Thank you all for coming to conferences this week! It was great meeting with you and having very meaningful conversations about your child. I look forward to continuing these conversations as your child continues to grow!
Reading: We continue to work with Tiger Rising. Our discussions and responses have recently focused on the bigger picture. We previously centered our ideas around the characters and their actions or relationships with others. Now, we want to scale back a bit and reflect on how it relates to the bigger ideas of the book. Are we able to make connections between other ideas, such as the setting and plot? Ask your reader to share a big idea about Tiger Rising.
Writing: We are at a major turning point with our writing. We spent a lot of time drafting our beginning ideas for our realistic fiction stories and now we are digging deep into revising our stories. As we discussed at conferences, every student has reflected on their first draft and should all have a strong idea of where they should focus for revisions. We've discussed many times as a class that our stories will change and continue to change all the way until they are printed! Ask your writer to share the changes they want to make with their realistic fiction stories.
Math: We working on multi-digit multiplication with our 3rd Module in Math. At first, we are taking a solid look at what happens when we are working with these numbers and multiplying them. Once we have a strong understanding of the mechanics, then we will move on to more complex numbers! Ask your student to show you how to multiply 32 x 5.
Reading: We continue to work with Tiger Rising. Our discussions and responses have recently focused on the bigger picture. We previously centered our ideas around the characters and their actions or relationships with others. Now, we want to scale back a bit and reflect on how it relates to the bigger ideas of the book. Are we able to make connections between other ideas, such as the setting and plot? Ask your reader to share a big idea about Tiger Rising.
Writing: We are at a major turning point with our writing. We spent a lot of time drafting our beginning ideas for our realistic fiction stories and now we are digging deep into revising our stories. As we discussed at conferences, every student has reflected on their first draft and should all have a strong idea of where they should focus for revisions. We've discussed many times as a class that our stories will change and continue to change all the way until they are printed! Ask your writer to share the changes they want to make with their realistic fiction stories.
Math: We working on multi-digit multiplication with our 3rd Module in Math. At first, we are taking a solid look at what happens when we are working with these numbers and multiplying them. Once we have a strong understanding of the mechanics, then we will move on to more complex numbers! Ask your student to show you how to multiply 32 x 5.
Miscellaneous:
- The 74th Annual Whittier Pumpkin Festival is October 29th and 30th! Bring your real carved, decorated, dressed, or painted, pumpkin to the front lobby before school on the 29th or 30th. Be creative as possible! The pumpkins will be entered under one of four categories and then judged by Whittier staff on the 30th.Please contact Heidi Gawne (hgawne@op97.org) or Laurie Conley (lconley@op97.org) if you have any questions!
- Have you heard of Socktober? Socktober is a nationwide sock collection for homeless families. Student Council members are collecting NEW, WARM socks for the homeless in our area. Housing Forward (the Oak Park/River Forest Shelters) served 947 homeless people last year. We are trying to help them keep these homeless people warm this winter by donating socks. There are collection boxes at Whittier. Thank you!
- Whittier students have the chance to help kids from all around the world by Trick or Treating for UNICEF. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF began 68 years ago as a way to help kids still affected by World War II. Since then, millions of children across the United States have gone door to door on Halloween with UNICEF collection boxes, calling out, "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF!" The annual tradition of Kids Helping Kids® — involving donations big and small — has helped to raise nearly $177 million since 1950.
