Hello 204 Parents!
Thank you SO much for all of the donations you
have sent in… We were in dire need of supplies and you have been extremely
generous! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! You’re the best!
We have also enjoyed several different Mystery Readers for March is Reading Month! It has been awesome to have familiar faces from district positions, familiar faces of former students and siblings of current students coming in to share their favorite books. It's definitely a highlight of our day! We still have days available if you or one of your family members would love to come and read to our class!
Reader’s Workshop
In Reader’s Workshop we have
spent a great deal of time looking at different types of genres, we listed many
and talked about how some fit under the umbrella of non-fiction and some fit under fiction,
while some might fall in both categories.
The readers spent some time sorting books in their bins to find what
type of genre they read and they also took a look at their reading logs
too. Some students discovered they only
like to read a certain genre, others read many types of the genres. “Mystery” was the first genre we took a
closer look at. We read a Nate the
Great book and talked about how the character has a problem to solve before
the end of the book. The readers moved
onto the next genre- Realistic Fiction.
Many of the readers felt they could relate to these books more than the
other genres. We pulled a previous book
we read, Erandi’s Braids, to take a closer look a Historical Fiction. The author will use a time in history, but
the characters are made up from their imagination. We finished out the week looking at
Traditional Literature- these types of books might include fantasy, fairy
tales, folk tales, and fables. These are
stories that are passed down from one generation to another. Cinderella is a wonderful example of a fairy
tale. After each lesson, the students
read that particular genre independently and then shared with their reading
partner. This gives the student time to
explain their thinking before we do a whole group share. As the week finishes up, we will be tallying
up all of our reading genres to see what we read the most of, and which genres
we need to read more of in the future!
Writer’s Workshop
It has been exciting to see
students working on and putting their finishing touches on their personal
narratives. We have spent a great deal
of time discussing and practicing revision and editing. Our goal in the next few weeks is to have
each child finish at least one personal narrative, having gone through each
stage of the writing process. When
students share their piece with others they realize something is missing or
they might also get feedback from a friend of what should be added. We have discussed in great length what a good
piece needs, it should have a good lead, beginning, middle, end, and a
closing. It’s exciting to listen and
hear students helping others. Students
will be publishing these pieces too.
We were fortunate enough to have a local
author, Sandy George, come and read to our class for “March is Reading month”…
We then tapped into her writing skills and she talked a great deal about the
writing process. This helped our writers to realize when we draft a piece, we’ve
really only just begun! It was awesome to see the detail the kids spent on
their revision and editing as they could recall Mrs. George saying she spent
weeks and weeks editing and revising her book!
Word Study
In Word Study we learned
about adding a suffix to a word. We
added er to words. Students learned that there are many rules to
follow. Some words doubled the last
consonant, from run to runner, some just add er-- lead to leader, and
other words just add the r, drive to driver. This is very
tricky, we also said that the words NEED to look right too. Students played “Word Race” with the word
chunks tr, br, dr, and cl.
The students had to look at the beginning and end of the word to solve
the new word to play this game. The
next activity, Word Grid Game continued with the students looking the beginning
word chunks. Next, we learned that some
words have two vowels that go together: ail, ain, and an. The vowel sound in
the middle is usually the name of the first vowel. Students brainstormed words with these
patterns and then sorted more words with their phonics group. We
finished out the week by looking at the word pattern -ight-. Students thought of
many words with this pattern and played “Follow the Path”.
Math Workshop
Our mathematicians have spent
the past couple of weeks learning about fractions. Students were taught the word numerator- the number above the bar in a fraction, it tells how
many parts of a group. They also learned
that the denominator means the number
below the bar in a fraction, it tells the number of equal parts in all. Many students have the concept of writing
basic fractions - ½ or ¼ , and drawing
the picture to represent the correct fraction.
We also worked on equivalent fractions, but many students find it tricky
to find equivalent fractions and fractional parts of a group- ¼ of 20 = 5. We finished out the week reading the book Hershey
Fractions, then used Hershey candy bars to answer fraction questions, we
counted fraction amounts of the colors of M and M’s in bags, and blew bubbles
and kept track of the fraction of success we had. We all had fraction FUN!!!!
The Math Benchmark study guide will be
coming home soon, so please review this with your child. We are aiming to give
our Math Benchmark on Thursday, March 27th.
Social Studies
Our Market Day was a huge
success! We have some very creative producers and consumers in our class! The
stores were jammed with items and consumers were eager to shop. We were able to
write about our experiences after and incorporated in words like: goods,
services, producers, consumers, opportunity cost and scarcity! The students
took their social studies test last week, over all they did wonderful. We talked how it helps to be prepared for a
test- students must study, be prepared, and listen in class.
We are starting our new unit
on the history of Walled Lake/White Lake.
This week we discussed what is specifically is “history”. History is the study of the past and what
happened in it. Students take a closer
look at how our area has changed over time.
Our students will have a museum of family artifacts, more information
will be coming home.
Science
What a wet and crazy science
week we had, we used a tub of water to explore. Students had to make bubbles using a vial,
keep a paper towel dry in a vial, pore air from one vial to another, and
transfer a foam ball from one vial to another all under water. WHEW- all in one day! The scientists realized
that air takes up space.
The scientists made a water
fountain, another wet day! The
scientists explored using syringes, tubes, bottles, and water, they had to
figure out in small groups how air and water can make a water fountain. From the previous lesson, they knew about
pressure and compression, very quickly the scientists had water splashing out
of a syringe. We learned… Air escapes out the open syringe as water flows
in. The water flowing into the bottle
pushes air through the shorter tube and out the open syringe to make the water
fountain.
The amazing meteorologists
have been telling the class about the daily weather. Thank you parents for your help!
Important Dates/Events
Friday, March 21, 2014- No School- Professional
Development Day for teachers
Thursday, March 27, 2014 – Quarter 3 Math Benchmark
Assessment
Friday, March 28, 2014 – Camp Read S’more (more info
coming home soon J)
Friday, March 28, 2014- End of 3rd Card Marking
Period
