Weekly Update

Dear Families,

Have you noticed that the days are getting longer? As much as I love winter, I am excited about the first sign of a changing season. It does not look like it outside, however, with lots of snow and freezing temperatures, but things are changing. As a challenge at home, start documenting small signs of Spring and please encourage your child to bring his/her observations into class to share. Please remember to send your child to school with warm clothes every day as we have recess unless it is raining or below zero. Please remember to send your child to school every day with a snack. They need nutritious and hearty snacks in these cold temperatures.

Our unit on ecology is coming to an end. The students have conducted research on an ocean animal for a couple of weeks and will be expected to write a four paragraph essay about how this animal finds food and shelter in the ocean. Some animals are a little bit more challenging to find information on, but the students all help each other and share information. It is great to hear them share things they have learned from each other as they conduct their own research. In addition to learning about the importance of finding relevant information to your stated focus, the students have also learned to re-write and “paraphrase” texts and authors. Your child has learned not to copy word for word from a text, but rather enter the information needed into bullet points, which later will be re-written into his/her own words. Not only are these important skills for writing; they also reinforce the value of the written word in and of itself. Writing reflects a personal and unique thought process, just like art and music. While it allows the writer to express his/her ideas of various topics and the world, it also allows the reader to join in this conversation and dialogue through different reading responses and follow-up discussions and personal reflections.

The students have learned to use Voicethread in more depth this week and have almost completed their second multi-media response to the book entitled Owney, the mail-pouch pooch (Mona Kerby). Please ask your child about this very exciting venture and how we have learned to research various places around the world using resources in our classroom, on the computers and from each other. If you do not know already, Voicethread is an online community that allows for communication and information sharing on a given topic. It allows students to share personal Voicethreads, but it also allows them to respond to others queries and questions. Most importantly, Voicethread allows students to show their understanding of a given topic in multi-sensory ways; it allows them to write, to speak, to draw and to use music and videos. In other words, it allows students to create their own responses. If you have any questions and/or concerns about Voicethread, please do not hesitate to contact me. We are very proud of our new project and are very excited to share it with you. Please revisit the wiki and blog often as these Voicethreads will be shared as soon as they are ready to be published.



Reminders:
• Our Ocean Animal Project is due next Tuesday, 1/19/10. The assignment outline is attached to this letter. If you need materials and help, please do not hesitate to contact me.
• The second quarter is almost over and individual student report cards are mailed home (1/29/10). We do not schedule conferences this time, but if you wish to meet with me or your child’s math or word study teacher, please let me know. Thank you!
• There is not school on Monday, 1/18/10, and the school celebrates Martin Luther King Day.
• Do not forget to access snapfish.com where our classroom pictures are located for you to print out. Please let me know if you need help to access our classroom group account. Thank you.

Have a great weekend!

Regards,
Maria McCormack