Hi Core 2 families,
Exhibition is coming up and I wanted to let you know all of the details! Exhibition is going to be held April 8th (Tues/ Fri Cohort) and April 10th (Mon/ Thurs Cohort) from 5-7pm. Your child will be responsible for presenting their insect experiment for 25 minutes and their insect storybook for 25 minutes (for a total of 50 minutes in the classroom presenting). They will also have 50 minutes to explore exhibitions happening in other classrooms. We will all meet back in the classroom for a short concert at the end of the night (6:45pm). My goal for this Exhibition is for the students to speak clearly and confidently about both their insect experiment and storybook. It would be helpful if you spent some time having conversations with your child about what an entomologist does, how they used the scientific method when doing their experiment, how they used pre-writing to plan their storybook, and what kind of insect adaptations they learned about and included on their storybook fact page. They will be expected to present both their storybook and their experiment on their own, and therefore will need some practice answering these questions in order to feel successful on Exhibition night. The students are eager to share all that they have learned about insects! This is going to be a very fun and exciting night! Let me know if you have any questions about Exhibition, There is a dress code for Exhibition: Hello Lovely Core 2 Families, Today was the beginning of Spring Student Led Conferences, and we have gotten off to a great start! I am continually impressed with how much progress all of the students have made since the beginning of the year, but I am especially excited to hear them so eloquently share all of the things we have been learning about. The level of confidence and knowledge has definitely skyrocketed! I wanted to take a minute to share some of the writing strategies that I have been using in class, specifically with regards to editing. I am really trying to build a love of writing in the students, and for this reason, we do not edit every single thing that we write. This means that there are times when we write and I do not tell them how to spell words, and we do not edit or write a final draft. This is done to build their confidence in their own ability to write, and not make them feel like they always have to make their writing “perfect.” We also do writing projects where the student is expected to write and then edit their own writing. This is also done to help them build confidence in their own ability to write, and not rely on an adult to tell them what they have done right or wrong. I have found that they really like having a checklist so that they can work on this step independently. Here is the Editing Checklist that we use in class: The students are very comfortable using this checklist, so you might find that it is a productive thing to use at home as well. You can also experiment with creating one with your child that targets the specific skills that they are working on, as these can be a bit different for each kid. Sometimes we even create editing checklists that are for specific projects, such as this one, that we made for our insect fact page: They really like to have some say in what goes into the checklist as it feels more like their decision, and less like a list of rules that you are imposing on them.
I would recommend trying this out, especially if you have been struggling to figure out how to edit happily at home. Let me know how it goes! Announcements: Hair Cut-a-thon to Support DVIA! Sun, 3/23 | 10am-2pm @ True Beauty Parlor in Redondo Beach | 1503 Aviation Blvd: True Beauty Parlor is generously donating 100% of all proceeds from this event to DVIA! Cuts or Blowdries: $20 (or $30 for a cut & dry). Kids cuts are $15. Make an appointment on Sign-Up Genius or just walk in. We also need volunteers to bake goodies, check people in and run the bake sale. Please use this link to volunteer. Please share this information with everybody you know! Spirit Day & Pizza Lunch: Thurs, 3/27 & Fri, 3/28 Happy Wednesday Folks! A number of you came to one of the Work Journal meetings and were able to join in our mini workshop about how to create varied and challenging math word problems. For those of you that were unable to attend, I wanted to give you the resources that we were working with. The first is a classification chart that shows all of the different types of addition and subtraction word problems that you can create for your child. I would recommend studying this chart, and trying some of these out. Obviously, these are just examples and can be changed to fit the student's skill level and interests. The other aspect of word problems that we discussed, was how to get children talking about math. This handout is full of questions to ask your child while they work on a word problem to help them build new strategies, share their thinking, and extend their thinking: I hope that these resources are helpful! I also want to touch on a type of word problem that we have started to work on in class. One of their geometry standards addresses the very important idea of partitioning. The first grade standard is: Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of,fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares. This is an important standard because it is a precursor to really understanding the concept of fractions. One way to work on building this concept, while also using the students prior knowledge is through partitioning word problems. Here is an example: 4 children want to share 5 candy bars so that everyone gets the same amount. How much candy bar can each child have? This type of problem creates a situation where the child is using a skill that they have already been developing (how to share something equally) to build the concept of partitioning a rectangle into quarters. The thing I noticed when working on this problem with the Tues/ Fri group is that it led right into interesting conversations about different ways to partition the candy bar, and ideas about whether all of the candy bars need to be partitioned, or just the last one. I recommend that you try this type of problem with your child, and see where the conversation leads :) Examples: Four children want to share 10 brownies so that everyone gets exactly the same amount. How much brownie can each child have? There are 5 tortillas for 3 children who would like to share so that everyone gets the same amount. How much tortilla can one person have? Let me know if you have any questions about math word problems! Announcements: Student Led Conferences are going to be held on March 18th and 19th. Here is the link to the Sign Up Genius where you can sign up for a time slot for your child. SLC's are an opportunity for your child to share their experience in the classroom, reflect on their learning, and set learning goals. Please sign up for one 45 minute block of time, there will be up to 4 families in each block. I hope you have a wonderful week, and please let me know if you have any questions!
Robin |
AuthorWelcome to Robin's Core 2 Blog! Archives
February 2017
Categories |