Well folks, the break has come and gone! I hope you had a pleasant vacation, I have enjoyed hearing about what you got up to from your children and am happy to see them all safe and sound back in class ready for the next couple of months of study before the Winter Break.

Some reminders about the rest of the month…

Treat Day is tomorrow, Thursday, October 15th. Please bring in 5 RMB if you want to purchase a delicious treat!  Popcorn will also be available for you to buy and all treats will be available free of nuts.

Please see the PTSA blog for information about Saturday’s Fall BBQ. I will be there and I would love to see you there too.

In Math we are working on geometry and the students seem to be grasping everything well so far. They have had a study link to complete for homework each night this week as well as some revision of this new topic. As we are about half way through this short unit already, I anticipate the end of unit test being before the end of next week, that is, around October 23rd.

In Writers Workshop, most of the students have submitted their personal narratives with the remaining students set to hand theirs in by Friday. We started looking at more writing ideas in class today and have also reviewed what makes a good writer’s notebook.

Reader’s Workshop will resume tomorrow morning with the students looking at ways to reflect upon their writing without merely summarizing what they have just read. The students all have a reading buddy within the classroom that they workshop ideas with and the aim is that they will gain greater understanding of their reading through learning various techniques to help them comprehend deeper meanings within the text.

The class have had some great discussions during our Social Studies Cultural unit and I am enjoying being a part of their journey. It would be great if you could take some time to talk to your child about the work we are doing in class. Today we discussed the differences between Chinese Culture and the culture that the students identify with the most. Of course this is difficult for some students who strongly identify with China as their own culture and then the class spent some time discussing issues such as the culture in Taiwan and Hong Kong and how ‘Chinese’ these places were…your students are very aware and involved in world politics but of course there was some confusion too.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Some of the questions we have been exploring in our cultural studies unit include:

How does culture shape the way we see the world, ourselves, and others?
How does my culture shape me?
Why is it important to understand culture?
How does one retain their cultural identity?

The final assessment will be presented on their blog and I look forward to it being something they are proud of and can share with their family and friends around the world. This task will be completed in time for the parent/teacher conferences on November 5th and 6th.