The Maples
11.27 - 12.1
Thank You for Family Conferences!
Thank you to every family that took the time to come and talk to us. We love nothing more than discussing and celebrating the hard work that your children are doing. If you haven't set up a conference yet, please reach out to Campbell and Sara to set one up. We can be reached at campbell@brooklyncompass.org and sarascott@brooklyncompass.org
Important Dates
- Wednesday, December 6th - Community Gathering, all welcome!
- Wednesday, December 13th - the Maples perform AIn't No Mountain High Enough at Community Gathering!
- Friday, December 22nd - December Family Day, Activity TBD*
- December 23rd - January 3rd - Winter Break, School Closed
Please note, this has been changed from our previous date of December 15th.
This Week, We...
- Practiced asking, "Would you like a hug, or handshake?" during Morning Meeting. We are building ways to use words and bodies safely, while also taking care of the needs of everyone in our community.
- Started a new unit in Reading Workshop, focusing on nonfiction texts. We learned that smart readers learn everything they can from a nonfiction book by looking at the pictures and reading the words. We have a new nonfiction section of our classroom library, and started reading a book together - Amazing Bats!
- Looked closely at the work of Angela Johnson in Writing Workshop. We are using Angela Johnson's books as mentor texts, and taking inspiration from the way she writes narrative, involves ellipses, and repeats words for extra emphasis. The books we read this week are Joshua's Night Whispers, The Leaving Morning, and When I Am Old With You. Every Maple got a "writing topics list" to write down ideas they have for stories!
- Practiced strategies for subtraction and addition with teen numbers in Math Workshop. We visualized teen numbers, wrote number sentences, and played variations of familiar classroom games like Five In A Row and Roll and Record.
- Made maps, maps, and more maps during Work Time for our studies in our Integrated Unit. The Maples used classroom materials like the light table and magnifying glasses to look closely at maps and recreate them. We also introduced a card center, where the Maples started to making trading cards (à la Pokémon) of students, faculty, and staff at Compass.
Next Week, We Will...
- Add to our knowledge chart as we read more about bats in Reading Workshop, and continue to build our knowledge as readers of nonfiction.
- Read more books by Angela Johnson and try some of her moves in our own writing during Writing Workshop, like ellipses and lines and words that repeat for emphasis.
- Deepen our work with subtraction numbers within 20 in Math Workshop.
- Make a class book of people at Compass, build a three dimensional map of the school, and make more trading cards during our Integrated Unit Work Time.
Ask Me About...
- Our silent signal for "I have an idea to write down on my topics list!"
- The new favorite Maple greeting, "the hugshake".
- Our trading card station at Work Time
- The "Water Bottle Decoration Station" started by Blake and Jack during Work Time.
- Labeling our structures in the block area.
Pictures From The Week!
Ephraim's maze, inspired by the Marauder's Map from Harry Potter!
Map center during Work Time
Labelling structures in Unit Blocks.
Ruby, working hard to label parts of our block center.
So proud of this amazing structure!
Jack using a map at the Light Table.
Woodworking.
Dagmar drawing and writing about her woodworking structure.
Making Compass Charter School trading cards for friends in other classrooms.
Learning about using our Writing Topics list in Writing Workshop.
Some topic lists...