Thursday, November 18, 2010

Regrouping, Parts of Speech, and South America. Oh My!

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In math Katie's group has been working on odd and even. We have used hundreds charts and played games to reinforce the skill. Today we took a day trip from South America to Germany! We met with our little buddies in Katlyn's class and listened to Sophia's grandmother talk about life in Germany. We then learned how to count from one to ten in German.

Currently Keri’s group is working on subtraction with “regrouping” or “borrowing”.  We are using 20 pennies and 10 dimes and we are setting up the problem before we attempt it.  For example, if the problem is 22 – 8, we put out 2 dimes and 2 pennies.  Then we ask ourselves if we can take 8 pennies away from the pennies that we have.  If the answer is no, then we go to the dimes and trade 1 dime in for 10 pennies.  Then we complete the problem.  Try a couple of these at home with your child to see if they remember what they are working on.  It seems that everyone needs help with this.  Our goal is to be able to regroup without the coins when needed to complete problems. 

For reading, Keri's group is working on short vowel sounds and sight words.  This week and last we have worked on the short a sound.  They all know that the short a says “a” as in apple, but many struggle when it comes to reading consistently words in familiar families.  We will continue to work our way through the short vowels as we work to sound out words that we don’t know and memorize more sight words.  We will be sending home sorts that we do in class.  If you want to work with your child on reading or spelling, feel free to include these words.  We will also be sending home the book that we are working on for them to practice reading at home as well. 

In Katie's class students were finally able to read their Surprise Sack assignments. Students had a great time guessing what each other had in the sack. We have also started parts of speech. Students had a great time learning about nouns. We sorted them into person, place, and thing categories. We also played a game where students bounced a ball and had to come up with a noun.  Students continue to work on reading comprehension and fluency during quiet reading times.  


  • The Thanksgiving Potluck and Art Show is quickly approaching. Join us for this time-honored, Community School tradition. Close to three hundred people attend this annual event, and the students have been working very hard on their pieces for the art show. Good food, good fellowship, and incredible student art…what a wonderful way to begin the Thanksgiving Holiday! 
    • Please note, dismissal is at 1pm from Hollins University, NOT  Community School. 
    • Middle Elementary families should bring an entree and side dish to feed 10 - 12 people.
    • You will bring your child to school as usual, but with no backpack or lunch box. Please send in a disposable fruit break and we will walk over to HU around 11:15am. You will meet us at Hollins in the Moody Center lobby after we walk through the art show on the upper floor of the Moody Center. You will then trickle into the dining hall with your child and find a table to sit at and enjoy your feast!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Fabulous Fall Update

December 6th, 7th, and 8th.  Community School will host it's annual book fair. This year we will be hosting a Scholastic Book Fair on campus as well as working with Amazon.

In keeping with the Scholastic Book Fair's theme, Super Heroes, the Globetrotters would like to invite you to a Super Hero's lunch on Tuesday the 7th. We will be serving Hero Sandwiches, Villainous Veggies, and Super Soup. After lunch our students will perform with Kim Mucha. Then off to class they will fly so you can do some super sneaky holiday shopping. Please call or email us if you are planning to attend so we can make sure we have enough food.

This week we have gone south.  In science and social studies we have started studying South America. In Keri's class kids are focusing on the rain forest. In Katie's class we are focusing on Santa Cruz, Bolivia where our exchange students are from. 

In math, Keri's students played a great button game that focused on regrouping and place value. Brown buttons represented 10's and white buttons represented 1's.  Kids shopped using brown buttons to purchase items and were given change in white buttons. Today they put that knowledge to work subtracting two digit numbers with regrouping.

In Katie's class, we have been focused on the school store this week.  We have done inventory, counted money, used subtraction to figure out how much of each item we have sold, estimated next week's profits, and set goals for our business. Kids are filling out a weekly chart that helps us keep track of sales so that we can make decisions about purchasing and marketing.

The kids have been reading away.  In Keri's class they are sorting words with the "short a" sound.  We are adding new sight words to our reading library each week as well. Katie's group is playing literacy games that focus on blends, digraphs, plurals, and contractions.  Today students traced sight words on each others' backs. We also are finishing our "Surprise Sack" paragraphs. Students are super excited to have their classmates guess what is inside their imaginary sack. 

On Friday, November 19th we will be taking the train to South America! We will be visiting the VA Museum of Transportation, the O. Winston Link Museum, and having lunch at Alejandro's.  Please make sure your child's Alejandro's order is turned in by Monday with their $5.00 payment.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

SAVE THE DATE!

Save the date Tuesday, December 7th from 12:15 - 1:30!

We are planning something special on campus for parents and grandparents. More will be revealed in the next few weeks.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Niagra Falls!

This morning we strapped ourselves in, made sure we had our parachutes, and took a helicopter ride over Niagara Falls. Students learned that 3,000 tons spill over the falls every minute! We learned about daredevils who have gone over the falls in "barrels". This lead us to a great discussion about the physics off falling and velocity. Students can't wait to get started on their egg drop containers!

Please don't forget to send in supplies for Friday's project. The egg drop will be held at 2:30 pm on Friday.

In Science, students presented their 5 senses projects on Mexico, Canada, and the United States. In Social Studies, students completed their passport to the world projects.

Next week we will be moving on to South America!!!