Happy winter!

Ha. From this Minnesota girl, you have no idea how funny this is to me.

Lindsay, Sammy, Aliyah and Kyra parade with gifts to the Gym.

Thanks to your generosity, we had such a successful gift drive. It is always so wonderful to take that walk with so many gifts in hand to the gym on the final day of the drive. Today, Mr. Murphy forwarded an email to the faculty from a woman who has participated in the Guardian ad Litem program for a number of years. She is so grateful for Shorecrest's participation in the gift drive, commenting about how these gifts for the kids with whom she works are often the only gifts they receive. She described young people who are so appreciative. It was nice to read.

Asher, Will R. and Michael join the march.

As you may recall, for my birthday, the students (with Esther H.'s organization and your help!) wrote letters to my very favorite author, Kate DiCamillo, asking her to visit Shorecrest on my behalf. My fourth-grade teammates, Dr. Bianco, Mrs. Weinman and Mr. Murphy all contributed lovely and thoughtful letters to the collection as well. The book of letters itself is a gift for sure. Esther then sent various relevant people copies of the book, hoping to get Ms. DiCamillo's attention. Eventually, we did; through her publisher, the author responded that while she is too busy to be making any school visits these days, she was so moved by the students' letters that she agreed to answer some questions via email. We, of course, were thrilled.

Matthew carries a package to the Gym.

The students' and my goal became to ask Ms. DiCamillo's questions that she had never been asked before--we wanted to honor her with that. We also wanted to take advantage of our luck and find out as much as we could--all that we couldn't discover from any other source. So, we spent a number of days listening to the author's speeches, watching interviews and reading blog posts. After this work, each student (and two eager teachers) composed the most unique and interesting question s/he could. We emailed the questions to the author's publisher on Thursday. Esther and I were thrilled to get a response less than 36 hours after the questions were sent.

As you know from Esther's email late last week, I shared with the students Ms. DiCamillo's responses on Friday. They were as excited as I was! It was thrilling to hear that some of our questions had never been asked before. Yay! For me, this has been a truly memorable experience, from start to finish. I hope that students shared with you the questions and answers this weekend. I really am so proud of these kids who are such eager learners and thoughtful readers and writers.

As I mentioned last week, we are embarking on our study of fiction writing in writing workshop. As a way to begin that study, students will be learning about writing to prompts. On Thursday and Friday last week, students completed their first prompt. Today, we used a rubric to look over their writing, determining what they thought they did well and how they might improve. Already today we have determined on what we need to work through this study. I expect to spend time working with them on how to incorporate what they have learned in the workshop setting into a more artificial, fast-paced situation. Certainly, attempting to translate what they learn about a more authentic process of writing in the workshop can be difficult to transfer to a timed setting. After a few weeks of teaching, students will write to another prompt in January. This will help us see growth as well as areas for further improvement--both from them and from me.

Last week we also began reading Sarah Weeks' So B. It as a read aloud. In this novel, Heidi--the daughter of a developmentally disabled mother who is unable to communicate--struggles to learn about her past. Our focus in reading workshop has been attempting to connect to characters who seem so different from ourselves. Students have worked to make connections to Heidi in order to delve more deeply into the book. Many students have people in their lives who have various challenges, and these relationships have helped them connect to our main character.

We are also spending time considering what the books we read are really about--reading between the lines to uncover what an author is really trying to tell us. We have begun whole-class conversations during which students are challenged and expected to talk to one another, foregoing hand raising, really listening and responding to each other. If ever you wish to participate in a lesson in class, I encourage you to join us for a discussion surrounding a book we have read together. The students are doing a phenomenal job within this format.

Students work in a small group to learn about the partial quotients algorithm.

Kyra and Sammy discuss their strategies in math.

In math students have begun learning new algorithms to solve division problems. Partial quotients is the primary method taught, and as we learn about it, students are expected to use this method. Once time has been spent teaching various methods, students are free to use whatever method works best for them. The partial quotient algorithm asks students to break down problems into more manageable ones in order to solve them. Division is always tricky, but I have asked the students to stick with it--it will get easier and make more sense to them over the next number of days!

Congratulations to Renata who won first place in her age group in Inkwood Books' Harris Burdick Writing Competition. In honor of the recently released The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, participants were asked to write an original story based on one of the images from Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, the precursor to the The Chronicles. The Mysteries is filled with engaging illustrations and simple story starters that beg the reader to tell her/his own story. In the just-released The Chronicles, renowned authors were asked to contribute their own stories based on the images from the original text. The competition honors that process by asking student authors to do the same. We are all so proud of Renata. She is a gifted writer AND reader AND a tremendous person--Shorecrest is lucky to have in its midst!

 




Important upcoming events:
December 16, 10:00 a.m: winter party
December 16, 11:00: LD sing along
December 16: noon dismissal
December 19 - January 3: winter break