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Newsletter Dear Parents, The Wonderful Widmans were very busy this week. Please read on to learn about what we accomplished. Our last day for Math Unit 1 was Thursday. Students learned about solving problems with dollar and cents. They reviewed and extended several important skills: counting money, writing dollar-and-cents notation, estimating, interpreting calculator displays, and solving problems involving money. We also discussed the importance of estimation.   Math Unit 2 started today. This unit focuses on adding and subtracting whole numbers. There is special emphasis on the basic facts and their extensions; solution strategies for addition and subtraction number stories; and addition and subtraction computation with multidigit numbers. Unit 2 has four main areas of focus: to review fact families and number families, to review and solve “What’s My Rule?” problems, to use diagrams to help solve number stories, and to review algorithms for adding and subtracting. This week, we started learning about the prairie. Students began working their prairie books. So far, students have created their dedication pages and started learning new prairie vocabulary words. Students worked the SMARTBoard to learn about these words. They interacted with images, watched videos, and read from their Living in a Prairie books to learn about each word. Ask your child about the vocabulary words he or she has learned so far!     Pictured below are some students reading from a TFK. The class discussed the cover story, which focused on wild fires. We then watched a BrainPop video on natural disasters.    During Literacy, the class used laptops to type their second persuasive papers. The prompt of this paper asked students to decide if all teachers at West School should have a class pet. Right away, everyone decided that all teachers should have a class pet. A lot of the paper was written together, but the students were asked to come up with their own details. Everyone did a fantastic job!   We also discussed what antonyms are by playing a game in our classroom. Each student received two-three words. They had to identify the person who had the antonym (opposite) words. Additionally, we discussed word choice by talking about “rice cake” and “salsa” words. Some rice cake words we came up with were good, mad, and sad. Each table group was assigned a “rice cake” word and had to look it up in the thesaurus. We came up with many synonyms for the words and uncovered why the synonyms could be “salsa words.”     Today we had an assembly about easing the tease at school. Ask your child what he or she learned!   Looking Ahead: • Reading Logs are due Monday • Somme Prairie permission form and check due October 3, 2009 • Fiction Book Report contract and letter due September 25, 2009 • Book Order due Monday, September 28, 2009 Our Wonderful Top Ten:  10. Sharing 9. Gabby's dog 8. Prairie 7. Georgina's background 6. Switching for math 5. Special Lunch 4. Lap tops 3. Read Aloud 2. Art 1. P.E. Have a great weekend! Sincerely, Mrs. Widman |