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Taking Risks and Hermit Crabs

This week TEAM meetings focused on being in the moment and taking risks. We watched a hermit crab leave the comfort of their shell to find a new shell, but not without effort (ask them about bringing the anemones with them). Mrs. Blake shared how she also had the chance to see things from a different perspective at her conference and apply risk taking in her learning!

In reading, Fourth has been working with nonfiction annotations. We've been looking for signposts and using a graphic organizer to get in depth with our thinking. They are also writing Ruta Septys, the author of Salt to the Sea. We will be sending our letters and hope for a response! Third did nonfiction annotation as well, learning about Google's driverless car, Waymo. It was exciting to find out that they are testing it here in Austin! We have also been focusing on reading with a critical eye, looking for what perspective the author is giving us. Second Grade read Martin's Big Words, My Brother Martin, and The Other Side. We are learning about Segregation and the impact MLK Jr. has had as a leader in history.

We talked about one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's impacts in social studies this week. After reviewing and sharing our schema, we learned that one of Dr. King's contributions was his legacy of service. We took his idea--that everyone can be great because everyone can serve--and brainstormed some of our own ideas! Third and fourth graders are implementing their own plan to spread kindness throughout our community over. We finished our week by learning about two additional influential figures in history: explorer Christopher Columbus and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

In math, 2nd graders showed what they know about addition and subtraction problem solving and then started to explore how skip counting and money are related.  We'll develop our coin-counting skills over the next week, so this is the perfect time to clean out your change and count with your mathematician.  3rd graders wrapped up their financial literacy work with discussions about savings and applied their problem-solving skills to some interesting finance puzzles.  3rd grade also wrapped up a big study of multiplication strategies, so they've really started to grow their numerical fluency muscles. 4th graders are wrapping up their fraction study with a doubling and halving recipe project. This weekend is a great time to cook with your 4th grader so they can put their fraction skills to work in their very own kitchen.  4th grade also has a challenge to look for other fraction connections in the real world, so I'll be excited to hear about how they've noticed fractions are used in various contexts.

4th graders sharing their equivalent fraction discoveries:


A few more 4th graders starting their fraction frenzy recipe project:




Finally, here are a few 2nd graders showing their problem solving strategies.  They're hard at work drawing strip diagrams, open number lines, and writing equations.

Enjoy the beautiful weather and have a great weekend!
your SBLC coaches

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