Posted on December 15, 2009, 5:00pm by Admin

Curiculum Letter 12-14-09 from Grace

December 14, 2009   

Dear 3-310 Families,

How time flies.  We are already in the middle of December.  It was a very full and exciting week.  Our trip to Ellis Island was put off for one day because of hurricane-like conditions, but no one minded.  We went the next day and it was sunny, we had more chaperones, and the children had a great time.  As always, there is so much to see, but we managed to travel in very small groups, making it possible to look at things in depth and at our leisure.  We saw large photos and instruments in the medical examination rooms, heard voice recordings of eye-witness accounts.  I heard students read captions aloud and remark, “Hey that’s just like what happened in the book we read!”  It is always exciting to hear students on trips make connections to the work we are doing in the classroom.  I would like to thank all the parents who signed up to go, who actually got to go, for being so flexible and reliable.  One of the exhibits we saw at Ellis Island was “Treasures From Home” which showed the things that immigrants brought with them to the new country.  In class, we imagined what we would bring should there be an epidemic or some other reason for us to flee to another country.  Some of the things children came up with were clothing, because you would need to clothe yourself; a guitar, to play music that would remind us of home; money, so you could buy food and rent a home; knitting needles, to make things you might be able to sell.  Then we drew suitcases with pictures and explanations of why we would bring each thing.  The suitcases are currently displayed on the bulletin boards in our hallway.

Last week, we did some wrap-up work with our read aloud Because of Winn-Dixie.  We had many discussions about how each character carried a certain sorrow.  We talked about how each character had undergone change through the course of the book.  We talked about the different locations and corresponding events in the book.  Then we each drew a scene that stuck out in our minds.  They now hang on our back wall.  With each discussion, we made a T-Chart to record and make clear our thinking.  It is the kind of work that kids should be doing with their own reading.  At the end of the week, we had a party that mimicked the party Opal and Gloria Dump threw to bring together all the lonely people in their neighborhood.  Ours was a stone soup kind of party since everyone brought in a small but important piece.  Thank you all for your contributions.  We made egg salad sandwiches and punch, and served them with pickles, just like in the book.  We drew pictures of dogs and hung them in our room, just like in the book.  And we ate peppermints at the end, in place of the fictitious Littmus Lozenges in the book.  At the end of the day, we talked about how there were certain themes that ran throughout the book:  friendship, sorrow, loneliness, forgiveness, starting over.  Each student who was present did some writing about the theme of their choice and supported their thinking with three examples from the book.  This is the kind of thinking that students should be/will be doing when they finish reading their books.  Should you have the occasion to engage your child in this kind of conversation, it would be super.

We spent some time talking about large numbers (up to the millions).  In an attempt to reinforce their understanding of place value, we did several day’s worth of practice adding by tens and then by hundreds, so as to draw attention to how numbers change especially when you cross hundreds and thousands.  It was fun!  We also spent some time writing out these huge numbers in words.  It came in really handy as we looked at statistics of Ellis Island.  Students were able to confidently read the six digit numbers that described how many immigrants came each year Ellis Island was open as an Immigration Station.  We also did a bit of work with measuring in inches and centimeters.  Two important things about measuring at this point are that we start measuring at 0, and that we always measure in units, not just numbers. I have also been stressing that when we use a ruler, we are measuring distance.  While there are different names for these things, such as height, length, width, etc.--they are all distances.

This week, we have a trip to The Jewish Museum on Thursday.  Friday the 18th is a half-day with dismissal at 11:30.  On Wednesday, I will be at CCNY facilitating an all day math workshop for teachers in our network.  All School Sing is the following Wednesday, December 23.  Please be mindful that there is an area for parents to stand and there’s an area for classes.  In general, parents are asked to refrain from going to the back of the sing area.  As a rule of thumb, please don’t go beyond the big doors.  When we come back from the holidays, there will be an ice-skating trip on January 6.  And there will be another ice-skating trip February 11.  Under a separate cover, I will be sending permission forms and fees envelops.  Please please  PLEASE make sure you send them in this week if at all possible so that there isn’t a scramble first thing in the new year!   Thank you so much. 

This will be my last letter of 2009.  If your family is leaving for vacation early and missing class time, please let me know in advance in writing so I can plan appropriately.  There will be some math practice and writing in their notebooks for the vacation.  Nothing too taxing—just enough to make January not seem like the first day of school!  I hope you all have a safe and wonder filled holiday time.  I look forward to seeing everyone again in, dare I say it, 2010 !?!  Yikes!

Yours,

Grace