Friday, September 23, 2011
Dear Families,
I am so happy with how our classroom is shaping up. The entire class is really working so nicely together. They are being respectful of one another, responsible for themselves, and are working really hard. This week felt like we might be getting the hang of being back at school. I hope the end of your days at home are also becoming easier.
One part of our week that is working really well is our time with our kindergarten partners. This week, partnerships started work on a book titled: How We Are Alike. They drew pictures of themselves and their partners and then started to work on listing in words all the ways they look alike. Students are learning the difference between a scientific drawing and a free draw, ask them which this one was. There will be several pages of this book: How are our families alike? What are the things we both like to do? 4th graders have shown a lot of maturity and leadership while working with the kindergarteners.
I began our exploration of Vermont this week through several centers to familiarize the class with Vermont and some resources that are available. The class broke into 3 groups and explored a Vermont puzzle, our Vermont library, and worked on our Vermont bulletin board. We have also started to work on our Abenaki stories with Mrs. Belknap’s class.
We have read 6 books by Patricia Polacco, an incredible artist/author. Ask about the stories, how are they similar?
I hope you all have a great weekend. Remember, open house on Monday at 5pm.
Thanks,
Ali Hale
