Mr. Peterson’s Newsletter
October 15, 2010
Dear Parents,
It was a pleasure chatting with many of you at the parent party last week. Thanks to the Fehrenbach’s for hosting.
Here at school we have a lot going on. A venture that I have not talked about yet is a partnership with the Learn Excel charter school in Chicago. This is a school that opened with the help of about 30 Winnetka families who supplied books, resources, and even today they continue onsite tutoring every week. Maureen Cheever, principal at Hubbard Woods, asked if one 4th grade class from each school in the district would volunteer to work with Learn Excel. With an eye on diversity and broadening horizons, I decided to volunteer.
About Learn Excel Charter School
They have a network of 4 schools that are located throughout Chicago. The one we are working with is located at 2401 W. Congress Parkway, just off the Eisenhower expressway at Western Ave. I visited there this week and the school operates inside a church. The church is old and their “gym” is the basement of the church. They have 44 fourth graders, all African-American. Learn Excel was recently highlighted on the Oprah Winfrey show for outstanding achievement and was awarded $1 million. I saw a poster in their resource room that highlighted their ISAT scores, which were very impressive. You can learn more at www.learncharter.org
The other 4th grade classrooms are Mike Dugo at Crow Island and Chris Basten from Hubbard Woods. On October 27th (Wednesday) we will take a bus over to Crow Island to meet our partners from Learn Excel. In our meeting yesterday down at Learn Excel we paired up Learn Excel students with Winnetka students. We wrote pen pal letters to them today to introduce ourselves. They will write back before our trip to Crow Island. Our goal for that day will be for the students to make a connection with their partner. The students will participate in a seed scavenger hunt in Crow Island Woods, a restoration project involving the removal of the invasive buckthorn in the prairie behind Crow Island, and a tour of Crow Island and its history. I’ll keep everyone updated through my blog.
If you haven’t seen the blog yet, please subscribe. It will send you an email when a new entry is written. It’s a great way to stay in touch with the activities in your child’s classroom. I try to write a new entry a few times a week. The address is:
In math we’re in the middle of Unit 2 all about place value and organizing data. Ms. Quach has provided our classroom with a math centers bin that is an essential part of a differentiated classroom. Students who finish early are allowed to work in this bin to enrich their learning. It’s really great.
In social studies we started discussing immigration. Students identified some of their own family history and we looked at interesting facts from that country. Next week we will begin an integrated novel unit that integrates reading and social studies. The book is called Nory Ryan’s Song. It is the story of an Irish girl whose family is greatly affected by the potato famine and is forced to go to the United States. It ties in nicely with our whole class discussion of pushes and pulls for immigration.
In science we have germinated our seeds and many of them have already sprouted roots. We planted bean seeds, popcorn seeds, sunflower seeds and pea seeds. The students love it. A huge focus for this unit, and all of our science units, is taking detailed observations about how things change from day to day. Our crayfish arrived a little early, but that will be our next study, starting near the end of October.
Conferences will begin at the beginning of November. I will send home a sign-up sheet early next week.
Enjoy this gorgeous fall weekend!
Thanks,
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