Pursepages Edition1-2016

Purse Pages
September 9, 2016
Edition 1
/
Welcome to Purses Place
Dear Parents,
I am looking forward
to meeting all of you
at open house in a
few weeks. I always
enjoy having the
opportunity to share
the classroom with
you and some of what
your child
experiences each and
every day. I am
confident this will be a
great year. There are
a few bits of
information I want to
share with you in the
meantime. I have
asked your child to get
their agendas signed
each night. This is
something I expect
them to ask you to do
each night. We are
working on
organization and
responsibility. Please
do not sign their
agenda if they have not

completed their reading,
or other assignments
that evening. Also, if
your child has questions
about their work or
responsibilities, I have
asked them to e-mail me
rather than you. Selfadvocacy skills are very
important to begin to
develop at this age. I
want them to begin to
rely less on you to solve
their problems.
Whats Happening in the Classroom?

ELA-
English Language
Arts
We had a very
productive week this
week! In ELA we are
working on a variety
of things. This week
the students were
introduced to our first
over arching theme of
Beliefs and Values. I
introduced the theme
with a discussion
about where beliefs
and values come
from. We read the
picture book, Sam
Johnson and the Blue
Ribbon Quilt. The

class had a great
discussion about how
your beliefs and
values can change
over time. We are
focusing on the
essential question of
what happens when
people or a
community dont
share the same
beliefs or values.
The conversation was
great preparation for
the stories the
students will be
working with over the
next several weeks.
We began to read the

novel Bud Not Buddy,
where students will
be paying close
attention to what they
do as readers and
how they think while
they are reading. We
also read Line Drive,
a story in Storytown,
where the characters
and community had
very strong beliefs
about women and
sports. We really
focused on conflict
and resolution using
our strategy of story
structure.
Page 2 of 3
Social Studies
Start by doing
whats
necessary; then
do whats
possible; and
suddenly you
are doing the
impossible.
Francis of Assisi
In Social Studies we
are continuing to work
through our first chapter
and it is interesting to
see what the students
have retained from 4th
grade. We are studying
the geography of the
US and learning about
all the different
landforms. The class
has completed a few
geography challenges
and shown their ability
to think like a
geographer.
In S.S. we do a lot of
group and partner work.
We are still working on
how to work well
together, use our time
wisely and make
learning meaningful for
all involved.
Continued
Math
to differentiate
In math, we started the
instruction through
year with a week of
complex
tasks and guided
inspirational math. This
week was about inspiring math groups. The complex
tasks will focus on the
students through open,
beautiful and creative standards of mathematical
math. We used different practice and challenge
tasks so that students students to explain their
thinking and go deeper
could see math as a
with their understanding
broad, interesting and
of a variety of math
visual subject that
concepts. With the
involves deep thinking.
guided
math approach, the
Students learned
important growth mindset students will be working
messages that will help on learning new concepts
in small groups, while
them feel confident, try
practicing previously
harder all year, persist
with open and difficult learned skills in stations.
problems and embrace This will allow for mastery
mistakes and challenge. of skills and help students
to remember previously
All tasks that we did
taught concepts. Using
were accessible to all
this approach will also
students. The students
give students more
really enjoyed the lessons
individualized
attention
and videos and ALL
and instruction at their
students experienced
level.
success.
This year we will continue
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

Monday 9/22
Open House @
6:00 pm
Questions to Ask Your Child
1.
2.
Welcome to our
PEACEFUL
CLASSROOM!!!!
3.
4.
E-Mail:
rpurse@nssd112.org
5.
6.
7.
8.
What did you do in art, gym, music, and

tree house this week?
What is the theme you are focusing on in
ELA?
What is one thing you learned about writing
true stories?
What game do you play with Ms. Purse
where she talks very fast?
Who comes to help out in the classroom
every week? (hint: she looks like Ms. Purse)
What job were you hired to do? What are
your expectations?
Have you received any bonuses? Any fines?
What do you do during Daily 3? (hint: what
are the rotations?)
9.
What are the 4 ways of thinking about

language?
10. What did you do during community building
this week?
11. Ms. Purse taught you two new words this
week in discussing story structure. One
means the background information before a
story and the other is another name for
resolution. Do you remember them?

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Purse Pages

Welcome to Purses Place

agenda if they have not

Whats Happening in the Classroom?

Ribbon Quilt. The

We began to read the

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

Questions to Ask Your Child

What did you do in art, gym, music, and

What are the 4 ways of thinking about

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