November 11: Veterans Day (No School)

November 13: First trimester report cards go home

November 20: Thanksgiving of Cultures Event (in class, 1:10 - 2:30 pm; see email from Nichole Andre)

November 23-27: Thanksgiving Break (No School)

Click here for the yearlong school calendar

Thank you to Tiwaah Amakye (Zach's mom) for stepping up to the role of being our Project Cornerstone parent! She came in last Thursday for our first Project Cornerstone lesson. She read a book called Capybara is Friends with Everyone which tells the story of a friendly animal who wants to be friends with everyone, but learns that being a good friend means more than just being kind and welcoming. It also means respecting others’ feelings, personal space, and boundaries. Be sure to ask your child how he or she will apply what was learned from the lesson!

This week we will wrap up our Earth Science unit with more learning about stars and constellations. We will also review the unit using a study guide that students will keep in their homework folders. 

Students will take the Earth science assessment at the end of this week. Please remind your child to study for this test by reviewin the study guide. The results of this assessment will be in next week's Thursday envelope. 

If you would like to extend student learning at home, consider trying this home school connection activity.

Last week, we began working on an informational essay focused on voting rights. The essay responds to the prompt: “How have voting rights changed since the creation of the Constitution?” Students have been reading articles from our nonfiction Benchmark magazine and learning about key events in our nation’s journey to ensure the right to vote for all citizens. This week, they will listen to portions of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s famous speech to Congress about the Voting Rights Act.

Here are some questions you can ask your child to spark conversation about this topic:

• In the early days of our country, who decided who could vote? Who was generally allowed to vote?

• What did the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments say about African Americans and their right to vote?

• What was the Voting Rights Act?

• How did women earn the right to vote? 

• Has the minimum voting age always been 18?

Students have already written the introduction paragraphs to these essays and have planned the body paragraphs. This week we will continue writing the body paragraphs and conclusion.

Last Friday, you received a copy of your child’s scored "travel pitch" essay. The essay represents what your child considered to be their final draft following numerous whole-class writing lessons and teacher feedback throughout the drafting process. At the end of last week, students had an opportunity to revisit their essays in Google Docs and make additional revisions based on the final feedback they received. Please take some time to review both your child’s essay and the scored rubric together. Please celebrate their strengths and accomplishments while also discussing areas where they can continue to grow and improve as writers.

Great Postcard Race Update: Thank you to Blake for bringing in a postcard from Kansas! We have finished the race in second place! Stay tuned for a party to celebrate! 

This year, we will participate in the San Jose Sharks Reading is Cool program, which runs from October to March. Students will track the number of minutes they read each month on a log, and then I will report our class’s total minutes read each month to the program. Sharkie will come visit the top classrooms each month! I will also give one student award each month based on either total minutes read, variety of books read, most improved reader, greatest effort made in reading workshop, or other criteria. Being a part of this program also comes with two complimentary Sharks tickets and coupons to ice skate at Sharks Ice for each student. If you are interested in these complimentary tickets and coupons, please let me know via email, and I will place them in your child's Thursday envelope this week. 

Our next social studies unit focuses on learning about the seven major tribes of the United States: the Northwest Coast, California Intermountain, Southwest, Plateau, Great Plains, and Eastern Woodlands, and Southeast Native Americans. For each of these tribes, they will learn about the tribe's shelter, living environment, food sources, customs, transportation, plants and animals, and more. To facilitate their learning, students will organize the information learned in a creative way with a flip book, as well as play some class games.

For the next six weeks, our reading workshop time will involve students being in literature circles! Our class will be divided into five groups, and each group will be reading a different novel. The five novels for this round of literature circles are Walk Two Moons, Shiloh, Rules, Holes, There's an Owl in the Shower, and Frindle. I have broken each book into seven sections, so there will be seven meetings for each group. Before each group meeting, students will read independently and take on different roles in preparing for the group discussion. Students will rotate through taking one of the following roles: discussion director, creative connector, setting surveyor, word wizard, and illuminating illustrator. In each meeting, students will share their thoughts about the section they read through the lens of their role. Be sure to ask your child what literature circle group he or she is in!

We have PE weekly on Tuesday mornings from 8:20 - 9:05 am with Ms. Wickemeyer's class.  On Tuesdays, please make sure your child is wearing shoes in which they can run. I also recommend a hat and an extra water bottle for hot days. 

We will have Music every other week beginning August 17 on Monday mornings from 9:00-9:50 am.  On those same weeks, we will also visit our school library on Mondays from 9:55-10:15 am. We have Art on the alternate weeks (the weeks that we don't have Music) on Monday mornings from 9:30 - 10:20 a.m. beginning the week of August 24. 

This year, we will be managing some assignments and hand outs (such as study guides) on Google Classroom. Students will learn how to access Google Classroom this week. Please take some time to have your child login also from a home device and then please bookmark that page so that you will be to access it quickly when needed!

If you are looking for books for your family's library, please consider ordering from Scholastic Books. You can have books shipped directly to your home or to school. Every order earns points for our class, and points help us grow our classroom library. When using the Scholastic website, our class activation code is GKMNT. Place an order of $25 or more and you can pick a FREE $5 book (use code READS at checkout). Here is an online flyer.