Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Hi All,

I hope you enjoyed your bonus day off, and that the lack of power didn't cramp your style too much!
I know I enjoyed a good part of the days, and saved my Ipad charge for night time reading.

This week is full of other kinds of excitement. The kids will celebrate Halloween on Thursday with the parade at 8:15, followed by our class party at 9. Expectation/rules about appropriate costumes were presented in this week's Seahawk News, which the kids watched Tuesday morning. If you are unsure, ask your child what they learned on the news! In the afternoon, our class will have the Dash Robots, and will be working with a teacher from the Tech Department on writing codes for them. Unfortunately, our first Dash Robot day was Monday.  On Friday, teachers will be attending in-services throughout the district, so your kids will have a recovery day from Halloween festivities.

A few other fun things are coming up in the next several weeks. The first is our pizza party on November 15th, which the class won for having the highest percentage of students participating in the Drive-for-Schools fundraiser--yay, you! Fourth Graders will be going to Mission San Juan Bautista on Friday, December 13th. If you are a 4th Grade parent, and able to drive (fingerprinted, TB-tested, etc.), please let me know ASAP. I'd like 3 drivers from 4th. Third Grade's first field trip will not be until January, when we head to the Museum of Natural History. 

FYI, Recently I read that the Berkeley Repertory Theater would be presenting The Tale of Despereaux. I have seen a lot of plays there, and highly recommend their productions if you are looking for a special family activity in December/January.

Have a great, busy week!

Carroll

Monday, October 21, 2019

Hi All,

I hope you enjoyed out beautiful coastal fall weather! 

Last Friday, our class celebrated the completion of our Personal Narrative stories. We met up with Mr. Avey and Mr. McMillan and read work from other kids. The children are coached to leave positive, constructive comments for each other. This week we begin an Informative Writing unit!

Our class also finished up the week with a terrific presentation on Type I Diabetes from Lucy, Jane, and our school nurse, Sandra Goldstein. The kids learned about the meaning of diabetes, and ways they can support individuals with this medical diagnosis. Some also connected the discussion to other challenges they face, and gave our class an opportunity to grow even further as a supportive community.

This week Fourth Graders begin Math Module 3, on multiplying and dividing bigger numbers. You will notice that the first few activities seem cumbersome and inefficient as modes to multiply, but they are addressing the concept of multiplication. Personally, I have shifted over to "Partial Product" when I do my own calculations, but kids will learn a variety of techniques, including the standard algorithm. Third Graders will continue with their Module 2, learning about various forms of measurement.

In Reading the focus is now on information. At home, kids may continue to read narrative or information, but a significant portion of our reading time in the classroom, and all instruction, will be around strategies of reading and understanding informative writing (aka nonfiction.)

Planning is underway for this year's Halloween festivities. There will be a parade for all grades at 8:15,  and our class party follows at 9. Room Parents are organizing the party, so please make contact with them if you'd like to support this activity in any way.

Finally, this Friday, October 25th, Third Graders' landform projects are due. This assignment went home approximately one month ago, and is the culmination of a Geography Unit. Fourth Graders should complete and submit their California regions project, which has been primarily prepared in class. Check in with your child to verify whether they need additional work time at home this week.

Have a great day!

Carroll Mayer



Sunday, October 13, 2019

Hi All,

Last week was a bit wild and crazy, with the build up to power outage, and no school on Thursday!  We finished strong on Friday: seeing the Afterschool drama group perform a Pinocchio, and then the Harvest Festival in the evening. All the ups and downs put us a little behind in finishing up our narrative writing, but it will be wrapped up this week!

I sent out an email last week, but if you haven’t scheduled your child’s November Parent/Teacher Conference yet, please get in touch via note, email, or phone message.

Finally, Drive-for-Schools ends this Wednesday. If you have any final tickets to sell, or turn in, please do so by that day.

Have a great week!

Carroll

Monday, October 7, 2019

HI All,

This week kids from both grades are into new math units. Third Graders are learning about telling time, and then will work on measurement. Fourth Graders have an extremely short and fast unit on metric measurement!

We are also finishing up our narrative writing. I will be collecting it from this kids by early next week, and then we will have a short assessment on the narrative writing skills they've learned.

In Reading, we will be moving on to reading informational text next week. This is an interesting unit, but kids often find that they need to read books that are much shorter, and also written at an easier level than the fiction books that they are accustomed to. Please encourage your child to be mindful of readability when they select information books, along with finding topics that they are curious about!

Scholastic book orders are due Tuesday. It helps build the classroom library when you order books through them. I can also keep books hidden, if you wish to plan ahead for birthdays or holiday gifts.

The Harvest Festival is this Friday! If you haven't attended, please come. The kids love it, and it's a great opportunity to bond with other Rio families.

Finally, keep selling Drive For Schools tickets. All the money goes to Rio del Mar, which makes it our best fund raiser. The odds are better than the lottery, so persuade your lottery ticket buying friends and family to take part!

Have a great week!

Carroll Mayer