Halloween Parade!

Today our school was transformed by costume and decoration!! What a fabulous parade we had! We began by walking through the school, grade by grade, then filing outside, and finally parading into the Commons. The students had to guess the Faculty costume theme (Ice Cream Flavors) and then we finished with the "Monsters" song led by Mr. Bean. After the parade Second and Third Grades celebrated with their companion classes. Amazingly, all this happened by 9:30 AM! Please enjoy the photos, taken by our own Ean McGonigle.

This week students have been busy with Social Studies projects. The second grade continues to study Community. Last week the children had a wonderful field trip to Escobar's Farm and Corn Maze where they learned about rural community. After the visit, we learned about the letter writing process and worked on "thank you" letters for Farmer Escobar. In third grade, children worked on constructing salt dough maps of Mexico showing the topography of the country. In the weeks to come we will work on painting our maps, adding a map key, the oceans, and a compass rose.

Have a wonderful weekend, and a safe and festive Halloween!

Buddies

This week 3rd Graders partnered with 2nd Graders in our class and joined the 5th Grade for buddy time. Before buddying up, we had a class discussion about the article "Bullies Beware!" in the current issue of Time For Kids. As a group we talked about our experiences either being bullied or acting as a bully ourselves. We agreed that it is important to speak up if you see someone being bullied, even though it can be difficult to do so. Later, when we met with our 5th grade buddies, children discussed various bullying scenarios and how they might respond.

In reading groups this week 2nd Graders read Jamaica Tag Along by Juanita Havill. Students practiced making text-to-self connections, which is an important comprehension strategy. 3rd Graders read The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock by Bill Peet and continued to practice the comprehension strategy of visualization.

Using the mentor text Miss Tizzy by Libba Moore Gray, students brainstormed friends in their lives that they could write about in their journals. Next week we will choose one of these friends to write a piece about.

Next week we are looking forward to meeting with you all during Parent-Teacher Conferences. We will spend about 25-30 minutes with parents and then invite your child to join us for about 10-15 minutes. We find this to be an empowering way to engage children in their own learning and involve them explicitly in the process of examining their learning journeys.

Please contact us if you have any questions!

Have a great weekend!

Lee and Megan

Social Studies

Second and Third Graders have been working in integrated groups with their companion classes on theme-based Social Studies projects. In Second Grade, students are involved in a year-long study of "Community." Currently we are learning about our classroom and school communities. Children are working on making a "bird's eye view" map of our classroom. Thus far, they have sketched maps and added key details. Soon children will use these sketches to complete maps on the computer, complete with compass roses that they have individually designed. In addition, students have chosen a member from the school community to interview about how they help Friends Academy.

The year-long theme in Third Grade is the study of "World Cultures." Children have been learning about world maps, continents, and oceans. To begin, each student was asked to complete a blank world map and fill in any continents that they knew. This proved to be quite difficult for many! Afterwards, students were given the opportunity to consult various maps and atlases to learn more. In small groups, children worked on creating collaborative world maps, labeling the continents, oceans, and adding a compass rose. Soon, we will begin to focus in on Mexico, its geography and placement. Students will have the opportunity to work in small groups to make flat maps of Mexico and then salt-dough maps to highlight the country's topography.

Writing

This week children worked hard to publish their first writing piece! Next week, we will have a chance to share our pieces with the group from our "Author's Chair."

Ask Us About . . .

*Our Constellation groups.

*Sharing during Meeting.

*Closed Syllables.

*What is means to "visualize."

*Number words.

Dates To Remember:

*No School: Monday, 10/12 (Columbus Day)

*Parent Conferences: 10/21 &10/23 (Please sign up if you have not done so already.)

Have a GREAT long weekend!!

Readers, writers, and mathematicians!

This week, 2nd and 3rd graders have been immersing themselves in independent reading activity. Books of all genres can be found tucked in bright red reading folders, cradled in hands as children get cozy on pillows, shared between friends, and held up at meeting time as suggestions for others to read. Children have learned how to find a "just right" book using our lettering system as well as some rules of thumb. If a book has five or more words that they cannot read and/or they have difficulty recalling what they just read, a book is likely too difficult for independent reading purposes. The process of picking a book can be truly empowering, as children assert their opinions and interests. Routinely, our class discusses what we are each reading independently--even the teachers! In addition, children have the opportunity to recommend a book that they have read to others.

In Writer's Workshop, children have been learning about the editing process. This week we edited our writing for for capitalization at the beginning of sentences, capitalization of proper nouns, and punctuation at the end of a sentence. Utilizing mentor text, we discussed how "sight" and "sound" words can add interest to our stories. Children reread their writing and added sight and sound words to their sentences. We all agreed it made them much more interesting to read and easier to visualize!

The concept of visualization is one that we are exploring in our reading groups as well. Children are noting how descriptive words and phrases in the text that we are reading can help us to create a mental image and visualize what is happening in the books we are reading. This exercise of "visualization" leads to greater comprehension.

In math we have been continuing to enjoy our cognitive activity "What's my rule?" and students have begun to lead this activity themselves. In addition we have been studying graphs and their usefulness in examining data. Next week we will do some surveys and graph our results.

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, October 6th: Pizza Day!

Curriculum Overview Night

Wednesday, October 21st: Parent Conferences (after school)

Friday, October 23rd: Parent Conferences (No school for students)

Have a great weekend!