For a four day week, it felt like five for sure. The kiddos have done a wonderful job handling indoor recess. They actually like it! I have found a site, thanks to Ms. Yonemura, called Go Noodle. This is a place where we can follow along with dancers to have a movement break. It's pretty fun. One day we did The Beanstalk and I Like to Move It for dances.
In math this week, we have begun our study of multiplication. We are looking at it, to start, as repeated addition and equal groups. It seems as though we are able to have our math stations for 5 days now due to more adult support. That is great news. I feel strongly about the small group instruction. I think it's a way that students get what they need for instruction. On Friday, we tried a new site in the computer lab: Kakooma. I have the link on a post if your child would like to find it again. We will be doing those puzzles during math stations this coming week.
During reading, we have sharpened our skills picking out character traits and supporting these traits with details from the text. For write about reading this week, students picked a main character in a book which they have read and decided on his/her personality trait. Then, students were asked to go back into the text and support this trait with things the character did or said. We worked portfolio reflections during work jobs as well. On Friday, students read Scholastic News and focused on the main idea of the articles.
As you have hopefully seen, I have added challenge words to the spelling list coming home weekly. These words follow the phonics rule being taught but are a bit more challenging to spell. They are also there to increase your child's vocabulary. We have been breaking out into groups during word work to do various activities. Again, each child is working on something at his/her appropriate level. Some are working on basic phonics rules, others are doing some vocabulary development, while others are reviewing previous phonics rules.
In writing, we are continuing our research on our Arctic or Antarctic animal. In the beginning of the week, I asked students to collect information from more than one source. In order to become "experts" on their animals, they need to know a lot of information. We have looked at encyclopedias, books, and websites to gain information. On Thursday, in the computer lab, they went to a website and added info to their notes. While we become experts on our own animals, we are doing a class study on Polar Bears. This is to model the process of researching and turning it into a quality piece of writing.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Friday, January 24, 2014
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Monday
Hello 2F Families!
I'm thinking that I will only be doing a weekly update on this blog from now on. I really would like to make it look prettier with pics and video of what your child is doing in class. It seems as though from the looks of the survey, most folks on average check it weekly. I will do a weekly update and send an email when it is updated. This seems to work best for most. Look for that Friday or this weekend.
We are studying the Arctic and the Antarctic areas. Students have researched an animal from one of these areas to become an "expert" on. Today, students wrote in their notebooks about a topic in which they consider themselves an expert. I'll be interested to see what they have come up with tomorrow!
In reading, we read more about our animal which we are researching. The goal is to have multiple sources. Some worked on the internet, others read books and encyclopedias.
In math, we continue to review bar models and 2 step word problems.
I'm thinking that I will only be doing a weekly update on this blog from now on. I really would like to make it look prettier with pics and video of what your child is doing in class. It seems as though from the looks of the survey, most folks on average check it weekly. I will do a weekly update and send an email when it is updated. This seems to work best for most. Look for that Friday or this weekend.
We are studying the Arctic and the Antarctic areas. Students have researched an animal from one of these areas to become an "expert" on. Today, students wrote in their notebooks about a topic in which they consider themselves an expert. I'll be interested to see what they have come up with tomorrow!
In reading, we read more about our animal which we are researching. The goal is to have multiple sources. Some worked on the internet, others read books and encyclopedias.
In math, we continue to review bar models and 2 step word problems.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Wednesday
We are wrapping up our bar modeling unit this week. Students have done well with it. I love the idea of bar modeling because it is a true visual representation of the word problems. It makes sense to use it when trying to solve word problems.
In reading, we are talking a lot about personality traits. Yesterday, students decided one word that describes their personalities and then come up with examples from their lives to back up what they said. Today, they did this with a book character. So interesting!
In writing, we now have options during writing workshop. Students can choose to write in their notebooks. They can type on the computer or they can choose the iPad to compose on. It's a true workshop format! I love it!
Our word wall words are: year, each, week, feel, and eat this week. Thanks for your help working with these this week.
In reading, we are talking a lot about personality traits. Yesterday, students decided one word that describes their personalities and then come up with examples from their lives to back up what they said. Today, they did this with a book character. So interesting!
In writing, we now have options during writing workshop. Students can choose to write in their notebooks. They can type on the computer or they can choose the iPad to compose on. It's a true workshop format! I love it!
Our word wall words are: year, each, week, feel, and eat this week. Thanks for your help working with these this week.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Friday
Happy Friday!
We worked with bar models and white boards today. We had a little time to split into groups. During social studies, we watched a movie about penguins and then read Scholastic News. We also had some catch up time. Students worked well finishing up a lot of work. My "finished work bin" is full! We also had a spelling test today.
Have a super weekend!
We worked with bar models and white boards today. We had a little time to split into groups. During social studies, we watched a movie about penguins and then read Scholastic News. We also had some catch up time. Students worked well finishing up a lot of work. My "finished work bin" is full! We also had a spelling test today.
Have a super weekend!
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Wednesday
Many of our friends left today for skiing. I hope it was fun and not too cold!
In math, we talked about the Add On bar model. Then we broke into small groups for math stations. In reading, we worked in small groups on our write about reading for the week. This is a difficult activity to do: determining a personality trait for a character and then finding proof in the book to support it. Working in small groups helps.
For word work, we played Sparkle. Mrs. Kleiner came in for Second Step. Finally, at the end of the day, we went to the computer lab and tried a new idea called a Playlist. Students navigated through 2 games and a writing prompt generator for writing time. They can get this by clicking the link on the Playlist post.
In math, we talked about the Add On bar model. Then we broke into small groups for math stations. In reading, we worked in small groups on our write about reading for the week. This is a difficult activity to do: determining a personality trait for a character and then finding proof in the book to support it. Working in small groups helps.
For word work, we played Sparkle. Mrs. Kleiner came in for Second Step. Finally, at the end of the day, we went to the computer lab and tried a new idea called a Playlist. Students navigated through 2 games and a writing prompt generator for writing time. They can get this by clicking the link on the Playlist post.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Tuesday
Happy Tuesday! It's a cold one today. Ask your child what the difference in temperature was between today and yesterday's morning meeting. We are learning about temperature during our calendar time and keeping track of the temperatures for the month of January. It's been fun conversation to talk about estimating the temperature outside and on what we base our guesses.
In math: more bar modeling! We will continue this for awhile. We did math stations today too.
In reading, we began talking about character development. I will be working with students to identify character traits and prove it with evidence from the book. This is tricky: definitely a higher level skill.
In word work, we did an activity sorting words with long a vowel patterns.
Pat's Peak Program starts tomorrow. Early dismissal is at 2:15.
In math: more bar modeling! We will continue this for awhile. We did math stations today too.
In reading, we began talking about character development. I will be working with students to identify character traits and prove it with evidence from the book. This is tricky: definitely a higher level skill.
In word work, we did an activity sorting words with long a vowel patterns.
Pat's Peak Program starts tomorrow. Early dismissal is at 2:15.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Monday
Happy New Year! It was a sluggish start this morning due to the weather. My drive was a bit hairy! But we settled into our routine of snack, morning meeting and then we did some social studies. We will be studying about the Arctic and Antarctic regions this month. Fun stuff. We learned about continents today.
After that, we worked on Vacation News (not Weekend News). Students finished after lunch. In word work, we had 5 new words: rain, say, today, wait, and way. Next, we talked about fluency and practiced reading our poem of the week.
Thank you for the donations today! We really appreciate it!
After that, we worked on Vacation News (not Weekend News). Students finished after lunch. In word work, we had 5 new words: rain, say, today, wait, and way. Next, we talked about fluency and practiced reading our poem of the week.
Thank you for the donations today! We really appreciate it!
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