newsletter 03

October 8, 2009

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READING WORKSHOP The grand opening of the library was a success!

Banyan students were excited to see the big reveal of the Banyan library this past Monday. They chose books from a much larger selection. We also met in small groups for the first time this week! Small group time gives us the opportunity to focus on specific skills for certain ability levels. All the children have a copy of the same title and we talk, read and share together. We have been discussing previewing skills: taking a picture walk and making predictions. A picture walk is when you look at all the pictures before you read the words. I encouraged the students to make predictions(thinking guesses) based on the title, the cover and their picture walk. We began using post-its to record our thinking. So far, students have recorded their reading goals and some predictions.

Word Work We played more rhyming games and we introduced some new word sorting activities which focused on beginning consonant sounds. We started our first spelling pattern: an. What words can you think of with “an� in them? We also tried some new tongue twisters: Willow and William went wild with Winston. Charlie chewed cheeseburgers and chocolate.

Banyan Newsletter

Word Wall Words: an am I is it he can the to and if of a had has

October 8, 2009

BA N YA N How Does Your Engine Run? Marianna Nickel visited Banyan and talked to us about energy levels. She talked about our engines running high, low and just right. We realized that our best learning happens when our engines running our just right.

How do we get our engines running just right?

Sometimes our engines are running too low or too high and we need to adjust them. Marianna showed us some ways to do this.

Science: Snail Study 1.

Use your mouth. Chew on snacks. chew on a straw. Blow on a whistle.

2. your energy.

Look at something to refocus

We continued to explore snails! The students watched and observed with their scientist eyes.

They recorded more “notices and wonders.� We reviewed our snail handling etiquette guidelines.

Banyan students did their first scientific drawing of a snail!

3.

Use your body. Do some stretches or push ups. Run around the circle.

4.

Use your hands. Squeeze a ball.

Stretch a band. Do finger push ups.

Marianna showed us how to use this stretchy band to adjust our energy levels. We also did some push ups!

Banyan Newsletter

October 8, 2009

BA N YA N Social Studies We finished our interviews of all our classmates. The children learned to ask thoughtful questions and to answer them.

They also learned a lot about each other.

The Skin You’re In...

We began our exploration of skin tones and colors in our People Study. We read The Colors of Us and we compared our skin to various foods. We looked at all types of foods and tried to find what matched our skin best. Try this at home!

Here are some of the foods we looked at: Cheerios, honey, coffee, oats, mustard, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, chocolate sauce, and maple syrup. We also walked around MCDS and looked for things on campus that came close to our skin tones.

We photographed our hands next to these items. It was interesting to see all the shades and tones in Banyan. We are excited to discover our “recipes” for our skin color.

Math

Math Words: sum symbol equation plus

Banyan students learned a new combining game called Roll and Record. They rolled two dot cubes and recorded their total until one sum reached the end of the game board. We began exploring story problems that involve combining and adding numbers. The children worked on retelling and envisioning the story and then deciding if we were putting numbers together or taking them apart. Then, they solved the problem and showed their thinking. We also learned a fun game to learn combinations of 10 called 3 Towers.

Banyan Newsletter