Through this book students learn about personal power and how to tap into their positive power. It helps students understand that learning a new skill takes time and practice, practice, practice. Additionally, students discover that making other people feel good is a great way to fill their own buckets.
Look in your child’s Friday Folder for a letter about the story. You will find an activity to complete on the back of the letter. Here are some things you can do at home to help your child tap into his or her positive power:
- Create opportunities to encourage your child to try new things.
- Offer praise for their willingness to try and practice.
- Whenever they’re in a negative situation, help your child “switch the channel” to reframe their inner dialogue to create an “I can do it!” attitude.
- Remind your child: Don’t focus on the black dot. Focus on the white page .
- Involve children of all ages in family decision making.
We read a make believe story called The Magic Paintbrush in which Ma Liang a poor beggar boy receives a magic paintbrush. Everything he paints with the brush becomes real. Mi Liang helps many people with his gift until the greedy emperor finds out about the magic paintbrush. In the end Ma Liang teaches the emperor a lesson.
Ask your child what he or she would paint with a magic paintbrush like Ma Liang’s. We were inspired by Ma Liang’s story and tried some painting of our own.
The place value module in math continues. We are modeling base ten numbers in many ways including making bundles with straws, money, dienes blocks, and place value disks. We are using money to count up by ones, tens, and hundreds as well. Students are practicing their math facts on sprints several times per week. It is important to work on these facts at home. Knowing math facts with sums and differences to 20 is a second grade standard.
Students collaborated on a math problem to show how many $10 bills are in $1000. The goal of this cooperative learning activity was to help students make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Please read the note on the home page regarding October 31 activities.