Diving into Nonfiction

What do a US map, a diagram of the solar system, a model of an eyeball, a wanted poster for the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, and a guide to an African animal safari have to do with our new reading unit? Plenty! I introduced nonfiction work this week with these artifacts and dozens more and asked the boys and girls to study them closely. Their job was to notice details and then put these details together in their minds to create ideas.

One child studied foreign currencies and made interesting realizations about the images different countries featured on their bills. Another checked out a diagram of beavers at work to discover that these animals are at home both in water and on land. And yet another made theories about why the weather page of a newspaper would include the times of the sunrise and sunset. The purpose of using artifacts like these rather than books was to

provoke a lot of ideas quickly and to dramatize the need for a high ratio between thinking and reading.  As we now turn to books, the expectation is set for the children to alternate between reading and thinking. Gathering information is the easy part when it comes to nonfiction. The trickier - and most essential - part is making sense of the information. The boys and girls will be asking themselves not only "What does this book say?" but "Why is this important?" and "What do I think about this?"

At the same time the children are learning about reading nonfiction, we've launched into nonfiction writing. Our focus is to teach others what we know. So rather than researching topics, we are relying on our own expertise. Some children are writing about sports they know or instruments they play; others are writing about cookie baking and potion making. The start of a new unit calls for clearing out our Writing Workshop folders. The personal narrative stories that the boys and girls wrote for the last two months are coming home to you today. Please take note especially of the story your child chose as a favorite. We edited these with care, decorated covers for them, and shared them with our third-grade neighbors this week.

In math, we've marveled at the fact that the people who invented our system of numbers did it with just ten digits, and that any number - no matter how large - can be created by placing these digits in ways that reflect their value. That's what "place value" is all about. In the early lessons of our new math unit called "Addition to 200," the children reviewed their understanding of tens and ones in our base-ten number system and extended it to hundreds. They are using models and drawings that illustrate the concept of making new tens or new hundreds and then connecting these to equations. If you have not already done so, please review, sign, and return the Unit 1 math test that your child brought home this week.

While I took a hiatus from blog writing for parent-teacher conferences, we celebrated Halloween in the classroom with poems, riddles, stories, math games, and a party. We helped our first-grade buddies follow a set of written directions to make paper jack-o-lanterns. A big thank you to Adream Blair for leading a fun craft activity and to Laurie Woods, Jenni O'Brien, and the Castro family for supplying treats for our party. And thanks to all those who attended our costume parade.

Finally, thank you for coming to conferences. It is always a pleasure for me to meet with you and talk. I learn so much! Your insights help me to better understand your child. I hope that the information I shared gave you a picture of your child's life at school.

Mark Your Calendars:

Mon., Nov. 7 - Stormonth's annual food drive begins

Wed., Nov. 9 - Early release day for students

Fri., Nov. 18 - Food drive ends

Tues., Nov. 22 - Stormonth concerts, 10 AM and 2 PM

Wed., Nov. 23 - Early release day for students

Thurs., Nov. 24, and Fri., Nov. 25 - Happy Thanksgiving!