2006-2007…Room 302—Newsletter 4…http://room302.blogspot.com
October 19, 2006
Dear Families,
The year seems to be going by so very quickly. We’re already planning the Halloween celebration, and I’m already thinking about that first round of report cards. I hope the school days are going well for your child. Here is the latest:
Substitute
I missed some work time the week before last, and I didn’t like it. I enjoy being here teaching your children. Judy was out of town, so I was a full time dad, and a part time teacher. Luckily, we were able to get two fantastic people to fill in.
I have started to do Developmental Reading Assessments with the students. This is where I sit down with the students, one at a time, and really try to figure out just what skills and strategies they use when they read. Knowing what they already do helps me figure out the next thing I can teach them. The other good thing about this is that it requires the rest of the class to read quietly by themselves, which is another useful skill.
Writing
During writing, we split into groups. The groups sit at a different table every day, and one day a week they do guided writing--we call it “special project”. Our first special project was making birthday cards for people. This was a chance to talk about purpose for writing, audience for the writing, and all the things that should happen when writing a card, including greeting, message, closing, decorations, and overall personalization of the card. I’d expect that you’d see some evidence of this when the children are making cards (birthday, thank-you, etc.) for people at home.
Math
Sometimes our afternoons are so full, that we move right into science. We usually do math first, so does that mean we skip math on those days? You can perhaps guess where I’m going with this: I’m concerned that students will think that we’re doing math only during “math” time and nowhere else. I used part of our time together the other day to point out all the ways we use math when we’re doing science. Math is simply a form of communication (like writing) that we use to communicate understanding about the world. When we want to be precise, we use numbers to quantify; but we can do math without numbers: He is heavier, she is taller, mine is longer, yours is higher are all examples of math without numbers. Any sort of pattern is math without numbers. Numbers could be used to quantify all these examples if they were real, but often we don’t need the numbers. I think it’s helpful for students to look beyond numbers when thinking about math. I think it can provide a different filter for their thinking, and I think it could help them avoid the perspective of “I’m not good in math.” If you think of it (next time you hear “I want more.” or “Can I stay up later?” or something similar) you could point out the many ways they use math every day.
Science
We began this science unit with the “balance” in Balance and Motion. Now we’re experimenting with motion. We’ve done a lot of work with spinning. Ask your child about the tops, zoomers, twirlers, wheels and axels they made.
Halloween Party
We’ll have an afternoon celebration on October 31, starting about
Chapter Book
We finished My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannet. Actually, the sub finished it while I was gone. L If your child is interested, there are two more books in that series: Elmer and the Dragon, and Dragons of Blueland. Our latest one is Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe.
Field Trip
We’re signed up to go to the Seattle Children’s Theater to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice by OyamO. We’re going with the other second grade class, leaving right away in the morning and returning to school about
Class Video
From time to time I video tape things that are happening at school. Then the students take turns taking the tape home to share. The tape should return to school the next day so the next person gets a chance; please help your child remember.
Email List
I’m hearing every now and then that people aren’t seeing this newsletter—the hard copy is not always making it home. If you’re one of those people, then you aren’t reading this. If you do happen to see the newsletter sometimes, and would like to get every copy via email, please make sure I have your email address. I currently have 12 families on the list.
Volunteers
We’re quite fortunate to have a number of parents helping out in the classroom this year. I know that not everyone can (I wish I could for my boys) but if you can and want to, there is still plenty of opportunity. Please let me know. We’d love to have you.
Calendar
| Friday, October 27—early release, | Tuesday, October 31—Halloween party, 1:30 |
| Friday, November 3—Science Fair, | |
Sincerely,
Jeff
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