Ms. Hartshorn’s Classroom News
March 28, 2008
Dear Families,
I enjoyed meeting with you to discuss and celebrate your child’s accomplishments, and chat about ways we can continue to encourage growth for your child. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to join me. If you have not signed up for a conference yet, and would like one, I’m available—just give me a call at school at 496-3742, ext. 122 or email me and we can set up something.
Four Winds focused on OWLS this week. Sarah Nussbaum and Jennifer Mead joined us for this lesson, and helped us learn about the owls in our own backyards, the variety of calls they make, and their nocturnal habits. The puppet show and slide show were great fun, but the highlight of the lesson was actually delving full force into the owl pellets and finding the undigested bones and fur of tiny critters, such as voles that were once the meals of a hungry owl. Several children found jaw bones with tiny teeth intact! It was very cool! Special thanks to Sarah for the amazing "owl eye" cookies—what a treat to end the lesson with.
Loree Silvis joined the second grade math group this week, and gave each child a square piece of paper and said "Divide this paper in half as equally as you can." After much work on halves, and the characteristics of them, this lesson was a wonderful follow-up, and provided me with an opportunity to observe children and their understandings of wholes, equal parts, and other conceptual knowledge about fractions. A few children cut their squares in half and then trimmed them to make them the same size and shape. A very interesting conversation then occurred about wholes and whether or not these "trimmed" halves would now equal the original whole once put back together. It was also discussed and agreed upon that the strategy of folding the paper first to find the halfway point and equal division of the parts would help us to cut and create more equal parts.
First graders worked on counting forward on and off the decade, such as 10, 20, 30, and then 3, 13, 23, 33, 43. They also practiced counting backwards by ones and backwards by tens on and off the decade. These may seem like easy enough skills once children are counting up to 100, but for many children this requires some direct instruction with lots of practice looking at models such as number lines, 100 bead strings, and 100 charts.
The Association of Vermont Recylers (AVR) joined us this week to present a play and follow-up discussion titled "Ghosts of Products Past." As I was describing this upcoming event at morning meeting, two second grade boys asked, "So we’ll be learning about multiplication?" They remembered that the answer to a multiplication problem is called a product. This was a good opportunity to discuss multiple meanings of words again. Before we entered the gym for the play, one first grade girl asked, "Will there be any REAL ghosts coming to this?" The play was informative and funny, helping us learn about reducing our waste by NOT buying so much in the first place, and discussed NEEDS vs. WANTS. The play also discussed reusing and recycling products, the power of advertisement, and how we can all make a difference in small ways, which can create big changes in our environment and the future of our planet.
I have several photos from this week I will send along in another email.
Take care and enjoy the new spring weather that is supposed to be joining us.
Brenda
Dates to Remember:
April 9th: Early Release Day
April 10th: Library make up day (return books on this day)
April 14th: School Assembly at 2:15
April 21st-April 25th: School Vacation