November 8th

We had a GREAT time in Huntsville, I can't thank our chaperones enough! They helped us get through the day safely and made our trip run smoothly! Don't forget to add your photos to our class album! Classroom happenings: Reading-We finished our study of allegory, the author's deeper meaning or "theme" and anthropomorphism, when animals speak in stories and usually teach us a lesson. We are looking closely at features of fiction writing. We have just finished reading City of Ember and many of the kids want to read the second book during their independent reading time. We get to watch the movie tomorrow! Writing-Soon we will re-publish our memory writing that we did at the beginning of the year on kidblog. The kids did a wonderful job drafting, editing, revising and publishing their Veteran's Day pieces. And we have just finished our 1st person narratives on our Explorers and have made Vokis from our writing. The kids had a great time making the Vokis. See our Vokis here!  Math-Multiplication and division with bigger numbers! Right now in multiplication, we are just splitting apart one of the factors to solve the problem. (see example here), our Big Array, Small Array game helped us with that strategy. Very soon we will learn how to split apart both factors without leaving out any of the "parts". For division, most of the kids are using the "multiply up" strategy. Content-We have just started our study of the very first American settlements. Ask your child to tell you about Roanoke, Jamestown and Plymouth. Next we will be studying the 1st 13 colonies and then begin our study of the Causes of the Revolutionary War.  Technology-Check out our Vokis on the link above, don't forget to make comments on your child's kidblog, if you have forgotten the log in,, just let me know. Continue talking about digital citizenship and online safety! *Check our calendar for other important dates.

Links of the month: I added our "Parents in the Know" Daily newspaper link to the top of this blog.
Social Studies Links on Jamestown, 13 Colonies, Causes of the Revolution
Math Links for multiplication and division
Reading: Show your child where to get ideas for what to read next.
Writing: Let your child try this "friendly letter generator"