Dear Families,
All the news that fits to print until my baby wakes up from his nap…
This week marked the implementation of our reading logs. In class, we recorded what we read, how long we read for, and how many pages we read. It’s important that students record their reading on this reading log. This is important because as we grow as readers and encourage a strong reading life, documenting what we read is important. Part of what we do in reading is track our progress in order to make goals for our immediate future. Families have two choices to track reading at home; the first is on the paper reading log, and the second is on this online reading log. Doing it online is just as quick and it eliminates the stress of one more paper that you have to worry about bringing between home and school, which for some families and their children feels like an episode of The Amazing Race.
In the email I sent announcing the link to this week’s newsletter, I’ve attached a copy of the paper log you can use at home. It’s slightly different than the ones students received in class, but that’s ok!
I request that these be returned every Monday!
Our big focus in writing this week was on revising. After we drafted a quick small moment story from our lives, we read it to a writing partner. The partner then determined what the story was about it. If they determined something different than what the writer intended, then it provided an opportunity to look at what they needed to revise in order to stay on course in their storytelling.
In reading, we’ve spent a good chunk of the week on perspective. In our read aloud book Home of the Brave, we’ve discussed how the mood of the book, and how even the plot line, might be affected by the person narrating the story, or whose side we are hearing. In partnerships, we rewrote a short chapter so it was from Ganwar’s point of view instead of Kek’s. Ganwar and Kek are cousins that are living in Minnesota after escaping their home country of Sudan. Even though they have both experienced trauma, their perspectives on life are different.
Next week is quite busy! We have our field trip on Tuesday to Oxbow Regional Park. We’re headed to Oxbow as a culmination of our Land Art unit. Land Art is a unique style of art where artists use only objects found in nature (rocks, leaves, sticks) to create a piece of art. We studied famous Land Art artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Schilling.
On Wednesday of next week is our Jog-a-thon. More specifically, we participate on Wednesday at 3:05pm. This our P.T.A.’s biggest fundraiser of the year. This past week, students brought home their pledge forms to collect pledges from friends and family members. These can be collected in-person or online. The money raised goes to great causes likes guest speakers, field trips, supporting technology, partnership with E.C.O., and more.
- Pledges can be made online here.
- The P.T.A. is looking for volunteers to help run the Jog-a-thon. You can sign up here to volunteer. As of press time, our time slot is open if you’re interested in volunteering while we jog.
As a reminder, conferences will be held on 10/9, 10/10, and 10/11. There are still four slots open to take, meaning about four families have not signed up. Please do so here!
Enjoy the last official weekend of summer!
Mr. B
Idiom of the Week: Tongue Tied
Vocab of the Week: throbbing, gaze, vanish, weary
