from Gretchen

February 29, 2008

Math Workshop

We continued our temperature, time, and calendar routines, with Lexi leading these activities as our “beautiful assistant.” The books The Case of the Shrunken Allowance and A Quarter from the Tooth Fairy helped students better understand how money is used. Students have done a great job with addition with regrouping. We continue our weekly timed practice for addition 0 to 18. Math facts for adding to 7, 8, and 9 continue to be the source of the greatest number of mistakes. Please focus your daily practice on these math facts. Practice counting change would also be beneficial.

Book Clubs

This is what our groups worked on this week:

N-E-Ds: Dick and Jane and bl/gl/pl/cl .

Stars: The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat.

Stripes: Frog and Toad All Year and -oo/-ou.

Washingtons: The Adventures of Spider and -oo/-ou.

Lincolns: Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain and short/long -i patterns

Bald Eagles: The Adventures of Spider and short/long -i patterns. Science/Theme

Science/Theme

We started a new theme on grasslands, contrasting our American Great Plains and the African savanna. This week the students looked at the savanna characteristics and reveiwed world geography.

Stories

The students have been enjoying Joy Adams's book of 60 years ago, Born Free. My guess is that few of my parents are old enough to be familiar with this wonderful book and the movie that was made from it, although you have probably heard the movie's theme song. The Africa that Adams described is largely lost to us now, with the African animals she describes as abundant being endangered species now, and colonial rule long ago ended. At least the students will have some awareness of what we have lost, and what is now at risk as the continent struggles politically and economically. Born Free inspired my lifelong fascination with everything African, and I hope it opens doors to other worlds for your children as well.

Special and Noteworthy

Please keep in mind the performances of our skit next Friday and on March 10 at 12:45 PM, and on March 12 at 1:30 PM. Julie set up this plethora of performances to try to accommodate the schedules of parents. Please come.