Monday Highlights

We had a great first day back. Ms. Simpson sewed together the quilt squared students made that tell the story of the ABS Harvest Festival. It is hanging on our wall and it is beautiful!


In my math class we explored money using base ten strips and grids.

Our Quick Write was in response to the prompt: November is almost over, Thanksgiving has passed. December begins tomorrow. Ms. Simpson, Lauren, Jordan and Jared read their work to the class. We compared and contrasted the Narrative form and the Report form. We used the grade level expectations to do this. Finally we talked about what we know about quilts in preparation for our written assessment of this unit.


This afternoon I used the book "How Many Days to America?" by Eve Bunting to model our reading homework. It is largely about the self talk good readers do that makes up reading comprehension. My apologies for the typos in the assignment sheet I sent home. Also, students should complete the work for Monday, then Wednesday, then Tuesday and Thursday. We won't get to the Tuesday strategy until Wednesday.

Students enjoyed taking another look at their personal collages before they headed home.

Information for Parents about Stewart Math Class

The following passage is a quote from the Teacher's Manuel for the Bridges Math program. I think it might be helpful as you support your child with this work at home, especially since these were not the methods most of adults used to master these skills and concepts.

Throughout this unit, students have been using the base ten area pieces as a model for ading 2-digit numbers. The model reinforces place value concepts, encourages students to think in chunks, and gives them an opportunity to regroup. We also find it's helpful for students to add and subtract 2-digit numbers in the context of money [We'll be working with money on Monday]. Because we have currency that is worth 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 cents working with money encourages students to think about a wider variety of groupings, which helps them become more flexible and efficient.

Students will build visual models for our coins and bills. These models represent the value of each coin as it relates to a dollar. We find this model helpful...When students look at a dime, for example, nothing about the way the dime looks suggests that it's worth ten cents. However, when they build a model for a dime that shows the value of that dime clearly, they have an easier time computing with money. In addition, th model connects well to the base ten pieces, reinforcing place vlaue concepts and improving computational fluency with larger numbers (Volume 1, p. 276).

Two Day Week Homework!

My math class has a couple of games and a worksheet to do. Please spend a least a week on this.
Everyone has a reading response page to do tonight. That is the only piece that is due tomorrow.

Online Thanksgiving Activities

Here are three links to Thanksgiving Activities you can do at home! It would be great if you read the Readers Theater piece. Then you will have practiced for a run through at school. Click on the links below to see what you know.


Thanksgiving Readers Theater

Here is a Fact Hunt

Vocabulary Quiz

Parts of a Story

The slides above were taken during a lesson called, "Parts of a Story"

Students are working on fictionalized stories about a family tradition they have. The began with Ms. Simpson telling stories about her family traditions. She talked about the process she used. First she drew a picture of her home. From that she was able to think of things her family traditionally has done together, year after year since her childhood. Students then drew their own houses and drew traditions around it.

The next step was to brainstorm traditions in writing.

At last the class was ready to discuss the parts of a story, and think about how they would make the true stories in their heads into authored stories. Authors have the power to change details so that their story will have a clear setting, characters, a problem and a solution.

Students continue to revise and finalize their work.