Dear Families and Friends,

2018 is off to a great and busy start! Line plots, modes, medians, means, perimeters and area have been the themes in math class so far. Always fun to get the Geo Boards out and create line plots on the board.

The final projects on Maniac Magee came in yesterday and revealed a great understanding of the themes of this complex story. From book blurbs and predictions to cartoon strips, the class really grasped the themes of homelessness, racism and prejudice, family and friendship as well as the sense of fun that the story reflects. They will be displayed in our hallway along with some other written work related to Maniac Magee. Please visit our bulletin board!

We are enjoying a short mini-unit on Tall Tales (as Maniac is a bit of a tall tale character himself!) but will soon begin our next book, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson. It is written as 60 poems and despite the spare text tells a complex and moving story. This class is so connected to poetry I know that it will inspire even more poetic writing than Love That Dog did at the start of the year.

In Social Studies, we have begun our study of US geography. They surprised themselves, and me, in how many states they could label on a blank map as our starting point.

We had a short but fun visit from the 7th graders this week who helped us with our Spelling Scramble and we have in turn invited them to our classroom for some yoga and qiqong practice soon.

Please remember to send in SLIPPERS, if you haven’t already done so, and a set of dry clothes. If you have any extra set of snow pants that can live at school that would be great, otherwise please send in a pair everyday- it makes a real difference in what activities they can participate in at recess.

Best to all!

Katharine


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