Can you believe it is already the beginning of November?? Our days are flying by as they are packed with fun learning in all subject areas! A special thank you to EVERYONE who contributed in some way to our classroom Halloween Party this week. The kids had a great time and lots of memories were made! Thank you to all who helped to plan the party and helped to send in donations. We appreciate all that you did to make our Halloween so epic!
Readers' Workshop
Lots has been happening in our Readers' Workshop. Mini-lesson topics have included:
- I can use word attack strategies to solve unknown words.
- I can use meaning strategies to solve unknown words.
- I can read many words in a snap and know that they make sense.
- I can monitor my own errors while I read.
- I can collect new and interesting words to share with my partner.
- I can use every bit of info that a book gives me to help me figure out what words mean.
- I can read smoothly and when I hit a bump, I can re-read for fluency.
- When I'm stuck and lose parts of the story, I can go back and retell the big parts.
- I can predict and ask myself questions while I read a story.
- I can visualize parts of a story as I read.
Students have been working diligently to add many of these lesson topics into their own personal CAFE boards in their Response Logs. CAFE is the model by which we teach for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Extended Vocabulary. Students have also been working on a small project about a book using these "Reading is Thinking" strategies (so far predicting and visualizing, next week we will be looking at: connections, inferring, questioning and summarizing).
Guided Reading Groups have also begun for some of our readers based on iReady Reading performance. Students in groups should pay careful attention to the yellow sheet in their book bags about when reading groups will be meeting. Thank you for taking the time to read these books with your child. Students who are not yet placed into a reading group will be joining a Book Club later this year...More to come!
Writers' Workshop:
In Writers' Workshop we have wrapped up our first unit on Poetry and your child has brought home everything in their poetry collections! We have now moved onto a personal narrative writing unit. Mini-Lesson topics have included:
- I can organize my story ideas about problems characters face (in list form).
- I can fill in a Beginning-Middle-End chart to begin to plan my story events.
- I can consider my audience and create an interesting lead for them.
- I can use the "Rule of 3" in my story.
- I can use quotation marks to show dialogue in my story.
- I can use the "Show... Don't Tell" author's craft in my story.
- I can use double adjectives in my writing.
- I can end my story with closure.
It has been awesome to work with these writers' in conferences and hear all that they have created and brainstormed for their narratives. There are lots of great writers and loads of great ideas in our classroom. We have especially been enjoying our "Share Time" at the end of workshop where our student authors' have gotten to show their work up on on the big screen with the document camera - they love having their work being the center of attention!
Word Study:
In Word Study we have been busy! Lesson topics have included:
- "Some words have a vowel, a consonant, and a silent e. The vowel sound is usually the name of the vowel." (ex. cane, hope, kite) Students made word pairs and did two three way sorts with these types of words.
- "Some clusters of consonants stand for one sound that is different from either of the letters. They are called consonant digraphs." Students did a sorting activity using the different digraphs of: sh, ch, th and wh.
- "Some consonants make two or more different sounds." Students used this concept to do a sort with the soft c like in city and the hard c like in car. Then they played a concentration game using the beginning of the words to compare the two different sounds a consonant can make.
- "You can hear each sound in a consonant cluster." Students looked at words beginning with the following clusters: sc, sk, sm, st, sp, sn and sw.
- "A group of two or three consonants is a consonant cluster." Students sorted words that either began with one consonant, a consonant cluster of two letters or a consonant cluster of three letters.
Math Workshop:
In Math Workshop we have just wrapped up our second unit of study! We spent a great deal of time in this unit focusing in on different strategies for addition. We used many different strategies to show how you can solve the same problem in different ways. A lot of time was spent with double tens frames on Quick Look cards. Be sure to ask your child about Quick Looks!
Math mini-lesson topics have included:
- Doubles and Combinations of 10
- The Making 10 Strategy
- The Near Doubles Strategy
- The Turn Around Rule for Addition/Using Domino Facts
- Continuing to work with Even and Odd Numbers
- Subtraction and the Turn Around Rule (hint: it doesn't work!!)
- Even Numbers and Equal Addends
- Name Collection Boxes
- Adding and Subtracting on a Number Line
- Frames and Arrows
Math games this unit have included:
- Fishing for 10s
- Two Fisted Penny Addition
- Number-Grid Game
- Doubles Flash Cards
- The Exchange Game
- Even and Odd Addends
- Name that Number
Please look for Unit 2 work to come home next week. Students were given a Unit 2 Assessment, a Unit 2 Challenge and a Unit 2 Cumulative Test which looks back at topics we have built upon in Units 1 and 2. It is important that you go over these assessments with your child and work to fill in any areas or concepts where your child may still be struggling.
Science:
We are having SO MUCH FUN being botanists!! We have been planting and planting and planting and planting!! Thank you so much to everyone who sent in plant clippings! We are eagerly watching them regrow roots and grow a new plant. In our science activities we have planted several things. Each botanist is currently growing a brassica plant. The brassica is awesome because it grows rapidly so we can see the life cycle pretty quickly. Students have been taking care of their plants with water and light daily. Next our scientists have planted grass and alfalfa sprouts. The scenario we are setting up is to make it look like a lawn - grass and weeds! More to come with what we will be doing there, however, the kids did love mowing their lawns this week as the grass is growing fast. Later this week we planted garlic bulbs in hopes to create another type of new plant. We are also attempting to see if we can grow a new pumpkin plant from an actual pumpkin with it's seeds... To be continued...
Upcoming Important Dates:
Tuesday, November 6: NO SCHOOL - Election Day @ Dublin
Tuesday, November 13: PTA Meeting - 4:15pm in the Media Center
Friday, November 16: Family Game Night - sponsored by PTA
Thursday, November 22 and Friday, November 23: NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Holiday
