IMPORTANT DATES:
October 10th: Columbus Day - NO SCHOOL (Here is a link to a Brainpop Jr. video about Columbus Day. You will find login info in the email I sent today.)
October 12th: Yom Kippur - NO SCHOOL
October 17th: ASCA begins
October 12th: Yom Kippur - NO SCHOOL
October 17th: ASCA begins
Please notify me in writing if you decide to enroll your child in the PTO's After School Creative Arts Program (ASCA) as this will affect dismissal plans. (Thank you to those who have already notified me). Please visit the ASCA site if you are interested in learning more or registering for classes.
October 19th: Picture Day - Coffee Pond will be at Memorial-Spaulding on 10/19 for picture day. Our class is signed up to have our individual and class pictures taken at 10:00. If you would like to pre-pay for an individual picture, please use either the order form sent home in your child's folder or you can order directly online. All children receive a complimentary class picture.
NEW NOTICES:
Wow words: Each Wednesday in our class is Wow Word Wednesday. Our Wednesday morning work is to write and decorate a Wow Word and we need your help with this. During the week, as you are reading and talking with your child, there will be words that are new to him/her. I encourage your children to inquire about these unfamiliar words and I would like you to do the same, as this is one way your child can be in control of his/her own learning. These new vocabulary words are wow words - words that they can teach the class so that we are all increasing our vocabulary! Please help your child to learn what these wow words mean (Here is a link to Merriam Webster for kids - Word Central). If it is helpful to your child to help learn these words, s/he can jot them down on the Wow Word worksheet in our child's folder. If your child encounters many wow words each week, feel free to have him/her write them on the sheet, but they will pick 1 word to teach us each week. Here is a link to the wow word worksheet in case you need a new one.
Buddies: Today, we met our 4th grade buddies in Ms. Fleming and Ms. Meredith's class and did paper crafts with them. We look forward to many fun encounters with them this year!
Photos: I would like to begin adding photos to the blog. These will be online, so if you have any objection to this, please let me know and I will make sure that your child is not included in any photographs. When including photographs, I will not label any photos, so names will not be attached to faces.
Wow words: Each Wednesday in our class is Wow Word Wednesday. Our Wednesday morning work is to write and decorate a Wow Word and we need your help with this. During the week, as you are reading and talking with your child, there will be words that are new to him/her. I encourage your children to inquire about these unfamiliar words and I would like you to do the same, as this is one way your child can be in control of his/her own learning. These new vocabulary words are wow words - words that they can teach the class so that we are all increasing our vocabulary! Please help your child to learn what these wow words mean (Here is a link to Merriam Webster for kids - Word Central). If it is helpful to your child to help learn these words, s/he can jot them down on the Wow Word worksheet in our child's folder. If your child encounters many wow words each week, feel free to have him/her write them on the sheet, but they will pick 1 word to teach us each week. Here is a link to the wow word worksheet in case you need a new one.
Buddies: Today, we met our 4th grade buddies in Ms. Fleming and Ms. Meredith's class and did paper crafts with them. We look forward to many fun encounters with them this year!
Photos: I would like to begin adding photos to the blog. These will be online, so if you have any objection to this, please let me know and I will make sure that your child is not included in any photographs. When including photographs, I will not label any photos, so names will not be attached to faces.
REMINDERS: (any new info added to these reminders is in bold. For those who follow weekly, this is the only newly added info here).
Cool Weather Dressing: As the days are getting cooler, please be sure to send your child with a jacket or sweatshirt, if necessary.
Parent Volunteers: Thank you so much to those who have helped out already and those who have offered to volunteer! It truly takes a village! If you are interested and available to volunteer with in-school tasks (such as photocopying, laminating and cutting materials, organizing materials, fixing classroom library books, etc.) and/or out-of-school tasks (such as helping with the Scholastic Book Order, helping to organize our classroom library by labeling books, picking up photos for our class from CVS, etc.) please email me to let me know. Thanks!!
Late Morning Snack: Thank you to all who have been sending these in! Your children are much happier during the late morning/early afternoon. Here is the original message for those who missed it: Please begin sending in a second, small, non-messy snack (such as a small apple, cheese stick, etc.) to eat during the late morning during a work time. The children eat lunch at 1:10 and have been getting very hungry around noon, so we are going to add this snack to hopefully fend off the hungry horrors! Please distinguish their early morning snack from their late morning snack so that they are clear which is which.
Responsive Home Workshop: The Social and Emotional Learning Department of the Newton Public Schools will be sponsoring Responsive Home Workshops for families to help you create a calm, supportive and encouraging environment at home. This workshop goes hand in hand with the Responsive Classroom work that we are doing in the classroom. Although I have never attended one of these workshops, I have attended a week-long Responsive Classroom workshop with the presenter, Amy Kelly, and it was phenomenal! I am planning to put on my mom-hat and attend one of these workshops myself just to see what it is all about!
Water bottles: Please send your child with a full water bottle with a sport cap each day (such as this water bottle or this water bottle.) I ask that you do not send in open top bottles if at all possible because they tend to spill and can ruin paper-based school materials. Water bottles will be kept in the classroom for your child to stay hydrated throughout the day.
Pick-up: For dismissal, please stand on the RIGHT side of door 19 as you are looking at the school so that your child will be able to see you through the front windows nearest the corner of the school. As there are 2 classrooms dismissing from the same door at the same time, we have decided that our class will exit through the right door and Ms. Patteson's class will dismiss from the left door. I will have children who see their pick-up person line up, say goodbye to me and then they will be dismissed. If they do not see you, they will stay in the art room until they see you through the window. This will help to ensure everyone's safety. If someone other than those reading this are going to pick up your child, please share this with those individuals as well. Thanks!
CURRICULUM UPDATE:
Responsive Home Workshop: The Social and Emotional Learning Department of the Newton Public Schools will be sponsoring Responsive Home Workshops for families to help you create a calm, supportive and encouraging environment at home. This workshop goes hand in hand with the Responsive Classroom work that we are doing in the classroom. Although I have never attended one of these workshops, I have attended a week-long Responsive Classroom workshop with the presenter, Amy Kelly, and it was phenomenal! I am planning to put on my mom-hat and attend one of these workshops myself just to see what it is all about!
Water bottles: Please send your child with a full water bottle with a sport cap each day (such as this water bottle or this water bottle.) I ask that you do not send in open top bottles if at all possible because they tend to spill and can ruin paper-based school materials. Water bottles will be kept in the classroom for your child to stay hydrated throughout the day.
Pick-up: For dismissal, please stand on the RIGHT side of door 19 as you are looking at the school so that your child will be able to see you through the front windows nearest the corner of the school. As there are 2 classrooms dismissing from the same door at the same time, we have decided that our class will exit through the right door and Ms. Patteson's class will dismiss from the left door. I will have children who see their pick-up person line up, say goodbye to me and then they will be dismissed. If they do not see you, they will stay in the art room until they see you through the window. This will help to ensure everyone's safety. If someone other than those reading this are going to pick up your child, please share this with those individuals as well. Thanks!
CURRICULUM UPDATE:
In reading we:
- Read The School Mouse by Dick King Smith.
- Are reading and reading and reading independently.
- Used sticky notes to show our thinking while reading.
- Continued summarizing stories with somebody...wanted...but...so...then. Please continue to work with this framework at home to help your child summarize books that s/he is reading.
- Reviewed reviewed rules for the /k/ sound
- Use k before e, i or y (e.g. kite, kit, or key)
- Use ck at the end of words immediately following a short vowel (e.g. sock or back)
- Began practicing our handwriting in our handwriting books
In writing we:
- Continued our work on writing small moment stories.
- Began learning from the masters - Jane Yolen and Angela Johnson. Our mentor texts for this unit are Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson. These books are both stand-outs in children's literature and will help to teach us about great small moment stories.
- Are learning that authors often get their ideas from events that occur in their lives. To help us remember meaningful moments in our lives, we each received a tiny topic notebook. These notebooks will go to and from school in your child's folder and are a place for your child to jot down meaningful moments that s/he may want to turn into a Small Moment story for writing. If you notice a meaningful moment, please note it with your child. You could say something like, "That was such a meaningful moment. That would make a great Small Moment story." and suggest that s/he jot it on the tiny topic notebook.
- Played Snap-It and Build a Floor to work on number combinations.
In Science we:
- Began germinating our seeds to observe how they grow.
Our school social worker, Ms. Mazur, has been coming in weekly to provide mindfulness lessons to the class. We have learned:
- Mindful bodies - when your body is ready to listen and learn. Mindful bodies are still and have eyes looking at the speaker, a straight trunk or core, listening ears and a brain that is attending to the information presented.
- Mindful listening - with a mindful body, close your eyes, breathe, and listen to the sounds around you.
- Mindful breathing - when you pick an anchor spot in your body where you can feel you breath and focus on that area for a period of time while breathing. This anchor spot can be anywhere, such as your chest, belly, nose, etc. Ms. Mazur explained that your brain is always moving, so by paying attention to your anchor spot, you can help your thoughts be still, just like an anchor helps the boat be still. We have been taking "a minute of mindful anchor breathing" at various points throughout the day. When we check in about the effects, your children are saying things like:
- I felt very calm.
- My brain felt calm.
- I felt like my brain was growing.
- My whole body felt super-duper calm.
- My anchor spot was calm and it made my brain nice and calm.
- I feel calm and curious.
- It made me forget where I am.
