Newsletter 10/29/20

Forest Friday

Over the last few weeks, the 3rd-6th graders have been doing different activities during their Forest Friday time, like harvesting potatoes from the community garden, making leaf crowns, and going on a color hunt in the woods.

Curriculum Updates

1-2 We did a lot of great work this week in our class! The kindergarten mathematicians worked on counting and writing and recognizing numbers. They also started to work on what parts make up a number. 2=1+1, 3=2+1. First graders worked on new sight words this week; can, here, and like.

In math, first grade worked on solving word problems with known and unknown change and writing the number sentence and number bond for each problem. 5+2=7 , 5+_=8. In literacy, second grade worked on the word families of and it, with the words rot, tot, trot, pot, and pit, grit, sit, and bit. In math, the second grade worked on using a hundreds chart to help them with adding and subtracting.

ELA – Mrs. Thoner:

Students continued learning how to analyze stories to determine the lesson or gist of the story. This week, we finished up Thank You, Mr. Falker and started with The Boy Who Loved Words. Each day we begin by looking up a word in the dictionary, to help students become more adept at alphabetizing and at finding words in the dictionary. They also read the definitions of the words, and we discuss those definitions. Their new story has a glossary of delicious words Selig finds as he investigates words.

5/6 – ELA – Mrs. Thoner

Students have been learning how a literary analysis is developed. Using several narratives about individuals in natural disasters, students have practiced writing a literary analysis following a specific formula that includes the name of the story, the author, a general summary of the story, who is telling the narrative (point of view), and how the narrator impacts the story. What do we learn or feel that we may not have felt had it been written in another point of view. For instance, in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti, the narrator is the boy who is trapped under his house for 8 days and passes the time imagining happy events. If it had been told by anyone else, the reader wouldn’t have been able to get into his mind to see how he kept a positive attitude.

7/8 – ELA – Mrs. Thoner

Students have continued their study of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, deepening their understanding of the conflict at the time – the view of the slaveholders and the view of the slaves or abolitionists. We have started listening to some of the music that was generated by the slaves. We will be going into a study of poetry that is centered around that era, and create our own poetry based on past and current events.

Super Studies

This week, students prepared for and then voted in the statewide student mock election. For both the school and the state, the winners were Joe Biden, Sara Gideon, and Jared Golden. We also continued playing with solar energy, and found that a black container heats up water faster than a white container in the sun and that having a window facing the sun heats up the inside of a cardboard model of a fast much faster then a window in the shade.

5/6 Super Studies

7/8 Super Studies

This week, students prepared for and then voted in the statewide student mock election. For both the school and the state, the winners were Joe Biden, Sara Gideon, and Jared Golden. They also made spreadsheets to collect election data and make different types of graphs to show the results. We are planning on encouraging people to go vote on election day, so the students made “VOTE!” signs that they will hold while waving to passers-by around the town office.

Math

3rd-grade math – We continue our work with multiplication facts using arrays, tape diagrams and skip counting. We are also working with division and the relationship it has with multiplication.

4th-grade math – We worked with solving multi-step word problems with tape diagrams and using the standard algorithm for subtraction with regrouping.

5th-grade math – We worked with adding, subtracting and multiplying decimals which requires a strong understanding of place value.

6th-grade math – We continued our work with ratios with double number lines, ratio tables, equations and plots on a coordinate plane, bringing together what they have worked on since the beginning of the year.

7th-grade math group A – We worked with multi-step ratio problems, equations of graphs and proportional relationships with fractions. We also started working on scale drawings with ratios.

7th-grade math group B – We worked with ratios of fractions and their unit rates as well as finding equivalent fractions when given the total.

8th-grade math group A – We worked with finishing up module 1 and spent most of the week reviewing for a test.

8th-grade math group B – We continued our work with scientific notation, adding and subtracting large numbers.

PTF News:

The next PTF meeting is outdoors, November 17th @ 3:15.
Warm Clothing Drive is starting on November 1. https://fb.me/e/1E1I2osef Brooklin PTF is looking for clean, gently used, snow pants, jackets, warm socks, hats, mittens, and boots for all sizes. Please put your items in a clean bag and set them in one of our drop boxes. November 1-November 6. DROPBOX WILL BE AT THE BROOKLIN SCHOOL. We will get everything extra clean, organized, and set-up outdoors to go through. Friday, November 13th, and Saturday, November 14. Children will have to be even more prepared to be outdoors this winter and we want them to be toasty warm!
Backpacks are going home on Thursday because there is NO SCHOOL on Friday. Any feedback about the Brooklin Backpack Program can also be emailed to brooklinschoolptf@gmail.com or text 207-266-1298
Brooklin School PTF is having a fundraiser! https://givebutter.com/brooklin If you know someone that is interested in donating to our great organization please send them the link. Thank you!