Excitement in Turquesa

Collaborative group work is so important for children at this age; it's an opportunity to teach and learn from each other, to practice leadership and listening skills, and to learn he importance of follow-through.

I'm sure the kids like it because collaboration is a chance to hang out with your friends and classmates while working on a shared project.

There is quite a bit of research about the importance and significance of peer teaching and social navigation; we are thrilled that last week we saw so much healthy engagement and investment in the history projects. Groups proudly presented their first history projects of the year and a group science follow-up.In the coming weeks, we'll be turning our attention to the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Medieval times. A new project about Invading Forces will accompany that transition. You'll be hearing a lot more about it soon!
 
We are doing frequent writing lessons that are focused on helping students develop their ability to find interesting ideas for their writing. We use the 6 +1 Traits sequence in our informal writing because it helps children build a strong foundation of skills and more importantly it helps them sees themselves as capable, energetic writers. We have informal writing every Tuesday morning, a writers' showcase every Friday, journaling a couple times a weeks, and lots of story writing happening spontaneously. Poet Marge Piercy said, "A real writer is one who really writes." That's our motto! Please take a few minutes to ask your child what they are writing about and share in the joy.

Children are selecting their first literature circle books tomorrow. They are invited to read as much of their book as they'd like. Each child will have individualized reading goals based on their reading speed (correct words per minute), and they are welcome to read at a pace that is comfortable for them. Each week they will participate in a lit circle discussion, and they will also have an assignment to complete in their new lit journal.  When they finish a book, they will select another book and join a different group. The groups will change and morph over time. We will be talking more about our new lit circle system at Goal-Setting Conferences. 

We are preparing for our trip to IslandWood next week, and we'll be sending out a detailed email towards the end of the week so. In the meantime, please reach out if you have any questions.

Please remember to send your child's Goal-Setting forms back to school! We need to see them in advance of conferences in order to prepare. 

We'll be hosting our Goal-Setting Conferences in Ms. Nicole's office.  

We'll see you at Goal-Setting!

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