Welcome back! It’s 2012 and we’re already off to a great start.

These last two weeks have been packed full of quality writing, deep conversations and interesting questions. I am SO proud of the thinking that has been taking place and by the enthusiasm to share opinions and have whole class discussions on very big and very difficult ideas. Please talk about the following at home, if you haven’t already, to get an idea of what we are currently learning about:

* multiplication methods and when they are best used (arrays, extended facts, lattice, partial products, traditional/column)
* writing descriptive holiday narratives
* making disposition goals for the next 6-8 weeks (ask which specific goal your child has chosen to focus on): self-directed, creative, balanced, ethical, responsible and caring
* thinking about and justifying reasons for the Startling Statements survey we took to kick off our new unit about Child Rights (ask about our most recent Word of the Week and about its connection)
* choosing books for personal reading that are related to our new unit, and choosing a new read aloud (finally!)
* learning about the poet Shel Silverstein and trying to write in his style
* literacy connections while reading Wacky But True
* needs and wants!
* an impromptu conversation about our changing bodies and responding to body odors (a quite hilarious, but necessary talk)
* personalizing our Learning Journals (and the huge mess we made:) )
* today’s Energizer: I Like My Neighbors

Just a reminder that there will be a quiz next week about the concepts we have been inquiring into in math. I encourage students to be accountable for their learning and decide what they will need to do to prepare, if anything.

Now that our Child Rights unit is in full-swing, I would like to invite any parents to our classroom who might feel interested, eager or compelled to share about a story, a personal experience, an organization or just to have a conversation with us regarding a topic in Child Rights. Email me or send a note – we’d love to get some different perspectives! These are the questions we will be inquiring into over the next 8 weeks:
Why do we need rights?
How can rights be upheld?
What are the responsibilities that go along with rights?

These questions are not easy. This unit is heavy and can be emotional as it deals with sensitive issues. Please keep an ongoing dialogue at home to dispel any fears or worries or answer any questions that may arise from our understandings in this unit. Encourage acceptance of different opinions and reflecting on personal ideas.

Hope you are able to enjoy Family Fun Day tomorrow and a wonderful three-day weekend in honor of Chinese New Year!

The end of the first semester is upon us and this week, we’ve been incredibly busy trying to finish up our design challenge: to work with a partner to think creatively to build a system with reusable or recyclable materials. Today was our last session for building our systems. Some are ready, others are not, but we all agree that the process is more important than the result. Parents: I urge you to ask your child how he/she feels about the process they went through, what skills they have been developing and whether their system meets an “emerging,” a “developing,” a “proficient” or even an “exemplary” standard, according to their rubric. Presentations with other toymakers will be next week.

This week, we also began learning more about large numbers. We played several games to help us understand place value to the billions: Beat the Calculator; Closest to 1,000; and Hit, Miss or Bull’s Eye. Play these games at home to continue the fun or the practice!

In Literacy, we explored Little Earth on the ES portal page and recorded things that: sparked our interest, fascinated us, we didn’t know before, or we made a connection with. Then, we anonymously evaluated the quality of our responses and realized where improvements could be made and where we excelled. Also, we tried playing some new games! Students will have the opportunity to play all of them at some point in the coming months, but our first round went well. Teams had to cooperate to read the instructions in order to figure out how to play the games. Throughout the groups, students thought about, had conversations about and learned about main ideas, reading for information, cause and effect, comprehension and making inferences. Students: Talk about which game you played.

Finally, the votes are in and we are now officially the Powerful Penguins! Congratulations to Rhia for designing the winning artwork for our Sports Day t-shirts!

3.5 days left…

Photos of us playing Closest to 1,000 and the Literacy Games

I hope that there have been some great discussions going on at home this week about any of the following topics:

1. Relationship-building with students from PCF
2. Constructing systems (problem-solving and making changes)
3. Decimals
4. Strategies for figuring out what words mean without using the dictionary
5. The interesting read-aloud we are currently enjoying: Noah Barleywater Runs Away

Happy weekend. One more full week to go and then 3.5 days…we can make it!

Below are photos of our time with PCF.

This weekend, please have some conversations about:
* Limericks
* Our Systems performance task (it begins on Monday!)
* The Dewey Decimal System
* Visiting Mr. Patterson’s Grade 7 IDEAS class to view their kinetic sculptures
* Measuring using the metric system (mm, cm and m) and converting between measurements
* Using decimals in measurement
* The meaningful RAPs we had on Wednesday
* Filipiniana
Here are some photos of the week, including several from Filipiniana.

This week, there are lots of things to talk about! Please initiate some conversations about the following topics to understand more about what we’re up to at school:
* Comparing decimals to fractions and percents
* Where simple machines can be found and what a compound machine is
* Haiku poetry with “Systems” as the topic
* Ordering decimals from least to greatest and vice versa
* The ERB test (feelings, time management skills, etc.)
* What a RAP session should be
* Exploring Little Earth
* Pleasure reading and responding (this week, we focused on interesting passages)
* Exploring systems!!
* Math mazes and what they had to do with decimals
* How to play Closest to 1
* How to be accountable for our behavior and responsibilities
* Our Energizer called Wink

Here are some photos of partnerships playing Closest to 1. We learned this game to practice adding decimal amounts and to think logically about numbers. Play it at home if you like! There are also photos of the students exploring different systems. We are inquiring into the simple machines that make up compound machines and how systems respond to change. (If you can’t see the photos, simply click on them to view them entirely…). Have a great weekend!

Dear Families:

This week, please have a conversation about…
* reading and responding (connection to a character) in only 30 seconds
* Haiku poetry
* the different sciences, examples of each, what a system is and the various types of different machines
* being safe on the Internet
* the restaurant menus we designed today and had fun investigating mathematical thinking with! (ask to see your child’s Numeracy Notebook)

On Monday, don’t forget your objects with a simple machine (or two) in them!

All the best for a happy, healthy weekend!