Week of January 13-17, 2009

Hello,

We hae been having fun and learning hard! This week's blog will cover the following:

1. Academia and Standards

2. Special Events

3. Roots and Wings


Academia and Standards
Getting back into the swing of things with our newly formed more specific groups for Language Arts. A lot of children have moved up since the beginning of school and are continuing to excel. That said, we are very focused and crunched for time in order to get everything in during our hour long academia standards. We have also started to a library book check out program. One day a week, we go to the library so that I can do assessments. During this time, each child picks out a "just right" book to read during SSR (sustained silent reading) for the entirety of the week. During this time, they will also complete a book report. If they are bringing home their books, please make sure they bring them back to school. Reading to your child is great but more like entertainment and relaxation. Having your child read to you is wonderful wonderful practice and I highly encourage it. I have committed to finding the time, somehow, that each child will get a chance to read their library book to me. In Math, we are working on counting by 2's, number families, adding and subtracting, and word problems.
In Social Studies, we have been focusing on Martin Luther King and his day coming up. We've had so many wonderful discussions and read some really great books. They are, My Brother Marting, Martin's Big Words, and Ruby Bridges.


Special Events
We performed a poem entitled, You Can Be Like Martin, Yes You Can! at the all school Pow Wow. It was a great hit. It was particularly notable because many of our children who are emerging readers took on reading in front of the whole school. They learned courage and perseverance. Although, I had to extract one of them from hiding minutes before the performance. We also visited the upper grades wax museum and hall of scientists. On Thursday of next week, we will be going to a Classics 4 Kids concert. It costs $6 and if you can send that in, that would be groovy! A big Thank You to Judith, Jaime, and Roekmini for arranging and organizing the Friday envelopes. That is a HUGE help and much appreciated.

Roots and Wings
Many of you know, we are inserting positive discipline in our class. One of the mainstays of this theory is classroom meetings. We have been conducting those daily. The children work together to form a circle and are timed daily to see how efficient they are being. We have also been giving and receiving meaningful compliments. That means once you say a compliment such as, 'you are nice' you add on the reason why. So it becomes 'you are nice because you helped to do the Friday envelopes'. This gives the other reason more specific feedback on what others are enjoying about them.

I hope this blog has been informative and if you have any other questions or concerns, come on in, give a call, or drop an email.

Much Love,
Meital