At the beginning of the month, I was asked by several students about the job of the host or hostess in our classroom. My response was, “You will have to wait and see.” That same week, I had invited a guest to our classroom from NCCS in order to show the kids about how to be a good host or hostess. The high school student played along very well and even got some tea. Since then, we’ve started an entire line of visitors to our classroom to observe and see what our classroom is all about.  

       It is amazing how the kids step up to the plate to be hospitable and on their best behavior when a guest is present in our room. The kids learned how to politely ask if our visitors would like something to drink, such as water, tea, or hot cocoa. They then would prepare that beverage for our guest. Of course this took a bit of encouraging for some of the hosts and hostesses, but nonetheless, they played an important role in welcoming our guests and observers courteously.

            The kids have been hard at work this past month in all areas of our curriculum. In biology, the 4^th graders are still working with botany, where they are looking at all the different parts of plants. So far, they have looked at the parts of the stem, types of roots, parts of the leaf and parts of the flower. They love being able to have a reason to go outside in order to get a sample of whichever part we are studying that particular week.  The 5^th graders have spent the last few weeks looking at living and non-living things. They then started to classify the living things into plant and animal groupings. However, a twist was put on their items and we’ve also looked at classifying things as a mineral.  I’m pretty sure they went through the cupboards thoroughly in order to look at some of the minerals that are found in the food they eat!  The 6^th graders moved from the botany work to work with differences between plants and animals. Many of them created games that got everyone in the class involved in what they were working on. They jumped into a study of fish, where the first week they did a virtual dissection of a fish. Of course I heard a lot of “eeeeews” and “disgustings”, but in the end they thought it was cool and were able to identify the various parts of the fish. They even learned about what the various parts are used for. 

           In arithmetic, we’ve been working on several games and activities in order to continue to work on our multiplication facts with one of the math groups. The students have come a long way since the beginning of the school year, but are still struggling with their 4, 6, 7 and 8 facts. Each time they practice them, they realize that they have more and more of the facts down. Most recently the children started trying to match the product to the actual problems and thinking about the problem in the opposite way than they have been. Any continual work or review at home never hurts.   A second group is ready to move on to division, after being able to explain multiplication of large numbers in an abstract way. These children were excited last week when they learned that they didn’t need to use any materials because they had reached abstraction in multiplication.  What is to come with this group is some review work with subtraction before division as you need this skill in place in order to get to higher division work. There was also a wishful thought put out by the group that said “We might catch up to the 6^th graders.” However, the 6^th graders wouldn’t let that happen. They’ve been working with group division, which came after a lot of practice of long division using the test tube division. Many of them are right on the verge of abstraction with that method! We then pulled out our fraction material and started finding equivalent fractions. Some children are still using the materials in the box to help them see equivalent fractions and others were able to translate the ideas to fractions that were outside of our materials.

            In culture, we have continued our Great Lessons, of which we have one more to go. The 4^th graders also started work with the various forces of our Earth.  They have gotten to do several experiments each week to demonstrate the concept, and then find out about the science behind it the following week. The 5^th and 6^th graders did several combined lessons on the Earth and some of the properties it has, such as its rotation and its revolution. They also were engaged in discussions about what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning on its axis. Finally they started looking at the sun’s rays and how much of them hit the Earth from different angles.

           Geometry has brought a study of triangles for all grades. The 4^th graders have been looking at how triangles make up different quadrilaterals using the constructive triangles. The 5^th graders are in the process of learning about what parts make up a triangle both that are visible and those that are not. They are in the process of creating a book to share with you about all the parts that a triangle has.  The 6^th graders have been working with the area of triangles and the three formulas that you can use in order to find the area of a variety of triangles. There have been several moments of discovery, as they have been engaged with the materials and their follow-up work.

        The 4^th graders have continued to work with nouns during the past month in Language. They have worked with adjectives and have realized why articles are important. They also started looking more closely at the common nouns and have classified them as masculine and feminine nouns.  We will continue our study of nouns during the upcoming weeks.  The 5^th graders have continued learning more about the pronoun in its different forms. They know several different cases now and are just about to the end of their study of pronouns.  The 6^th graders have been working with the logical analysis material and have seen many different types of adverbial modifiers in the sentence. In fact, this week they are trying to create sentences that have as many adverbial modifiers in them as possible!

          In literature and writing the 4^th graders have dove in heads first into the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They worked to create outlines and a story diagram in order to help them rewrite the story that was told several weeks ago. They will continue their folktale study with a novel, which they are welcome to bring home with them and read with you.  The 5^th graders have been studying a variety of poems and how they are created. They have made a collection of their own poems that have been wonderful to read. The 6^th graders have worked with paragraph writing and correcting their mistakes using the editing marks. Their writing is getting better each and every day.

               I’ve noticed more people studying their spelling words in the last month. In fact recently all the 6^th graders managed to get 100% the same week. There have been several others who have gotten 100 per cents as well.  Your child should get his/her list of words to study on Monday. Please make sure to practice with them throughout the week in addition to the practice they do at school.

This past week, the children took part in an annual tradition of running for class president and vice-president. They campaigned, gave brief speeches, and the final three candidates answered questions in order to help the others vote. This year, our classroom leaders will be given a 2 ½ month term, thus giving each of the final three sets of candidates an opportunity to lead in the classroom. The other children are voting on which of the candidates will be getting the first, second and third choice of which order they will be in.

Flu season has hit our classroom. Just a reminder that if your child is sick, please call the office to inform school, I will hear from the office. They need to know about the symptoms in order to report to the state as needed. If your child is sick, please keep them home; it is better if they miss more than one day consectutively than if they are home a day, back a day, and then home again In our classroom We are trying to disinfect the classroom on a regular basis to cut down on germs being spread, but it is inevitable, being that the materials are used frequently. I know that this year’s flu strain has a fever component that will be high one day and low the next, but by the evening the high fever is back.

The other part of flu season comes with the change in weather. Without the snow, the kids have gotten away a bit from making sure they have proper attire for outside. The paras who are at recess will not allow the child to be outside if they are inappropriately dressed. Not knowing when our next snowfall will occur, please remember that all children need the following five items in order to go outside for recess during the winter months: Winter coat, Hat, Mittens/Gloves, Snowpants and Boots. Also note that they need to have a pair of shoes for inside the classroom and the gym. Each child has his/her cubby at school which they can keep all of these things until they need them, so feel free to just leave them at school.

                I think that sums up what has been happening in the classroom during the month of October. Remember if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at anytime.

Sincerely,

Jaclyn Gehrke  and Tara Erickson

Additional notes:

• I always post the newsletter on our website www.newdiscoveries.org/jgehrke. Let me know if you don’t want to receive the paper copy.
• For those of you wondering what to get for the classroom see the website
• Book orders are available online at www.scholastic.com
• School Computer Use Policy is available on the NDMA website