Native Americans and Supplies Needed

November 10, 2016

Dear Parents and Guardians,

It has been a very short week with the holiday tomorrow and election day/ Professional Development on Tuesday! Many students and teachers have been getting sick as well. I hope that your family is healthy and able to relax this week.

Social Studies

We just started learning about the Wampanoag Native Americans. We will continue to learn about this tribe for the next week and we will be building a model Wampanoag village. To help with this, I have asked students to look for materials that would be helpful for building our model/ diorama. For example, they might bring in a small collection of twigs or bark from a down tree to build a wetu with. Small figurines or dolls would be helpful too. Thanks!

Writing

This week, students learned about temporal words and phrases -- words and phrases that have to do with time, like first, next, after, instantly, after awhile, etc. Including these words in personal narratives can help make them easier to understand. Notice those words and phrases in reading and speaking with your child. Next week, they will choose one personal narrative to develop and publish.

Math

We are continuing to learn about what multiplication and division are conceptually. If your child is having trouble at home, you could always use counters like buttons and coins and have them model the problems with something tangible. They are hopefully feeling more and more comfortable with multiplication and division with 2 and 3. Apply this at home by splitting things into two groups or three groups (a pile of pretzels or nails for example).

Social Curriculum

This week we talked about strategies for calming ourselves down, problem solving, how to have a conversation with others, and how to deal with peer pressure. Find out what strategies your child prefers to use for calming down (breathing, counting backwards, thinking calming thoughts, or talking to yourself). We are hoping that the lessons, strategies, and role plays will transfer to what they are doing in their own lives regularly.

Needed Supplies

We are running low on pencils. Ticonderoga pencils tend to last the longest, but if it is possible to send any sort of pencil in, that would be great!

Have a nice long weekend,

Jessica Harwood