Starfish Gazette- December 11, 2017

Please Mark Your Calendars:

• Early Release this Wednesday, December 13th at 12:50.
• Holiday Hike and Gathering in the Classroom on Thursday, December 21st 12:45 - 2:00.

We will go on a holiday stroll to decorate trees for the animals around the premises of our school.  We will come back to the classroom for cocoa and cookies.  We hope you can all join us! 

What's Raz Kids?

We have an exciting new reading app called Raz Kids. This is a subscription that first grade will be piloting this year.  A few teachers in our school have shared they have loved their own children using this at home to have access to a variety of nonfiction and fiction books that are just right.  Your child can access the app at home with their own username and password. An informational paper will be your child's folder this week.

Your child now has access to just right books at his/her convenience. I have encouraged your child to read the book first on their own, then listen to it being read to them to confirm accuracy. The levels on Raz Kids are slightly harder than the levels they read at school. Hence, there is a range of levels to choose from.

The unique feature to Raz Kids is the comprehension component.  Each just right text gives your child 5 comprehension questions.  This allows your child to practice to monitor their reading for meaning. The comprehension questions really raise the bar for your child!

Both iReady and Raz Kids can be used as homework throughout the week. I am able to monitor their progress at home as well as school.

Please take the time to login to your child's Raz Kid account on your PC or download the app for them at home. This could take the place for a RAH book and please feel free to write down books your child reads to their RAH folder.

Please let me know if you have any questions.



KINDNESS COUNTDOWN:10 Gifts of Kindness


Each morning there will be a new gift for us to open as a class to spread kindness to others during this holiday season. We can't wait to share our gifts of kindness on the blog and see saw over the next two weeks.  

Our first gift of kindness: 

Play with someone new at recess

Here's just a glimpse on what we've been working on:

• Focused on blends at the beginning and ending of words during phonics instruction
• Created addition equation scales to reinforce balanced equations
• Played the math game, Plus What? during math workshop
• Reading "The Chocolate Touch" during read aloud. Mrs. Murphy is using a reader's notebook with the class how to model how to write down important details of the story
• Read holiday stories with our 3rd grade reading buddies
• Learned how to use body movements and an expressive "expert" voice to get our partners excited about our non-fiction topics
• Learning how to share important parts of our nonfiction books with others
• Created nonfiction writing topics, built a table of contents, and began writing across pages about topics we know a lot about
• Did a science exploration with Mystery Doug this afternoon- Learning how to make something less opaque- making the connection why snowflakes look white
• Created a Countdown to the DARKEST day of the year: Today 12/11 We have 9 hours and 4 minutes of daylight.  The kids made predictions of how much daylight we will have on 12/21
  
  
   Snowflake Science Exploration with Table Partners
  
   We used layers of wax paper to make the snowflakes look white
  
   Learning how to collaborate and share ideas with partners
  

Writer's hard at work writing nonfiction books

Sharing ideas during whole group share: Learning that we can lean on other writer's for advice and suggestions

Here are some questions to promote school talk...

1) Tell me about the Japanese game with the slippery stairs that your class watched. How did the players show growth mindset?
2) Tell me something you learned about your new classmate, Lydia?

3) Tell me about this week's mystery with Mystery Doug? 
4) Can you tell me about the main character John in "The Magic Touch"?  What's happening in the story?

5) What did you use rulers for at Mrs. Rosenbleeth's center this week?

6) What was this week's STEAM challenge?  Who did you work with? 

7) What's your topic for your non-fiction book?

8) Can you tell me why snow is white? What experiment did you do today at school?