Celebrating the Harvest!

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On Tuesday the students at Allen Brook School celebrated the harvest season by contributing to a delicious Stone Soup. It was a perfect day to enjoy our creation as we ate together huddled by the hearth in the garden. Our class also read one of the many versions of the book, Stone Soup, and were reminded of the story's timeless message of generosity and kindness.

This week during out theme time the Synergy students split into five different groups and began a five week journey around the United States. The focus of this unit is to learn about mapping skills, geography and the different characteristics that make each region of our country so unique. In each of the workshops the students are locating and labeling the different states, learning about how to use a compass rose to describe location and are learning interesting facts about that region. To culminate the week, each child is creating a post card with an interesting fact from that region. I can't wait to learn from them each week as they become experts on America!

We have also begun a new unit in Math. In Unit 2 we will be learning about ants and using the insects to investigate the basic operations of addition and subtraction. The students will be combining what they learn about ants with their problem solving skills to create story problems about them. The students will then get a chance to solve each other's story problems practicing representing their problem solving with pictures, numbers and words to show their strategies. This unit gives students a chance to review and extend their understanding of the basic operations before heading into learning about strategies for "the basic facts" in Unit 3.

In Fundations we are learning about five sounds that break the rules of closed syllables because they do not always have a short vowel sound. (ild, ind, ost, old, olt). We are also beginning to practice the trick words for Level 2. These words came home to practice with the Unit 3 introduction letter in the Friday folder. Also, a reminder that you can find the current unit (and past unit) words on the Parent Information Wiki on the Synergy Site.

If you have not already signed up for your parent teacher conference please use the link on the right hand side of the page to secure your time. If none of the times work for your schedule, please contact me and I would be happy to arrange an alternate time that is more convenient.