Monday, November 7th
Puffins to Forest Grove Public Library 1:50pm-3pm
Chaperones Welcome! If you would like to join us, please send Ginny an email, and plan to meet us in the classroom at 1:50pm (after checking in at the school office).
Wednesday, November 9th: O&A at Lincoln Park 12:50-3pm
Level 2 will be walking to Lincoln Park for a presentation with "Skate Like a Girl," a Portland-based organization that teaches kids skateboarding skills & physics.
Our Science Objective: To expand our idea of forces, to introduce the concept of friction and kinetic energy, and to experiment to see how greater force = greater energy.
Chaperones Welcome! If you would like to walk with us and help guide students during our Out & About, please email your kiddo's classroom teacher, and plan to meet us in the classroom at 12:45pm (after checking in at the school office).
Friday, November 11th
Veteran's Day- NO SCHOOL
Friday, November 18th: All School Meeting and Spirit Day: dress like a farmer!
The Puffins class will be presenting on the stage!
Parents are welcome to attend the meeting:
Forest Grove School District building (1728 Main St.) in the Grove Room @ 9:45 am
Wednesday November. 23rd- Friday, November 25th
Thanksgiving Break- NO SCHOOL
Math Homework
For November 4th- 11th, focus on these Apply homework pages:
For all 3rd and 4th graders: Work on lessons 1-6 in the new Module 2 workbook.
New homework-workbooks for Module 2 were sent home at fall conferences last week. As we discussed, the workbooks work best when the "purple text" is read out-loud together with an adult before students work on the lesson questions.
Also recommended: daily practice with multiplication facts for 2-10's
Check out these multiplication fact practice apps:
What's happening in the Puffin Nest:
Writing Workshop
This week, we learned about the mechanics of dialogue. We thought about how to add dialogue appropriately in our personal narrative stories. We finished drafting the middle of our stories and moved on to creating a strong ending for our stories.
We continue to read and analyze mentor texts with rich, descriptive language that demonstrate the components of personal narrative stories.
During Reading Workshop we focused on questioning before, during and after reading. We take the time to ask questions that support inferences, and to better understand characters, events and the author's big ideas. We discussed the difference between "thin and thick" questions. Ask your kiddo to tell you the difference!
Novel Study Read Aloud: The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
The Wild Robot is the story of Rozzum unit 7143, a robot who finds herself on a strange island. She uses her robot skills and programming instincts to study her environment and learn how to adapt to her new wild surroundings.
Out & About & Science
In the classroom, we started our new Force, Motion & Energy Unit by exploring balanced and unbalanced forces. We learned that:
- A force is a push or pull with both strength and direction
- Forces can cause objects to slow, stop, or change direction
- Gravity is an example of a force that pulls all objects toward the center of the Earth
- Unbalanced forces cause an object to change its motion.
- Balanced forces do not cause a change in motion.
Social Emotional Learning
This week, we focused on respectful communication. Our discussions centered around these questions:
- What do you think respectful communication means? How can we practice respectful communication?
- Who do you know that is really good at respectful communication? What do you notice about their communication that makes you think that?
When giving our opinion, we can say:
- I believe/think/feel that…
- From my perspective…
- I understand your point of view, but I respectfully disagree because…
- I’m curious about ______. Do you feel like sharing about it?