Dear Room 102 Parents,

What is the problem with twin witches?

You never know which witch is which! (Those are homophones!)

We started out the week reading a book called Koko’s Kitten by Dr. Francine Patterson with photographs taken by Ronald H. Cohn. It is the true story of a gorilla that used sign language to talk with her handlers and asked them for a kitten as a pet. The story focused on the remarkable gorilla and the unique relationship between the two animals. We were intrigued by this special friendship, so we also read a true story about a special bond between a hippo and a tortoise.

Have you ever thought about creating your own monster? What would it look like? What would its name be? Where would it be from and how would you get it? We created monsters…first drawn on paper and then out of clay, googly eyes, pipe cleaners and other art materials. See the pictures below!

A pumpkin activity had us exploring and discussing the weight, circumference, and height of the stems of the pumpkins that were donated to our class. After documenting our predictions, we used a scale and measuring tapes to collect the actual data.

A glyph (from the word hieroglyphic) is pictorial way to collect data. Each child made a pumpkin glyph answering specific questions, which determined what color stem, and the shape of the eyes, nose and mouth he/she needed to cut out and glue on to his/her jack-o-lantern.

Did you know that a puppy is born deaf, blind, and toothless? The only senses a puppy is born with are taste and touch. Around 3 weeks old, a puppy’s primary teeth begin to grow. By two months old, a puppy should have all 28 of their first set of teeth. By seven months, a puppy should have a full set of permanent teeth. An adult dog, on average, has 42 teeth…that’s 10 more that an adult human!

This week’s Scholastic issue was about the election and answered questions about how Americans choose the president, whether or not a kid can be a president, who grown-ups are voting for, and what happens on Election Day. We talked about the importance of voting, and I heard that so many family members have chosen to vote early.

The Humbug Witch by Lorna Balian has a hard time making potions. Her broom won’t fly and her laugh comes out as a giggle instead of a scary cackle. The first time we read the book, the children were not shown the illustrations. They had to be active listeners while drawing their own version of the little witch…with a big nose, a crooked black hat, orange gloves, long and red stringy hair, black shoes with a golden buckle, a black shawl, red and white stockings, and a plaid apron. There were so many adjectives! In the end, it is revealed that the witch is really a little girl playing dress up.

Today, dressed as a gorilla, I announced our new novel read-aloud and read the first few sections of…drum roll please…The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. It’s based on the true story of a silverback gorilla, Ivan, and a few other animals that are part of a circus act at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. The story is told from Ivan’s perspective and, although the mall billboard advertisement shows a scary and mean gorilla, Ivan is kind and gentile.

Notes:

• Please remember that Scholastic Book orders can be placed any time and that your orders earn our class points for free books!

Happy Halloween! Have a great weekend!

Bridget

Dear Room 102 Parents,

On Monday we participated in the Allstate Cyber Safety for Kids training that taught us how to be safe online and to know when to STOP, THINK, and TELL. We were introduced to the Cyber Safety characters Sid, Sophie, and Scruff, and the following topics were covered through interactive games and discussions:

• Friend or Pretend – beware of talking to strangers online
• Beware What You Share – know the dangers of what you’re sharing online
• Don’t Be Mean On Screen – help stop cyber bullying

This week we applied the same Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) that we use when we see a painting for the first time to analyze a picture from the New York Times. Each week a new picture is posted without a caption. Students across the world use VTS to share what they think is going on in the picture. We looked forward to the big caption reveal next week!

The Visual Thinking Strategies are:

1. What is going on in this picture?
2. What do you see that makes you say that?
3. What more can you find?

This week we finished our first novel read-aloud for the school the year. When the story started, Opal had just moved to Florida and didn’t have any friends. Her heart felt empty and ached so much because she missed her mother. The story ended with Opal at a party, surrounded by a group of friends that she now considers family…and it’s all because of Winn-Dixie. Although she’ll still miss her mom, the holes in her heart have been filled. Do you remember the “wait-and-see tree” that she planted with Gloria Dump? Opal found it in Gloria’s yard…it is small, but strong…just like Opal! (Just like the kids in Room 102, too!)

We made our own versions of Because of Winn-Dixie by making a cover page, title page, dedication page, a Meet the Author page, and arranging our Chapter Check-Ins in order. We also watched the movie and compared the book and the movie using a Venn diagram.

Last week we learned that dogs are not colorblind although they don’t see colors and details like we do, they notice colors through shade intensity. I downloaded an app on my phone that allows me to take a picture of something and then the image is processed as it would appear from a dog’s view. We have enjoyed taking pictures of everyday items and seeing them from a dog’s perspective. The top half of this picture shows our class they way a dog would see us.

A dog’s whiskers are found around the nose, eyes, upper lip and chin, but did you know they have an important purpose? They are very sensitive and can sense vibrations in the air. This   helps a dog to identify the size, shape and how close objects are. They can also sense objects close to the eyes causing them to blink.

We are learning about the life and paintings of the American artist Georgia O’Keeffe. We listened to a story titled My Name is Geogia: a Portrait by Jeanette Winter by Jeanette Winter. Even at a young age, while other kids were playing, Georgia practiced drawing and painting. As an adult she spent time in New York and even in Chicago. Since she is best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, we applied this technique to create our own works of art, painting flowers with petals that appear as though they are falling off of the paper. We are still adding the finishing touches to our masterpieces and look forward to finishing them next week.

This week’s issue of Scholastic News was about growing pumpkins that are so big that they could be used as a boat! We looked at a graphic about the life cycle of a pumpkin and used that information to answer questions. Next week will be participating in activities and experiments that will be an extension of what we read in this article.

Have a great weekend!

Bridget

 

Dear Room 102 Parents,

Although the calendar says that we didn’t have school on Monday because of Columbus Day, we started Tuesday morning with a discussion about who Christopher Columbus really was, and why some places are opting to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead.

As we start to get ready for Halloween, we made paper chain decorations. Some of the kids decided to connect their chains and then were curious to know how long it was. So, of course, we measured it! The tape measures we have are 60 in. and 79 in. long, so we figured out that in order to measure the entire chain, we needed two of the 60 in. tape measures and two of the 79 in. tape measures, and there was 15 inches leftover. We added all of those numbers together and figured out that our chain was 293 inches long. Then we extended the activity by figuring out how many feet that was, so we used the tape measures to count how many groups of 12 inches there were and calculated that 293 inches is 24 feet and 5 inches. (We also figured out that the paper chain was 6 kids long!) The paper chain is hanging in the atrium to encourage all of the Plato students and staff to get into the Halloween spirit.

While reading Gone With the Wind to Gloria Dump, Opal gets the idea to have a party so that all of her friends can meet each other. She promises Gloria that she will invite the Dewberry brothers, and also invites the preacher, Amanda Wilkinson, Sweetie Pie, Franny Block, and Otis. Otis is a bit apprehensive at first, but agrees to attend. They decorate Gloria’s backyard, make egg salad sandwiches, and Dump Punch. Ask your kiddo why Otis was nervous, what he brought to the party, and what happened when he attempted to shake the preacher’s hand. Just as the party got started, something else unexpected happens. Stay tuned for more details…

Our love for Winn Dixie has inspired us to want to learn more about “man’s best friend.” We already knew that dogs are cute, there are different breeds, and they are canines, which means they are part of the same biological family as wolves, coyotes, foxes, and jackals. But we have learned what it means to domesticated and that thousands of years ago dogs were used as work animals. We have also learned how helpful dogs can be…like seeing-eye dogs and police dogs. There are even dogs that can detect diseases like certain cancers, diabetes, and the onset of a seizure. Contrary to what many people believe, dogs CAN see color. They can’t see as many colors as humans, and what they see isn’t as detailed as what we see because dogs have two cones in their eyes and humans have three. Dogs also have very good hearing. They can detect sounds that are either too high-pitched or two low-pitched for humans to hear, and pinpoint the exact direction where a sound is coming from. We are looking forward to learning more about these furry companions.

For the past few weeks we have collected items we find in nature while walking to the park…sticks, berries, leaves, even cicada shells. (We talked about the importance of leaving growing plants, flowers, and trees as they are and only picking up things that we find on the ground.) This week we used them to make a “nature alphabet” that is hanging in our room. (See the picture below!)

This week’s issue of Scholastic News was titled Look Out, Mouse! and was about nocturnal animals, how they survive at night and the adaptations they have that help them survive. We connected this information to the Mystery Doug Field Journal we recently completed.

A few weeks ago we read a Scholastic News article about a young girl. Marcayah Carter, who was faced with a situation in which she was being bullied at school. She decided to use that experience to try to help others, so she wrote a book. We received a copy of that book as a donation, and read the story in which Marcayah handled a tough situation with dignity and grace.

We continue to look at the abstract art of Wassily Kandinsky as we read The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art by Barb Rosenstock and illustrated by Mary GrandPre. When he was young, he was a “proper” little boy. He studied math and history, practiced piano, sat up straight and was very polite. When he took art classes, he was expected to paint houses and flowers, but when he opened his paint box, the colors mixed together like the sounds of an orchestra. He was a brave artist, ignoring what others told him to do and creating the masterpieces we enjoy today.

I am very lucky to live down the block from Plato Academy and also fortunate to have really great neighbors who happen to have a koi pond in their backyard and beautiful sugar maple trees out in front. We were invited to jump in the leaves and feed the fish. We also brought our clipboards and art supplies so we could sketch one of the trees with beautiful orange and yellow leaves. We used this opportunity to talk about what the word perspective means, noticing that the tree looked different depending on where we were sitting.

Our class was virtually interviewed by one of Mr. Chris’s students for the school newspaper, The Plato Press. She had so many interesting questions to ask us about the explorations that are happening in Room 102. More information about the newspaper will appear soon in Parent Notes.

We ended the week by participating in a Readers’ Theater activity. We made props, decorated scenery, and acted out some of party scenes chapters of Winn Dixie.

Notes:

• Unless previous arrangements have been made with me, please do not send your child to school with toys from home. We have so many wonderful materials and games at school!

Wish List:

• We need 3 more medium sized pumpkins for an activity that I’d like to do late next week or early the following week.

Have a great weekend!

Bridget