Friday, November 7, 2014

Circle Letter 11/7/14

November 7, 2014

    Dear Families,
         We started the week with some voting ourselves and a little discussion about the voting process.  Our vote was a bit more playful… Oreos vs. chocolate chip cookies vs. orange slices.  I was surprised orange slices did as well as it did.  Get the scoop from your kiddo about the voting results!
We have just begun our new writing unit, Opinion and Persuasive Essay writing.  We will practice forming opinions about topics and issues we strongly believe in and develop sound reasons to defend our ideas.  We tried persuading Mr. Foster with an idea of ours as a warm up exercise.  Stay tuned with the results…    This type of writing will be a nice progression from our narrative writing.  And speaking of the personal narratives… we will team up with Ms. Peternell’s class on Monday to have a writers’ celebration and share and then the stories will come home for you to enjoy!
Our unit 3 Measurement focus in math has been engaging with opportunities to work in small groups and measure, work with geoboards or pattern blocks.  Our students have done a fine job.  Today we will take the end of the unit test.  Our next unit is the first of three multiplication units.  So soon we will add multiplication fact practice to the addition fact practice…  any way you can help out, especially with cards games to make fact practice more fun, will make a difference in the long run.
Today we are meeting our new music teacher for the first time.  We look forward to the year ahead together with plenty of song and rhythm. 

       Lastly, we will “kick off” Veteran’s Day with a recognition assembly Monday morning. It is a great opportunity to see how many Mitchell students come from military families. Lots and lots…!  We have really enjoyed the photos of military family members.   Impressive!