Hero or Criminal?

In Math Workshop today, students worked in their collaborative learning groups in effort to tackle a high level real world problems regarding perimeter.  This task requires multiple steps, use of tools, as well as precision.  Students will work together to be precise in their measurements and calculations.

Today was the last day for students to publish their personal narratives in Writers' Workshop. Personal narratives will come home by tomorrow, at the latest.

In Read Aloud, students use context and their mental movies to identify unknown words and determine their synonyms and antonyms.

In Word Study, students played "Letter Spin".  Tomorrow we will have a Word Study Challenge, where students will be asked to write sentences which include words from Word Study lessons. We use challenges to make sure students are being held accountable for lessons and to ensure transfer. At dinner or in the car tonight, have your child try to spell the following words (remind them of to use what they know from Word Study lessons): field, receiver, inferring, emergencies, strategies, birthdays.

In Readers' Workshop, students took on more responsibility regarding explaining the effectiveness of their evidence. As an aside, research indicates that writing about reading works to ensure comprehension and foster critical thinking.  As such, we spend time in Readers' Workshop learning how to effectively communicate our thinking through writing, in our notebooks. See a few snapshots from students' readers' notebooks below.

Students visited Reading Beaver Block today.  Ask them what they worked on in their classroom!

This past week in Social Studies, students examined the story of Christopher Columbus.  We studied an informational video from the European point of view and then closely read Encounter, a picture book representing the Native American point of view.  Students took on either point of view and created portraits of Columbus, with a headline indicating their viewpoint (see a collection of our projects below).  In Social Studies, students learn to read, analyze, and question stories with a critical eye to ensure they are learning the full story.  Ask your child, is Columbus a hero or criminal?  Have them explain their thinking using evidence from the text or video.

Homework:

• Math homework tonight, remind your child to be precise!
• Read 20 minutes 

Reminders:

• Students earned lunch in the classroom tomorrow, and are allowed to wear pajamas to school.
• Math Test Sign & Returns due tomorrow.
• Conferences are Monday, November 3.

Classroom Supplies:

• Sticky Notes

Thank you,

Ms. Smith