November 17 - 21

On Friday I will be out of town and Richie will be with the class. That morning we will have a guest speaker from Cornell's Entomology Department discuss aquatic insects with our class. We will conclude our study of insects this month with some activities on spiders (and how they are different than insects). Next month we will move into a unit on motion and balance.

I forgot to mention earlier that our author study this month is Mo Willems. The class was quick to notice that his last name is almost the same as Willem's first name, and many recognized his popular Knuffle Bunny and Piggie and Elephant books! The students have enjoyed noticing details he uses in his illustrations and typography that reflect how the characters are feeling and make connections between his various books. I encourage you to check out some of his books next time you visit the library. We have also begun reading aloud My Father's Dragon each day to practice reading skills like predicting, inferring, and recalling.

We began writing thank you letters this week in preparation for Thanksgiving. In early December I plan to publish a digital picture of the letters with a recording of each student reading his/her letter aloud and describing his/her picture and motivation for writing the letter on this website through Voicethread. We will also use Voicethread to share recordings of student explanations of and reactions to some of the digital pictures I've taken of various classroom activities. I plan to record some of the music, art, PE and library classes in the coming weeks and post short videos of those on here for you, too.

This week in math we introduced dimes and practiced exchanging pennies and nickels for dimes. The class did a really nice job with this activity both when they saw pictures of the coins and when they saw symbols for the coins (P for penny, N for nickel, and D for dime). To further challenge your child, try playing "banker" and have them trade in various amounts of pennies and nickels for dimes, or vice versa. Thanks to everybody who read the homework carefully and contributed 10 dimes for use in the classroom!

Leila's Mom shared some neat online math resources with me that I wanted to share with you all, too: 1. virtual math manipulatives (especially helpful for your child to explore base 10 blocks, something not found in most households but used in 1st and 2nd grade, with you)

2. telling time on an analog clock (warning: this crashed for me in Firefox but worked well in Internet

Explorer and Safari)

Miss Lupo (the Health student teacher from SUNY Cortland) concluded her lessons with our class this week by discussing germs and the many ways HIV cannot be spread. As a follow-up I read the Magic School Bus book "Inside Ralphie, A Book About Germs" which the class really got into. This book does a nice job illustrating why it's important to protect yourself from germs, how white blood cells attack germs, and why rest and medicine help you recover faster when you do get sick. The story is also available as a video and Scholastic offers online games and resources for fans of the Magic School Bus series.

Next week I will publish on here and send home a hardcopy of the December snack calendar. Let me know if you need to switch days. Please make your best effort to provide healthy snacks for our class. Popular options include baby carrots with ranch dressing, granola bars, muffins, trail mix, string cheese, and any kind of fruit. We have a refrigerator available across the hall and you are welcome to send in snack a few days in advance if needed.

We have been using the American Sign Language alphabet to fingerspell words we are studying, which has sparked a lot of interest in sign language. I will begin incorporating more signs into our regular activities and using the ASLpro online video dictionary to answer their questions about how to sign words I don't know.

I will begin sending home (optional) word study activities once or twice a week. The one I'm sending home this week involves cutting out letters to rearrange into words or names, and then recording the words on the paper. Please keep the letters at home and simply return the list of words. You can support your child with this by encouraging him/her to make rhyming words and to look at the latest sight word list for ideas!

Next week (and continued through the first week in December)
we will study the words:

jump, put, said, with, your

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