Stuffed Animal Day: FRIDAY

Riversides students "filled the tube" this month.  To celebrate, students across the building voted to bring in a stuffed animal this Friday.  Congratulations, Riverside students! Way to go!

O'NEILL & ROST  We are continuing our work in themes this week. Themes, life lessons, central message, etc. can be difficult to pull from texts, especially when we're reading complexs text with various themes running throughout.  Our goal with this work is to have multiple strategies under our belts, and to be able to use the most efficient and effective strategy when considering theme. 

Target Learning Goals:  To grow ideas about theme, readers can...

• ... consider mistakes and what characters might learn/ do differently.
• ... explore character development, change, growth.
• ... pay special attention to authors' "Famous Last Words" (see anchor chart below).

TLGs in Action: 

Ask your child you use "Famous Last Words" to make a claim about a theme in Goblins on the Prowl. 

In the book club No Talking, we used a "chalk talk" to write (rather than talk) about our thinking.  Students used lines to connect and grow ideas with their peers. 

MEZAN  This week we spent a lot of time really exploring Memory Moments (flashbacks).  Rather than simply retelling/ restating what the memory is, readers can think:  Why is it important? What does it add to our ideas/ theory about the character? What is the character struggling with internally?  We focused on using thinking and writing stems to dig deeper into these moments and characters.  Ask your child to tell you a thinking stem they used this week. 

Target Learning Goals (TLG):  To grow ideas about characters, readers can...

• ... pay attention to Memory Moments (flashbacks) and think about why they might be important; considering...
• ... what the character might be struggling with internally.
• ... what the character depends on, holds dear, be worried about.
• ... what it reveals about the character's traits and relationships. 

TLGs in Action:  Below you'll see students using Play-Dough to create a symbol to best represent what's happening in Crenshaw (our Read Aloud). This is a "visible thinking strategy" that encourages students to determine importance and synthesize.  If you see your child, ask them what they made and why!

Homework: 

• Math homework
• 30 minutes reading
• Book club reading and assignments, if not completed in class.
• Spelling 

Reminders:

• Spelling Quiz: Friday
• Get Caught Reading:  Remember to email in pictures when you "catch" your child reading!  Hadley.ONeill@hcps.org  

Upcoming Dates:

• Early Dismissal: Friday, December 9
• Stuffed Animal Day: Friday, December 9
• Winter Concert: Thursday, December 15

Thank you,

Mrs. O'Neill