October 4, 2015

 Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library
October 5-9: Book Fair
Thursday, October 8: Coffee with Sara Rabbe in the library. Stop by from 7:45-8:15 and introduce yourself. Sara would love to make connections with our wonderful community!
October 12: No school
October 21: Late start. School starts at 8:40 on this day. Students are still welcome to come at 7:30 for breakfast.
October 26:  Author Jarrett J. Krosoczka  is coming to visit!

• Thanks to everyone who has sent in family photos. Our family wall is getting big! Please feel free  to send one in if you haven't yet. I would love to have a photo from every student on the wall. 

Students working on their projects.

 Literacy:
We read one of my favorite books this week! One, by Kathryn Otoshi is about acceptance and
courage. Everyone counts is the repeated phrase in the book. We spent several days reading the book and digging deep into the theme. We watched a video of children acting it out and we acted it out ourselves! Finally, we worked on a project to show how we were accepting to others. I'll get these projects hung up in the classroom this week. Taliah came up with a great quote about acceptance: That's the power of friendship!




There is a book fair this week at school! The dates are October 5-9. Feel free to send in money with your child in a labeled envelope. I will send your child down with an adult  to shop for books.


Math: Wow! We started working with number lines this week. I can't believe how well the students are doing with the tricky concept. We talked about the importance of showing your thinking in more than one way. We call this multiple pathways. The class has been solving story problems by making a representation using circles. But now, they have a second way to represent their thinking by using a number line.


Social Thinking: All of us have an engine. Are engines can be high, low or just right. Becoming aware of our engine, helps us become better learners. We can use our mindfulness techniques to calm an engine that is too high. We can take a movement break to wake up an engine that is too low. As a class, we have worked on engine sorts and now we are developing vocabulary to help describe how we feel when our engine is high, low, or just right.

Wellness: We had Officer Dave come in and talk about safety. He talked about the importance of knowing the names of your parents, phone number, and street address. I was impressed with how many students could answer all those questions! Thanks for coming in Officer Dave!