Issue 6 - Oct. 19

Curriculum Connections...

HAPPY TGIF to the entire Cantiague Community! I hope you are all doing well and that everyone had a wonderful week. Thank you to everyone for making our annual Book Fair experience a huge success! Please feel free to send a note, email or card to the PTA (they have a mailbox or you can email one of them directly) thanking them for organizing this amazing book fair and for the Wish List opportunity. This whole book fair experience is not easy to plan and execute (I have watched Kelly at home) so I know they will appreciate any expressions of gratitude!

Before I forget, just a reminder that at our Faculty Meeting this Tuesday, we do need to make a decision about our focus for the Curriculum Fair on November 15th! Please come to the table with some ideas... I am open to anything! 

This week the amazing visits continued and I am literally left walking out of many classrooms just shaking my head because I cannot believe what is going on every minute of the day in our building. WOW is the only word that accurately captures it! Late last week I had the chance to visit Rande's room during Reading Workshop and the children the were learning to synthesize and apply two different skills - making inferences and identifying character traits so they could make inferences about the character traits based on their actions and dialogue. This type of synthesis and application can be so challenging yet Rande effectively modeled for them and scaffolded them for independent success. While there I also observed a reading conference and the process Rande used, where the children also referred back to a reading goal they established at the start of the week was impressive - talk about accountability (see two pics below - a picture of the conference sheet and the kids reading independentlyy)! I also had the opportunity to see two of our labsites with Lisa D. in Grade 2 and Grade 1 last week. I was so impressed with the fact that our first graders were learning about envisioning and previewing and preparing. Meanwhile, in Grade 2, aside from the shared reading synthesizing lesson, the teachers practiced enhancing the timing of their independent reading conferences (see the pic below of Nancy and Lesley) and they were able to get two conferences done in 10 minutes - impressive! I also had a chance to visit Mandy's classroom while the children were launching back to back independent reading time and needless to say, it was something that could have been videotaped as a model experience! The children were actively engaged the whole time and were excited about reading while Mandy pulled a group of four students on the rug for a Guided Reading lesson and in 8 minutes she was able to set the children up to access the text and they continued the activity during the next reading block - talk about awesome time management skills (by the way, Mandy did Shared Reading right after the independent block and their previewing and preparing skills were superb!)!

I also had a chance to spend more time in the Science room with Laurie and the fourth graders and had a lot of fun watching them use the stream tables to see how the process of erosion and deposition are impacted by different variables such as the force of the water or the incline of the streaming table. Their conversations at the end were impressive! Earlier in the week I had a chance to watch Jacquie with our second graders who were comparing the weight of different things using scales. They were so engaged an excited about what they were learning (see the pic below). Finally, I had a chance to spend some time in the gym yesterday with Rob and Phil as they played the game Pinned Down with second graders. The period flowed so nicely and the children launched the experience with warm up exercises (the guys even incorporateted a version of Deal or No Deal, which the kids loved) and laps around the gym. After that Rob and Phil explicitly modeled and explained how to best throw and roll the ball to try and maximize the number of pins knocked down. It was great and the children had a blast! Again, thank you all for sharing these amazing learning opportunities with me!

As we bring this week to a close I just wanted to quickly share one thought... if anyone is uncomfortable with me spotlighting them or mentioning their name in this weekly blog or if they dont feel comfortable with pictures from their classroom being used, please let me know because I most definitely want to respect everyone's personal feelings on the matter. Even though I see this newsletter as an opportunity to celebrate all that is awesome about Cantiague, I dont want people to be concerned about what is being shared. Thank you again for letting me spotlight all of the awesomness taking place in our building! 

Tech Tip of the Week...

In case you haven't heard, more people in our building have started a blog as a result of the recent Blogging 101 session. Instead of spotlighting outside tech resources, I would like to share some more of the wonderful blogs started in our school (teacher and student blogs!!)...

Team Maione -  http://maionegrade3.blogspot.com/2012/10/october-reading.html 

Samuel Lee (in Janine's class) - http://samuellees.blogspot.com/ - his work is AWESOME!

Weisblack- http://teamweisblack.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-bully-blockers-club-as-part-of.html- now it is up and running and it is a great post!

Please check out the blogs and leave some comments - everyone would appreciate it!

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, October 22

Weisblack Whole Foods Trip

Red Ribbon Week Kick Off

Tuesday, October 23
Montonelli Whole Foods Trip
Faculty Meeting - All Staff - 3PM in the Library

Wednesday, October 24

School Store Launch - during Lunch Periods
CST at 1:20pm

Hats Off To Healthy Living - Wear Your Favorite Hat to support Healthy Living
Tony is out of the building at a Conference

Thursday, October 25

Gr. 2 Trip - Queens County Farm!
Wear Red to Support Healthy Habits

Friday, October 26

Happy Friday!
Team Up for Healthy Living - wear your favorite sports team jersey/t-shirt

Kids' Korner

Yesterday, while I was playing tag (I think that is what we were doing) with the first graders at recess one of them stopped and said, "Mr. Sinanis I love having you run after me because I feel like I have my own big scary monster chasing me!" and he laughed hysterically! Compliment? I don't think so! LOL!

Pics of the Week...

                   
Conference Sheet Rande uses                               Kids reading in Rande's room

                  
Lesley & Nancy timing the conference                    2nd Grade Writing sample

           
Joey showing off his Prezi to Hank!           Marissa conducting a nonfiction rdg conf

            
     2nd Gr. having fun in Science                     4th Gr. baking NYS cookie cakes!

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Nov. 15th (this one is at Cantiague to celebrate our Blue Ribbon Award!!)
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th