Good Afternoon,
I hope all of you had a safe and fun filled evening last night. My wife and I met up with some friends and enjoyed the beautiful weather and walking around downtown Waterbury. There is something that warms the heart when you see the innocence of childhood at its best.
Today marked Sloane's last day with us until the spring. As many of you know, Sloane and her family are headed west for a 5 month journey. She will be missed while she is gone but we will be excited to see her again in the spring.
As I have mentioned, at the start of the year, our social studies curriculum has us focusing on traditions and celebrations this year. This past week, the class has been focusing on the tradition of carving pumpkins and other traditions that they do during the Halloween time. The students all created a sheet about their traditions as they celebrate this time (or how others celebrate it). It was a way to allow them to talk about their exciting things but still keep it in the world of academic focus. The kids writing pieces are hung up in the library area of our classroom. You will get to see them during our parent conference. On Tuesday, we teamed up with our 5th & 6th grade buddy classroom to carve pumpkins and even tried eating some of the roasted seeds. Our Read Alouds all focused on pumpkins, the harvest and the celebration of Halloween.
This week's Global Read Aloud book was Built to Last by Minh Le. In this book "two friends are brought together with a “BANG” when they bump into each other, knocking over the block towers they were working on. The children, who both have warm beige skin and short black hair, leave their individual projects aside to let their imaginations run wild as they create together. The results are spectacular, if prone to disaster: Their Great Wall is dismantled by a Chinese lion, their lantern-lit boat is capsized by a dragon, and a monster levels their "cityscape." Still, the friends seem to find as much joy in the destruction as the building of each new structure. Then they start a new construction, one meant to “stand the test of time.” When this, too, collapses, the friends find themselves at an impasse. Can they find a way forward together? Readers will have fun comparing the fantastical worlds the friends occupy with the cardboard-and-tape reality in which they are actually working." After I read the book, Mr. Mongeon led the kids through a project where they were creating there own structures and then had to work together to come up with one that the teams of two could agree on. They used graph paper to map out these structures.
NOTES:
*There is no school this coming Monday or Tuesday.
*Parent conferences will be November 13th & 14th. A few of you still have not signed up. Please let me know if you don't plan on signing up for a slot.
That is all for now. I hope you have a great weekend. Don't forget to set your clock back!
Peace,
Mr. Young
 |
| The student work from Week 3 Global Read Aloud, Lift |
