Instead, they were surprised to find a sulfury, carbon-dioxide filled world littered with active volcanoes! Ahhh! We made popsicle stick puppets of the Goddess of Love to add to our growing collection of God/Goddess puppets! It was interesting to see the different ways each student imagined Venus would look…we even had an interesting discussion about whether or not it would be ok for her to wear pants!

Our week will finish up with an afternoon with our friends the Moon Toons. This will be our first introduction to Buddy Reading this year! Beginning readers are paired with more advanced readers that will be able to help them with their reading. Be sure to ask your child about this fun and exciting tradition!

Investigations

We end each day with Investigations! Investigations is typically 45 minutes long and is a time that consists primarily of an independent choosing time. Choices during this time vary from day to day and include things like: games (we all love playing and learning new board games, so if you have one you’d like to share, feel free to bring it in some day!), art center, casita, doll house, Kynex (these are the big hit right now!), clay, magnets, puzzles, light bright, blocks, etc. This is a wonderful time for students to interact socially and engage in creative play together. This is also a time for art, and we often spend part of the time creating!

Kynex, Kynex and more Kynex!!!! Last week it was checkers and chess, and now it’s Kynex! There have been a plethora of interesting vehicles created, as the Kynex play has been focused mainly on creations with wheels. And what fun with vehicles be without ramps?! It is fun exploring a variety of ramps with different inclines!

While making our Venus puppets we felt inspired to create puppets of ourselves and other beings! And then we of course needed a puppet show stage! So presto! We transformed an ordinary paper towel box into a couple of beautiful stages! Once there’s a stage the performances come naturally…we were lucky enough to view some impromptu shows, complete with tickets! This choice will be around for a while, so we’ll see what else develops!

Amidst all this, we made some time to create our Venuses, which will eventually become part of our planet mobile. We used white crayons, and yellow, orange, and brown water colors to create this sulfury world.

Are you still there? I promise not all newsletters are so lengthy! For this first one, though, I wanted to explain a bit about classroom routines and give a brief history of what’s been going on up to this point. Hope you have a lovely week!

News from the Moon Toons

Reminders

Field Trip
Friday, November 13th - Pick up at the Olympia Library

Friday Workshops
November 20th: Sequoia and Owen

As you may or may not know, Mistress Wonka came in for a surprise visit last week. She worked with her little Oompas in creating the most fantastic buildings and elevators. Buildings with caramel rivers on one floor, and a chocolate forest on another - crazy! These buildings could go as high as they like as well as below ground. After she left, the children and I played in the elevator of these buildings. Floors above ground were positive numbers and floors below were negative. We put together combinations of positive and negative numbers, which we called changes, to see what results we would get. Most of this work was done through games, some of which involve imaginary trips in Mistress Wonka’s elevator, up and down her fantastic building. Thinking about ups and downs helps children learn how to describe mathematical changes. They will use these skills in both science and math as they describe and graph how things change. Here is an example of a problem we might do:

I got on the elevator on the +2 floor. I pushed the +3 button and then the -6 button. What floor am I on?

Some did a little algebra when solving a problem like this:

I got on the elevator on the +3 floor. I pushed a button and then I pushed the +1 button. I ended up on the - 4 floor. What was the other button I pushed?

We also read "Centipede’s 100 Shoes" and used our problem solving skills to answer the question, is the author’s math correct? As everyone went to work to answer this question, I witnessed so much creative and thoughtful problem solving. From using repeating addition, multiplication, subtractions and pictures everyone was able to answer this question in their own way.

During language arts we have all been serious writers these past weeks as we dedicate ourselves to our stories. Over the past weeks, we had fun exploring how an idiom, a simile, or an onomatopoeia can add description to our stories. The children have already begun using some of these techniques. Yesterday I read a few examples, like "Vroom!" and "...as green as a leaf."

We have officially begun our literacy centers! While some children read with me in reading groups others are making choices around the room. Currently choices include: reading poetry and recording one that we particularly like or authoring our own , reading a magazine article and writing a summary, reading a space book and recording facts, journaling, reading jokes and riddles and sharing a favorite, and word sorts. The children keep track of their choices and work in their Literacy Folder.

Buddy reading has begun with our friends, the Marvelous Martians. Readers are paired up so that one child may help another as they practice reading. Buddy reading is a wonderful opportunity for the elder children to share their skills and help teach their younger friends.

In our journey through the universe we are currently in our solar system planet hopping. You can find on us Venus but we will moving along as the smell, heat, and atmosphere are a little overwhelming! We were fortunate to meet the beautiful Greek Goddess Aphrodite and her magical girdle. You will find our incredible portraits of her on our door.

We have read several short folktales from around the world that tell stories of seasons, stars, and planets. The children have selected "Day and Night" as their favorite and we are in the process of creating a play based on this tale. We will create a script and work on memorizing our lines. Stay tuned for a performance date!

On Thursday we will practice making a triorama (similar to a diorama). We will use a scene from our "Day and Night" story as our inspiration. This will also be a tool the children can use in future book responses.

Welcome to our newsletter!

Our newsletter blog will provide you with wonderful information about what your child is experiencing and learning at OCS. Each week we will share with you all the inside scoop about the math games we are playing, what we are reading and writing about and where we are in our journey through space. Reminders for Friday workshops for kids and parents will be included as well as dates for field trips and other important happenings. We look forward to using this new venue to share classroom experiences, photos, artwork and stories with you. Entries will typically be posted on Wednesdays. We enjoy receiving feedback so please feel free to comment after reading a post.



Happy reading!