Saturday, October 5, 2013

Enemy Pie


Dear Parents of Room 10,

            Transitioning during instruction and specials has been challenging for the children this week.  Moving from one subject to another without talking hasn’t been easy for them.  However, we will continue to practice and I will continue to have high expectations for behavior.  Please take the opportunity to chat with your child about appropriate classroom behavior.
            In writing our focus has moved to “Specials!”  The children have drafted their first essay based on a special person in their lives.  They will also be writing about a special place and special object.  These exercises are a good way to start as they give the children an opportunity to write about people, places and things they know a lot about.
            This week I began to determine the children’s reading levels using Fountas & Pinnell, the district-approved reading assessment.  As I have mentioned previously, each assessment takes between 20-30 minutes.  I have to say that, while I was working one-on-one with some students, the remainder of the class did a beautiful job working independently.
            In the crayfish unit this week, the children will be conducting experiments related to stimuli.  Some of the kids have enjoyed taking them out of their aquarium to play with them.  Others still haven’t quite warmed up to them.  Either way, the experiments continue.  This past week we played our first crayfish vocabulary game.  It’s a cross between Jeopardy and Family Feud.  They did well.  You should encourage the children to study their crayfish vocabulary throughout the week.  A quiz will be coming in a week or so.
            We met with our “Fluency Friends” on Thursday to work on reading fluency.  This is our focus for the school year.  The children have enjoyed working on reading fluency in our classroom with Readers’ Theatre and in Mrs. Bacher’s room with her 2nd graders.
            I am including a few pictures of the children as they listened to Mrs. Bonacquist read the story, Enemy Pie.  It’s always nice having Mrs. Bonacquist stop-by and read to the kids.  They are very attentive and engaged.




             This coming week in celebration of Farm to You Fest, the children will be enjoying a vegetable taste testing, compliments of Zoe’s mom.  Be sure to ask them what they enjoyed the most!
                                                                            Kind Regards, Lester B. and Class

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