Happy Friday!

     We had a wonderful week of learning in room 8.

     In math we continued to reinforce place value, reading and writing large numbers.  Can your child show you how to play math battleship at home?  It's a fun one!  Here are some math challenge questions:

• What period comes after the trillions?  When would someone need to use a number that large?  Can you think of some examples?  
• Try this link to practice reading those really large numbers: http://www.mathcats.com/explore/reallybignumbers.html
• Children can you stump your parents?  How many two-digit numbers are possible using the digits 0-9? (Remind them that they may not use the same digit in the number twice, and numbers with zeros in the tens place should not be considered since it is a mathematical convention to write them as a single digit number.)  Good luck!)

     We will be digging into rounding next as we discuss the essential understanding that patterns are structures that identify relationships.

     Our IIM research model is going well.  We have gathered all our research and are going to write to answer the children's big questions:  Why is Betsy Ross famous?  and What is her backstory that led her to become famous?

     We had a wonderful week diving into Junior Great Books.  Our first Shared Inquiry discussion went very well with children listening to each other, and addressing each other with ideas supported by evidence from the text.  Poetry will be coming up next!

     Our scientists have been making careful observations of their physical world by observing the physical properties of size, color, shape, and texture.  On Monday they will begin to conduct and design experiments using the scientific process.  A classmate brought in a special treat to show us how he uses measurement at home.  Thank you, Noah, for the delicious grape drink and the measurement lesson it prompted! (The children talked about wanting to start "Food Fridays," an idea that sounds great to me!  I already overheard several ideas of what we could eat that ties into the study of matter!)

     Finally, a thank you to all the parents who came out to Open House!  I hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend with your families!