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Classroom
Letters
April
23, 2008
Dear
K/1 Parents,
Can
you believe how incredible the musical was?
I am so proud of each and every student at TLC!
I am also extremely thankful to be working within a
community of people who can put all of their talents and
energies together to help support students with this kind of
endeavor. Thank
you all SO MUCH!
Here
is a bit of what we have been up to lately.
Language
Arts:
Taking
a hard look at our stories; revising, editing and making
preparations to share in the Author’s Party
Enjoying poetry. Students
are working to view a common object in a new and different way.
Reviewing basic punctuation rules.
Math
Kindergarten:
The Kindergartners have been learning how to solve
addition problems using different strategies all year long.
This past week we have been playing the game “High
Roller” to practice the strategy of counting. We
also worked with function machines to explore relationships
between two groups of numbers.
The students apply a rule (such as +1) to a group of
“input” numbers to produce “output” numbers.
We made this fun by using a shoe box as our function
machine and using plastic fish to represent our numbers.
First
Grade:
The
first graders have been working with money!
We have been counting combinations of quarters, dimes,
nickels and pennies and finding out how to make a dollar with
these coins. We
have also been writing amounts of money in dollars and cents
notation, as well as comparing various amounts of money.
The students enjoyed “shopping” in our school store
and finding the correct coins to “buy” various objects.
We have also been working with base-10 blocks to
familiarize the students with place value in 3-digit numbers.
They are developing the understanding that 10 tens
equal 100.
Social
Studies:
The
class loved hearing about the Spanish conquistadors.
We learned about Hernando Cortes, Pizarro, and
Montezuma. The
students were also excited to add drawings to their social
studies journals.
·
We
are looking forward to some exciting lessons about modern-day
Mexico with Ms. Niki.
Science:
We
hopped into our spaceship and enjoyed traveling among the
stars and planets.
The class enjoyed having Maggie Anixter share stories about
the constellations.
TEAM:
We
are working on remembering to use our words instead of facial
expressions to get our messages across to each other.
April
23, 2008
C.A.T.
testing is finishing this week and we will soon be back to a
regular morning schedule. We
have some great activities planned and exciting field studies
as well! We will
be spending a morning at the Colburn Museum in Asheville, a
day in Charlotte at the children’s museum, and a day showing
the K-1 students all about camping at Montreat! Please
check for some important dates in your upcoming Wednesday
folders.
Writer’s
Workshop:
We
have been working on our alphabet books. This mini unit
emphasizes the design elements of a picture book. We
are discussing fonts, illustration placement, and themes. There
are many creative ideas floating around the 2/3 room. It
will be fun to see what they come up with.
The
other big challenge for the class will be to decide what to
read for our final Author’s Party. They
all have many finished pieces to choose from.
Reader’s
Workshop:
We
have been researching types of alphabet books to glean ideas. As
Gennie Bassett noted, “We are reading like writers today!”
Science
Workshop:
Dirt
paint, felting and papermaking are the basis for our
scientific discoveries and explorations this last quarter.
This unit will set a strong stage for next year’s science
fair projects. I want the students to see the possibilities
for finding science in all kinds of areas.
TEAM:
The
musical was such a great opportunity for us to practice the
TEAM skills we have been working on this year. Learning
to share the attention of the adults that were helping was a
big lesson in awareness that “Everyone is Important”. I
heard many “Appreciations” to the helpers in the play, as
well as comments about how great we all looked in our
costumes!
Please
call or e-mail if you have any questions, concerns, or
suggestions. I appreciate all the feedback I have had so far.
Ms.
Rhea
Mr. Tom and Ms. Tonya’s Wednesday Letter
April 23, 2008
Dear
Family and Friends of TLC,
Please
fill out the enclosed permission slip for the Hands On Atlanta
volunteer program in which the 4/8 students will participate
on the class trip, and return it in your Wednesday folder.
What’s
Going On in 4/8 Language Arts:
-
Making
“dummy” books for our fairy tales.
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Studying
the relationship between text and illustrations.
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Three
different types of illustrations: symmetrical, enhancing
and contradictory.
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Navigating
the story in wordless picture books.
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Disrupting
the text: studying well-known picture books by separating
illustrations and text to consider them individually.
-
Book
studies: Call it Courage, The Little Prince, and Kneeknock
Rise are finishing up this week.
What's
Going on in Social Studies:
-
4/8
students are creating their own class murals of 20th
century artists in an art mural timeline.
-
Researching
famous art movements and different art mediums: painting,
film, music, dance, sculpture, etc.
What’s Going On in 4/5 TEAM:
Last week we had a great meeting in which we welcomed Mr. Tom
back from the musical. We talked about what a great job the
4/5 had done at becoming independent with routines and
procedures in the room. We wrapped it up with a challenging,
yet successful, TEAM game where we had to work together to
hold a long flexible rod (a long tent pole) stretched out
across our finger tips. Each student used one finger. IT IS
NOT AS EASY AS IT SOUNDS. We learned a lot about working as a
group and how to encourage others.
What’s Going On in 6/8 TEAM:
We
played cooperative games like “Elbow Tag” and “Pass the
Bucket” to practice working together to reach a common goal.
We also had a TEAM discussion about talking it out in
the “real world” with the help of the picture book, Why
War is Not the Answer.
Several Warren Wilson students came to our middle
school to show the movie, New Orleans Now. The
class discussed the lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina, as
well as what people could do to make a difference.
Please email us anytime at tonya@thelearningcommunity.org
or tom@thelearningcommunity.org
if you have any questions, concerns, or just to say, “hello.
Have a great week!
Ms.
T. and Mr. Tom
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