This will be the only post this week - Have a great Thanksgiving!

Math: Tonight you should look over your child's quiz from last week and ask them about anything they may have missed. I didn't get any questions in class today but they did have an opportunity to ask their peers questions regarding quiz items...

As you have probably noticed, we've been working with manipulatives quite a bit lately. The program is called, Hands-On Equations. Essentially, I use this progression of thought to construct their understanding of how to balance equations and solve for the unknown. The early experiences are grounded in exploration, dialogue, and trial and error methods... today, we added the idea of doing the same thing to both sides. It's tough to explain but I encourage you to look at their work tonight and most importantly, watch how they solve for the unknown. We're getting there but it takes time to learn something as abstract as unknowns and variables. Please make sure they are practicing their basic facts on a nightly basis.

Language Arts: We have spent the better part of 3 weeks "simmering" our thoughts as it relates to main ideas/important messages in informational text. Well, tonight they should be coming home with a book and their RRJ. They should complete a T-Chart that essentially reports details they believe are most important from a particular chapter and synthesize what the "primary topic" is based on how every detail noted relates. This "relationship" is what we've been building towards...we've spent tons of time on it in class so I think they're ready to complete this independently. Nevertheless, we'll know what they know, "kinda" know, and are still unsure on...