skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Once again, we continue to learn and have fun in our classroom. Take a look at what we have been doing in each subject area this week.
Reading/Writing: Last week we finished up our unit on polar animals with an opinion piece. This month we have learned about polar animals and all of their special adaptations that allow them to live in such extreme environments. On Friday, each student chose one animal that we have read about or studied and answered the question, "which animal is best adapted for the polar environment." Students had to back up their opinion with at LEAST three facts. We are now working on podcasts so that we can share our opinions with you, the parents. We would love to hear what you think!
Our reading strategy for this week is author's purpose/theme. This is truly a higher level concept as students must try to figure out the lesson the author is trying to teach the audience. In order to help us understand some underlying themes a little better we watched clips from some of our favorite children's movies (Pinnochio-Honesty, Toy Story 3- Perserverance, Charlotte's Web- Kindness).
This week we are also studying contractions. I have noticed recently that our students are getting caught up on contractions when they read. They are having difficulty understanding their meaning, so we had a little fun today to help us understand contractions and how they really work. Check it out:
Calling Dr. Murphy, calling Dr. Murphy....
Today we did surgery on some familar words. To help us understand what contractions are we actually cut and made contractions ourselves using our scissors, glue, and bandaids we were able to fix those word right up. Take a look!
Math: Today we took our post test on 2-D and 3-D shapes. Our students have worked so hard during this unit and have really had a lot of fun, as well. Shapes are all around us and it is so easy to find them everywhere if you just look. Even though we are moving on with our curriculum, please continue to review shapes at home with your little one. It can be as easy as going on a quick scavenger hunt in your yard or in your house!
This week we are moving on to numbers to 40 and with this brings 2-digit addition and subtraction. The students are becoming real experts on their facts from 1-10 so I do believe this will help greatly as we head into this new journey. Keep up the practice at home!
Science: In science we are now studying food chains. This topic was breifly touched upon at the beginning of the year but this unit takes us even more in depth and looks at food chains in numerous habitats. We have been learning an awesome song about food chains and I have been so impressed with the vocabulary the students have been able to retain.
Well, that's all for now folks. I will be sending home MAP scores at the end of this week as well as news regarding the Valentine's Day party coming up on February 14th.
Well, hello, hello! A couple of things to add to our blog for this week.
MAP- We have been MAP testing every day this week and the students have been doing a downright wonderful job! I have been so pleased with the results and how hard the students have been working. I look forward to sharing the scores with you when they come out next week. Conferences for this semester will be optional- please know I would love to meet with each and every one of you so do not hesitate to sign up.
Celebrations- We had Celebrations of Success last Friday and the students and I made a podcast to express our pride in the work we have accomplished this 9 weeks. Take a look (more like a listen)!
Wowee! This has been just the most exciting day. Today we had the opportunity to participate in a video conference with an Alaska Sea and Wildlife Associaton and it was truly an amazing experience. This week we have been studying animals and their different adaptations in their environments. Students have learned about the walrus, the snowy owl, and the orca whale. The video conference was about seals and other marine mammals and the structures they have on their body that allow them to survive in such harsh environments. Students interacted with a counselor at the wildlife center and were able to ask and answer questions as well as see live seals and sea lions that they have there at the center. Oh yes, and how could I forget, the students actually got to make little clay seals at the end of the conference. So cool!
Student Teacher: I am excited to announce that starting tomorrow we will have a student teacher in our room unil April! Her name is Miss Jones and she seems very sweet and caring. The students met her on Friday and many have already taken a great liking to her. Yay! We look forward to helping her learn and grow as a teacher...I'm sure the kids will provide her with some great material :).
Homework Bags: As I'm sure you already know we are switching our homework regime to include some reading practice as well. I will be sending homework bags home every Friday to be completed by the following Friday. There is a schedule in the bag; however, you may choose to finish the homework any time during the week. The reading homework is leveled for each student so that they can, and should try, to do the majority of the reading independently. Please remember that this reading homework will also count towards DEARABBY minutes.
Sight Word Assessments: It is the middle of the year and it is time to take a sight word inventory to see how our students are progressing! This week Mrs. B and I have been working to find the sight word list that each student can read independently. Once a student misses a sight word we stop and this is the list that this student will now work on until mastery. I have been sending home the assessments as we finish. Please take a look at the list where we stopped with your student and begin reviewing that list of words at home! In a couple of weeks we will assess again.
Gumball Math: This is a new program that we have started in our classroom. With the gumball math, students will be taking timed quizzes on addition and subtraction facts to 10. Now, I have not always been a huge fan of timed quizzes but I truly think that for many of our students this program with small incentives along the way will boost operation skills and fluency. Each test is given based on where the student is in the program. For example, yesterday everyone started on addition facts (+1). They were given 4 minutes to complete 50 problems. If the student got all problems correct they moved on to the next level today. With each level passed the students get to place a gumball in the machine outside of our classroom.
With this said, we talked today about how no prizes are handed out for passing a quiz (the gumballs are just pieces of paper) and it is ok to stay on one quiz for a while. The idea is that as they practice they will get better. I have not done anything like this with little ones yet and I am hoping that it fosters confidence and the will to succeed. However, if I find that this is making students upset more than boosting skills we will stop. Keep your fingers crossed...they have done well so far and seem excited to advance!
Report Cards- Report cards go home on Friday. I will setting up another volunteerspot conference sheet online for those of you who would like to come in and discuss student growth and progress. This is optional, but please know I am HAPPY to meet with every one of you. This is such an important year for our students.
Well, folks, that is all for today. Thank you for making my job easier by being the best parents a teacher could ask for!
We are back and better than ever! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday break and are finding themselves well rested and ready to return to school.
Reading/Writing: This week in reading we really got into character development and character traits. We have been discussing adjectives, so this was a very natural progression for the kiddos. We read the book Goldie and the Three Bears and Three Snow Bears. Each story had characters that were similar yet different. After analyzing each character we compared and contrasted their traits, actions, and thoughts. We had a great time with this skill!
As I previously mentioned we have been working on incorporating adjectives into our writing. This week we learned more about adjectives and synonyms. We played a great synonym match game together.The following website has a variety of online synonym games. Please play these with your child as I have not had a chance to look at them all. Some of the games are quite hard! http://languageartsgames.4you4free.com/synonyms.html
Math: In math we worked on subtraction to 20. Most of the students have mastered addition to 10; however they still struggle with subtraction. We used number line this week to help us with larger numbers. We played a polar bear subtraction game that the students loved. We will be moving on to new content next week; however, we will still be reviewing addition and subtraction facts to 20 DAILY! Please continue to practice facts at home.
Science: Our study on polar bears has been a huge success. The students have really gotten into the special polar bear adaptations. We have created posters, watched videos, and read many books. Next week we will be learning about more polar animals. Please check out the following website to view live feed from the San Diego Zoo (Polar Bear Exhibit): http://www.sandiegozoo.org/polarcam/
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Spelling words and graded tests were sent home today. :)
