Week of October 30

Dear Parents –

We have an exciting week ahead with many special events to celebrate. 

Our Mini Academies are on Monday.  Many thanks to the parents who volunteered to lead an activity.  This is always a highlight and our children love being able to learn from our parents. 

We also have our Halloween Dress-up Day on Tuesday.  Students are allowed to come to school wearing costumes; however, in order to be sensitive to our diverse beliefs and cultures, we ask you to be mindful of the following guidelines:  No masks, blood, weapons, or scary costumes.  

We will spend part of our day learning more about Halloween as part of our yearlong social studies unit on Celebrations.  We’ll take a look at the purpose and history of Halloween, some common traditions, symbols, colors, and other interesting facts about the holiday. 

We end our week with our Deepavali celebration.  This is a wonderful opportunity for students to learn more about the purpose, traditions, and different aspects of this festival.  Our class will visit the Deepavali activities in the hallway in front of the Studio from 10:00 – 10:20, and will watch a performance in our Studio at 11:00.  Parents are welcome to join us.  We hope to see you there!

Here’s a peek at our week ahead:

Monday, Oct. 30 (Day 2) – Music and PE

Tuesday, Oct. 31 (Day 3) – World Language

Wednesday, Nov. 1 (Day 4) – Art and PE (Swimming)

Thursday, Nov. 2 (Day 5) – Library and World Language

Friday, Nov. 3 (Day 6) – Music and PE

Reader’s Workshop

This week we will continue to work on our fluency while also learning how to read for meaning.  We’ll take a look at the character’s actions and words to help us determine how the character might be feeling at different times throughout the story.  We will also continue practicing reading dialogue and changing our voices to fit the character’s voices and moods. 

Writer’s Workshop

In our Writer’s Workshop we are learning how to write like scientists.  We continue learning how to write different parts of a lab report.  Our focus has been, and will continue to be, how to write the procedures of an experiment.  This week we will also focus on how to write about the results of the experiment and write the conclusion.

Science

We continue to learn about the states of matter through simple science demonstrations and experiments, and through readings.  This week students will be placed in an expert group to learn more about one state of matter, either solid, liquid, or gas.  Each group will read books and articles to help them learn more about their state of matter.  We will be in the lab at the end of the week to conduct our first scientific investigation. 

Math

This week we continue to practice solving story problems and using strategies to show our thinking.  Our focus this week will be on solving addition story problems with an unknown change within 20.  At the end of the week we will take a look at addition problems with an unknown start.  Throughout the week, students will have many opportunities to practice solving a variety of story problems and recognize the key words that tell them to add. 

Dinner Questions

What are the traits of a scientist?

What does it mean to read fluently?

Tell me about how scientists write?

What strategies can you use to solve word problems?