What's+Happening+in+Room+09+in+October?

=**GENERAL NEWS**= ===We begin the month with conferences. An opportunity to connect with families - some new to Room 09 and some who are returning friends. I look forward to this time together. It is so very helpful to hear the information that you, and only you, your child's first and primary teacher, can share.===

A big thank you for quickly returning the monthly Progress Reports.
===﻿The beautiful Andy Warhol-inspired portraits of your children will be available for pick-up next week. If it is small, I will put it in a folder and send it home with your child. If it is larger than a picture book, Mrs. Carlbom will have them in the office. Enjoy. Truly beautiful children.===

=﻿CURRICULUM=

MATH
====We will begin our second month-long unit on Monday, Oct. 11th. This unit develops ideas about collecting, describing, and representing data. Students collect data through counting and measuring and use bar graphs and line plots to represent their data involving one group and compare data of two groups. They interpret the data and draw conclusions based on the data using terms such as mode, median, range, and outlier. Students begin their study of probability by placing events on a "likelihood line" that goes from impossible to certain and work with mixtures of colored cubes to describe the probability of different outcomes.==== ====The FACTS. Students seem to be all over the place in terms of mastery. Only about two or three really know them. This month students will be asked to practice in a variety ways. One choice will be to use //First in Math// an online practice program. They each will have a User ID and a password.==== =﻿READING= ====﻿The Island Reading Log rolls on. Students should complete their fourth selection (reading and required documentation - summary or fact sheet) on the 11th. I am so pleased with the students' progress. We have three students who have completed the log ALREADY. Others should focus on choosing books that are not too easy and not too complicated. They should find the content interesting. The chapter book should be between 100 and 200 pages. They should be able to write a summary independently using their stickies.====

=﻿WRITING= ====﻿The first pieces written (Favorite Person) were very well done. This is a group of talented writers. We will be writing some leads (story beginnings) to practice some common methods employed by authors - a startling noise, dialogue, etc.====

=﻿INNOVATOR OF THE MONTH= ====﻿September's study of Andy Warhol was great fun and very successful. We did colorful portraits and arrays of photographed objects. We talked about the two things that made Andy Warhol an innovator: 1) He looked at everyday things with new eyes and 2) He believed anyone could do art. In October we will be studying Caterina Fake. She was the cofounder of Flickr (photo sharing site) and of Hunch (information aggregating site). She's a perfect innovator for this month because our math focus is data.====

=﻿Web 2.0 Tools=

Two girls are taking on Glogster hoping to create an //apple// poster to share. Soon. We will be doing some things on the ManyEyes website with data we collect in our Math unit.
=﻿Field Trip of the Month= ====The entire fourth grade will be going to //The Borrowers// at the Seattle Children's Theater on Oct. 27th. Should be great. I love their productions and I love that book. We are attending a 12:30 show so we will have a late return. Pick up at the school will be at 4:00.====