Monday, April 30th, 2012

Good afternoon!

I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing weekend. In Expedition, we are working like meteorologists, so observe, record, and analyze the weather. Here we are recording our thinking. On these charts, we record our thinking again after we've learned more, to document how our thinking has changed.

Monday, April 23

Good afternoon!

I hope everyone had a good long weekend!

In Reader's Workshop, we are learning how to pay attention to text clues to infer meaning. One way we are thinking about this, is you stop and consider the author's purpose. This will help us figure out what the text means. While you read at home with your child, talk about the author's purpose. Ask your child what he or she thinks and ask them to support their thinking with evidence from the text.

In Writer's Workshop, we are learning how to notice features of nonfiction text. By doing this, we are learning what features to include in the nonfiction pieces we are writing. So far, we have learned about headings, photographs, and captions. You can expect to see these things in the pieces we publish.

In Expedition, we are learning about the tools that meteorologists use to measure, record, and communicate data about weather. We will be making our own weather tools, as well as creating a weather log, so that we can work like meteorologists too!

April 16th, 2012

Greetings!

Last week, we started meeting with our new Kindergarten buddies. We will meet with our buddies each week to share our writing. It's a lot of fun to listen to Ms. Jody's students' writing as well as share what we know about writing.

3rd grade portfolio panels are coming up soon. Please sign up to be a panelist, as you won't be able to be on a panel for 3rd grade next year. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Greetings from 3rd Grade,

Ms. Brittany and I would like to encourage you to sign up for 3rd Grade Portfolio Presentations. This is an exciting event that our crews are working hard to prepare for and is a unique experience to Renaissance.

We really need your help! To make this possible, we are in need of many more volunteers. As a heads up, parents cannot serve on the 3rd grade panels when their child is in 3rd grade, so now is the time to see what this experience is all about! 

Thank you for your consideration, and we hope to see you there!

~Mrs. Lauren and Ms. Brittany

Portfolio Presentation Sign-Ups
One of the big milestones for Renaissance crew members happens twice, once in 3rd grade and once in 6th grade, when they present their Portfolios to a panel of adults. In order for this to be a successful experience for our crew members, we need YOU, volunteers to help make up our panels.  

Please go to SignUP Genius and volunteer.  (Note that parents of current 3rd graders can only volunteer for the 6th grade panels and parents of current 6th graders can only volunteer for for the 3rd grade panels.  Parents of Kindergartners, 1st & 2nd graders, or 4th & 5th graders can sign up to be on either or both panels.)  Sign ups only available until April 19th!

3rd Grade Portfolio Sign-Up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A5AD238-rems 
6th Grade Portfolio Sign-Up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A5AD238-rems1 

3rd Grade Portfolio Presentations will be on Wednesday, May 9th from 1:45pm to 4:00pm.  (Actual Student presentation times will be sent to parents in May.)
6th Grade Portfolio Presentations will be on Thursday, May 24th from 5:30pm to 7:00pm.  Panel members will meet the week before, on Thursday, May 17th to review the sixth grade portfolios and compile a letter of questions to the individual 6th grader. (Actual Student presentation times will be sent to parents in May.)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Welcome back! I am so happy to be back with your kiddos today! Though I had a nice, relaxing break, I sure did miss them.

We only have 8 weeks of school left. Really? That's crazy! These last 8 weeks will be packed with learning.

In Writer's Workshop, we are beginning a nonfiction genre study. Students will be creating their own nonfiction pieces about a topic of their choice.

In Expedition, we just launched our Science Expedition, called "Winter White, Whirling Wind." In the first case study, Winter White, students will be learning about weather through going in depth into an investigation into blizzards.