G'day Mate!

Today we received our 1st Global Greeting!

We received a postcard from Manly Beach in Australia from Jana Jordan! We learned that Manly Beach is a great place for families to visit and relax. It has great surfing and swimming---but watch out for sharks! On Friday, we will make passports and receive our 1st stamp of the year for "traveling" to Sydney, Australia :) We all hope to one day make the actual trip! Thanks, Jana!

Personal Narrative & Math

Hello, Parents! Just a note that the due-date for the Personal Narrative final draft has been extended to the end of the day tomorrow, due to the 2 hour delay yesterday. I have enjoyed seeing their writing come together! Many of them took home their Writer's Notebooks tonight to continue working on editing and their final draft. Final Drafts are to be handwritten on a sheet of notebook paper, with the title and author's name (your child!) at the top. We have much to work on with mechanics and dialogue, this draft will help me to see how well they are navigating through the writing process. Our main focus has been on hooking the reader and leaving them satisfied, sequence words, dialogue, and captivating titles. Also---math homework tonight.... Do your best to assist your child, but don't exasperate yourselves! Math is taught so differently than the way you and I learned it back in the day ;) We worked on subtraction today of multi-digit numbers. To help make the connection from the conceptual to the practical, we've been doing drawings and place-value groupings. I am calling this doing math with "training wheels"! Hopefully, by the end of the week, I can give them a push & they'll be off! The practical methods of addition and subtraction are quickest for most students once they understand the "why" of it all. Be patient, as we build bridges! The assignment for tonight is going to help me determine how close they are to connecting the dots :) Have a wonderful evening!