And We're Back!

We're already back into the swing of things after the break. I hope you and your family had a lovely time and got to relax if you were able to have a vacation that matched the school holiday! My husband, son and I went to Malaysia and enjoyed the beautiful ocean. It is nice to be back with the children and hear all about the connections to our curriculum that they made over the break!

On Sunday we planted seeds that we will nurture and hopefully help grow into large bean plants. We will check on them every day and see if we need to give them water and/or more sunlight.

We are continuing with our math focus of measurement and will tie this into our Unit of Inquiry as our plants begin to grow and we see what measurement tells us about how our plants are doing. We've done many activities that help us understand how to accurately measure using various tools. 

Reminders:

• Halloween Carnival: This Friday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Please check the Shamachar note  regarding ticket sales as tickets will not be sold at the door.
  
• Swimming: Our last swimming session for this quarter is tomorrow (Wednesday). Please make sure your child brings his gear.
  
• Home Extension Activities: Please make sure to check your child's backpack every Monday for her packet and help her to return it on Sunday. I have created a page called "Home Extension" at the top of the blog with this week's activities. Please check here if you loose the paper with instructions.

We Are Authors!

We spend time daily during writer's workshop discussing authors and the process they go through when writing books. Our current focus is on "how-to" books that teach others how to accomplish something. Today two of our teammates published their very first books! As authors we write for the purpose of sharing with others, so authors Iris and Shanza shared their books with the class:

How to Make a Rainbow by Iris Whittingham

How to Do Swimming by Shanza Chowdhury

Reading Strategies Page

Check out the page above called "Reading Strategies"!

How-To Books

In writer's workshop we have been learning all about informational, "how-to" books, which tie in nicely with our Unit of Inquiry. We have learned that sometimes authors want to teach others how to do something. They organize their writing in a special way with steps and easy-to-follow text with accompanying pictures. We are trying out this genre of writing ourselves as we write our own "how-to" books on topics of which we are 'masters'.

We explored the idea of a 'process' by remembering how we made cinnamon toast to connect our senses Unit of Inquiry with our plant Unit. Thinking through the steps of this activity and writing them down was a great way to solidify our learning.

Last week and this week we have explored our new Unit focused on plants. We have examined plants closely and recorded our findings like scientists. Today we did an experiment in class that encouraged us to observe and predict. We will observe again tomorrow and post our findings, and then when we return from break we will practice being botanists as we grow our own plants!

Seeds, fruits and vegetables needed!!

We want to do some scientific observations in our classroom and need your help at home! Please help your child find several different kinds of fruit or vegetables s/he can bring into class. We will use these to dissect and examine. In addition, we are looking for all sorts of seeds. Please do not go out and purchase these seeds; rather, encourage your child to look around and find them in the natural environment (food, outside...)

We would like to use these items beginning Wednesday, so if you can help your child collect them before then it would be much appreciated. Thank you for your ongoing support!