Here you will find some highlights from my monthly newsletters as well as some other classroom news to keep you up to date!
Special Feature Kids at Work- February Edition Vol. I
Mathematics
The students have done a great job over the past few weeks with subtraction with regrouping. We relied on their knowledge of base ten blocks to help them understand the "why" behind what we are doing during each step of solving a problem. It seems the hardest thing for the students has been to accurately compute their basic subtraction facts. Again, the students are not mastering these facts until they are automatic. I will be posting some practice sheets to download off of the website for extra practice at home. Or if you would like me to send home some extra practice, feel free to send in a note. Our problem solving skills continue to grow as the students are able starting to complete multi-step word problems that require them to use more than one strategy at a time. We have also been discussing the most efficient way to solve these problems, as there are often more than one strategy or procedure to choose from.
Reading and Writing
We launched our Amazing Animals theme by reading a fun story called Officer Buckle and Gloria. The student wrote a persuasive letter begging Officer Buckle to come back to Napville school. We continued our theme by diving into some interesting sea animals. We read nonfiction passages on the octopus, the seastar and the seahorse. We watch video clips from the United Streaming website and reviewed informative websites to obtain more information. We then paraphrased all of this information and took notes on what we had read. Next we practiced writing informational paragraphs about these amazing creatures. The students are almost ready to begin their independent research of an amazing animal for their first research report.
Reader's and Writer's Workshop
In reader's workshop, we started an informational (nonfiction) genre study over the past few weeks. Students have been reading texts and articles on various nonfiction topics. We have practiced margin reading which encourages inner conversation with the text being read. This is especially important when reading unfamiliar text in the content areas. We have also practiced other strategies such as Stop-Think-React. In writer's workshop the students have been working hard to add voice to their informational paragraphs, as well as to start them with better beginnings. We have also continued with our craft studies of various poetic devices to enhance students' poetry and writing overall.
Social Studies & Science
We started our maps and globes unit and the students are taking off around the world! We have practiced using a compass to help us locate things on a map and discussed all of the important features maps can have. We have left the United States to explore the continents of the world. We practice memorizing the names of the fifty states and the seven continents by singing various songs.
During the integration of science and English Language Arts in this theme, the students are learning many new concepts and reviewing some important vocabulary words. We are discussing topics like animal habitats, protection, classification of animals and the food chain.
Special Feature Kids at Work- January Edition Vol. II
Mathematics We are beginning our subtraction with regrouping unit this week by beginning with a game called Clear the Mat. The students practice regrouping numbers using base ten blocks only. This creates a foundation for when we begin to subtract two digit numbers with algebraic expressions. They are doing a great job following this process and have become experts at knowing when to regroup.
Reading and Writing We will be starting our new amazing animals theme by reading about various sea creatures. We will be focusing on gathering interesting facts about these animals and developing our expository writing skills.
Reader's and Writer's Workshops In Reader's Workshop we will be turning our focus to using various metacognitive strategies with nonfiction and informational text. We will also be practicing reading different articles in an interactive way. We also just finished our first Writer's Workshop unit of Response to Literature where the students practiced developing many of their reading responses during reader's workshop. Look for some of these pieces to be displayed on our Student Work Hall of Fame soon.
Social Studies & Science We finished up our economy unit by practicing our new vocabulary when buying things from our classroom store. The students were able to identify income (tickets), goods (prizes), services (lunch with the teacher), producers (me) and consumers (the students). We will now be moving on to our maps and globes unit in social studies where students will learn all about how to read and obtain information from maps. In science, we will be focusing on animals and their classifications.
Special Feature Kids at Work- January Edition
Mathematics
We will be practicing adding three two digit numbers together. We will also be continuing our practice with addition using dominos to create more complicated math problems. We will also be starting a new activity called Clear the Mat to prepare the students for our next chapter, Subtraction with Regrouping.
Reading and Writing We are continuing with the anthology stories by reading a story called Big Bushy Mustache. This story was about a little boy who did not follow his teacher's directions. Luckily, his dad saved the day! The students were able to recreate the ending of this story by changing the boy's teacher to MissViolaSwamp. Things would have been a lot different for him! In honor of the New Year's Ball, we will be reading a story called Chinatown. The little boy in this story gets to perform in a special parade during the Chinese New Year. We are continuing to complete various reading responses on cross-curricular topics. In the upcoming weeks, we will be turning our focus to expository writing during our next theme, Amazing Animals.
Reader's and Writer's Workshops We have been busy bees during our various classroom workshops. We are finishing up our Response to Literature writing unit by integrating our two workshops together. The students independently read their reader's workshop books and then practice responding to literature with either a literary letter, a character journal or a book review. We also finished reviewing the various metacognitive strategies on our reading key. I am so pleased with the students' progress in both of the areas and I am excited to continue to see them grow as readers and writers.
Social Studies
We began to work on our Economy chapter after finishing up our study of urban, rural, and suburban communities. We will be learning the difference between needs and wants, and we will briefly discuss the concepts of income and a budget. We will also explore community workers and how we can purchase goods and services within our community. We will begin our community worker research which we continue through until winter vacation.
