Week of October 18th

After 3 short weeks in a row, I look forward to a couple of full weeks of school with the kids. Then, amazingly, it will be time for fall parent/teacher conferences. I have yet to figure out how time moves so quickly.

We continued our focus on multiplication in math. We moved from 2 x 1 and 3 x 1 digit to multi-digit multiplication. We taught several methods (area model, standard algorithm, and partial products) with the hope that your child can find one in which to be comfortable computing products. I will continue giving the kids fluency practice as we move into division next week. This concept can be a bit of a struggle for some learners so preaching practice and patience is a good approach.

We are over halfway through with our Land and Water science unit. Our first experiment this week concentrated on the affect flow has on a stream. We conducted our typical experiment but increased the size of the hole that releases the water onto the soil. We then moved from how does water affect land to how does land affect water. We did this by adding rocks to our soil and observed the path the stream channel took as it encountered each rock. Next week, we will look at dams and possibly get to the point of planting grasses in our tables to observe how vegetation affects erosion.

We spent time in writing this week working on introductions. We studied published leads and discussed ways in which we can pull the reader into our stories by the use of specific language. We wrote multiple leads with the idea that we can choose the best one and use it moving forward. Shortly, we will take all the pieces that we have written to date and work on adding transitions in order to put them into a coherent story. Our reading this week focused on using precise language to talk about characters. The importance of getting to the heart of a character and articulating what the particular actions or words of a character truly reveal about that character. It's much like solving a puzzle, receiving one clue at a time from the author.

We had a great opportunity to learn about watersheds from SCARCE this week. If you haven't yet, you should check out the pictures on my photos tab. We also had the third of four Fall session on mindfulness. I thought the orientation for Outdoor Ed was well attended and hopefully answered some of your, and your child's, questions. Please don't hesitate to ask me anything that you might be unsure about or want more information on, I am happy to provide any answers that I can.

I hope you all enjoy the weekend. It looks like the weather might cooperate, hopefully you can get outside to walk or ride or play with your child before the freezing cold comes :-)