New Writing and Math Units!

Writers Workshop

Last week students were working diligently to revise, edit and publish their informational writing books. This week they had an opportunity to share with their fourth grade buddies or with students in their own class.

The next unit is opinion letter writing. In this unit, we build on the letter writing experiences children have already developed. We teach children how to channel their natural abilities of persuasion into letters designed to state an opinion and to make a difference in the world. Letter writing begins with believing you have something to share with someone and that people are interested in hearing others’ points of view. We begin by telling children that what they have to say is important and matters.

One goal of this unit is to teach children that writers can do more than complain about a problem, they can imagine solutions and write to enhance those reasons. Another goal is that writers can use letters as a vehicle to state their opinions and reasons in ways that convince an audience in a compelling way. This unit of study moves beyond teaching lessons on the parts of a letter. The focus is on content.

We will begin the unit by immersing students in the investigation of different types of letters/books by noticing and wondering.

Character Day

Character Day was a hit!  Here are some photographs of your children dresses as you favorite character.  

Geometry

Last week in math we began working on geometry.  Students are describing and classifying shapes. They will learn to distinguish defining attributes (such as number of sides) from non-defining attributes, such as color.  They have also been using relationships between shapes to compose new shapes (for example, two trapezoids equal one hexagon) through play.

BAM Visits

Today we had an artist visit us from the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  With the guidance from Gideon, we used our imaginations to create and perform individual routines using a paper bag.  Be sure to ask your children about it.

Important Dates to Keep in Mind

• March 14th:  Field Trip to The New York Transit Museum
• March 15th:  Half Day/PTC 11:30 Dismissal
• March 22nd:  Field Trip to the Brooklyn Academy of Music