The Maples
2.27-3.3
Announcements!
- NO SCHOOL Monday, March 6th for a staff work day.
- CURRICULUM NIGHT is THIS TUESDAY, March 7th at 6pm!
- We are taking our first FIELD TRIP this Thursday, March 9th to the New Victory Theater to see a production of The Way Back Home. As always please, dress your Maple in comfortable clothing and comfortable walking shoes!
- Home Visits will start this week! If you are interested and available and have not yet expressed interest, please let Sara and Campbell know!
- Join us for Community Gathering this Wednesday, March 8th at 8:20am.
Integrated Unit - Family Study
This week, we worked to integrate deep thinking and exploration of families and homes into our every day work and play. We started Work Time each day by reading a book that focused on families and family structure, such as The Different Dragon by Jennifer Bryan, A Tale Of Two Daddies by Vanita Oelschlager, and Kevin And His Dad by Irene Smalls.
In Blocks, the Maples worked in groups of four to plan houses and structures that reflected the idea of "home". To begin this process, they started by working with a teacher to plan their structure, drawing their ideas on paper. They were then prompted to imagine what kinds of blocks they would need - What shapes? How many? - tying directly into our previous work in Math of foundational geometry. After getting their plan approved by a "Master Architect" (i.e. Sara or Campbell), the Maples then worked to translate their plan to real life. We kept these structures up throughout the week, with the rule that no structure could be taken down, but that the Maples who joined the Block Area could add to other structures. By Friday, our Block Area had transformed into a city of houses and homes!
Math Workshop
We started a new math unit this week that focuses on the composition and decomposition of numbers. Using the metaphors of bunk beds at a sleepover and apple boxes at a supermarket, the Maples experiment with number combinations, and how numbers can be broken down into different quantities.
To start this process, we read a book called The Sleepover and introduced the rekenrek, a material that enables students to physically visualize the composition and decomposition of numbers.
After exploring this material, the Maples worked to figure out our first story problem in this unit: At a sleepover of 8 friends, how many combinations can we create in the bunks? After drawing and recording our findings in partners, we shared our discoveries all together at the rug.
Reading Workshop
Guided Reading Groups are going strong! It has been so exciting to do purposeful, explicit teaching of reading with the Maples. Reading Workshop now feels very different in our classroom - we begin with a minilesson, introducing a reading strategy or focus for the day through modeling or shared reading with a big book. The Maples then get their canvas book bags and start to read independently. Guided Reading Groups meet for approximately 15 minutes, and the lesson always includes an opportunity to re-read, explore a new book, and for the teachers to work one-on-one with the students in their group to use reading strategies when reading.
Strategies we explored this week:
- Readers always re-read: Ask yourself comprehension questions, such as: What happened in this story? Who are the characters? Where did it take place?
Writing Workshop
Strategies we worked on this week are:
- Brave writers always sound out words, and everyone makes mistakes.
- Writers not only write to share information, but also to tell stories. How do our stories sound different from the information we share?
We revisited the notion of writers as storytellers, noticing the differences between non-fiction literature (our example being Freight Train by Donald Crews) and fiction (Adelita by Tomie De Paola). The Maples thought of a story from their lives that they wanted to tell, and were prompted to add details through these questions:
- What happens in my story?
- Who is in it?
- Where does it happen?
More Pictures From The Week!
This week we had our first dance class with the Mark Morris dance company! For the next 13 weeks, we will have dance class on Thursday mornings in the auditorium on the first floor.
Ask Me About...
- Making my body "tall like a mountain" and "small like a ball" in Dance class on Thursday.
- Playing Silent Speedball with Campbell - and how many minutes it took to get to all the Maples (answer: it's 5 minutes!)
- What our block area looks like with all the family structures.
- Telling stories in Writing Workshop