Week in Review--Weather (part 2)

 

Reading:

Our CAFE strategy this week was focused on “Name the Problem and Solution”. When we read, we often recognize common elements of a story that include plot, character, setting, problem and solution and theme. We use these elements to help us infer what will happen next. As readers, when we identify and understand these elements, we store this information to help us remember and comprehend what the story is about. Literary elements work together to form the story and make it interesting. We learn literary elements separately, but we combine them when reading to give us a better understanding of the story. It is important that children specifically look for these elements as they first learn them. It is through exposure and practice that readers become good at using these elements to comprehend text.

How can you help your child with this strategy at home?

1. When reading a story with your child, discuss the character. Begin by asking your child who or what the story is about.

2. After determining the character, see if your child is able to tell you where and when the story occurs. Ask your child how they were able to determine the setting? Did he/she use pictures, words, or infer to establish the setting?

3. Continue to read the selection and discuss with your child important events that occur in the story. Ask your child what the problem is in the story and how the problem was solved.

4. Conclude the story by talking about the theme of the story. The theme is the underlying message, or meaning, of the story. Encourage your child to use what they know about the characters, setting, and plot to help determine the theme.

Our vocabulary words this week were:

• prey
• den
• cub
• blend
• scraps
• pounces

Writing:

We wrote two different types of weather reports this week! The first report we completed with a partner by taking a picture of a specific type of weather, writing a fact about that weather, adding effects to the font and transition of the words and recorded our voice. The finished product was a movie we created using an app called Shadow Puppet Edu.

Our second weather report this week was a writing lesson where we pretended to be a weather reporter and was giving the forecast for the day. We used an app called Tellagami where we drew the background showing the type of weather and recorded our voice to go along with the character we created to explain and give the forecast. We tried to make sure to give facts and/or advice to our listeners about how to prepare for the type of weather we were forecasting! We finished by sending the video to Google Classroom and sharing with the class.

 

 

Math:

We learned a new math concept this week...ADDITION STORY PROBLEMS. We practiced as a group and with partners telling our own story problems and answering others story problems. We focus on writing the answer and/or challenging ourselves to write the addition sentence to the story problem as well. It is also important to remember to say the unit/item that is being told in the story with your answer. For example, if the story problem was “I went to the pantry and took out 4 cookies. I then took out two more. How many cookies did I take from the pantry?” The answer would not only be 6 but 6 cookies. .

 

Content:

This week was all about weather and fun we have with weather. We also took a little break from weather on Thursday and celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with an entire day-o-fun!

• Monday we completed a Popplet to go along with the story Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. We decided if we could have any food fall from the sky, what type of food would we choose!
• Tuesday, we went outside on a walk around the school to enjoy the sunshine!
• Wednesday, we shared our weather reports with the class.
• Thursday, was all about St. Patrick’s Day!
• When the students arrived the tables were green and there was a green doorway sign they had to walk through to get in the room!
• They created rainbow binoculars to help find the leprechaun.
• We realized the leprechaun changed our poem to his own poem about him!
• Mrs. Brown caught the leprechaun and one of his pieces of gold and then he took it away from her and POOF he was gone!
• He left us clues to find his pot of gold though and we solved all the clues, but only found a pot of Skittles. We didn’t mind though, they were yummy!
• We painted a leprechaun using orange paint and fork to make his beard!
• We finished the day by enjoying some ice cream with Lucky Charms cereal as our topping!
• What a FUN DAY!
• Friday, we continued with our weather fun and created a picture to go with our Cloudy With a Chance of _______ from Monday.

Below are SEVERAL pictures and video from our fun filled week!

 

 

 

 

We were turned into leprechauns!

 

 

 

 

I had to cut this video because it was really long but we found one coin from the pot of gold and you will see me showing the kids the coin and then POOF a hand comes up and grabs it and disappears! It was so shocking!

  

 



 

 

 

PRACTICE AT HOME:

HAVE A FANTASTIC SPRING BREAK!!!!

Next Week:

• In reading we will focus on visualizing
• In writing we will begin our third unit Opinion Writing.
• In math we will continue to learn about addition & subtraction stories.
• Our theme next week is all about INSECTS!

  
Important Dates/Information:

• 3/ 21-3/25 NO SCHOOL SPRING BREAK
• 4/8 Spring Pictures
• 4/29 Spring Carnival
• 5/5 Muffins for Mom
• 5/10 Field Trip to Indy Zoo

Week in Review--Weather (part 1)

Reading:

This week our reading strategy was focused on how characters change throughout a story. Sometimes characters feelings and personalities change and other times they might change physically and even further than that we read a story where a mouse did not know anything about spring at the beginning of the book and his knowledge changed by the end. He had learned all about spring! Identifying and understanding the main literary elements of a story such as character, setting, plot, and problem/resolution gives readers a process for storing information to remember and to comprehend what the story is about. This knowledge will also help students as they are writing stories.

Why do we teach specific elements of a story all together and other times in isolation? Literary elements work together to form and enhance the story. We learn literary elements separately, and then combine them in our mind for better understanding of the story.

Our focus vocabulary word this week was the word "idea". We used an app called Balloon Stickies Plus and took pictures of ourselves and/or our writing partner. We added a thought bubble to the picture using the app and wrote in an idea we might have or we might be thinking about during that picture. Examples are below. It was such a fun and easy app to use, we will definitely be using this app again!

 

Math:

Our math vocabulary focus this week were the words "most and least". We talked about what these words mean and then put an entry into our math journals using those two words.

 

 

Throughout the rest of the week, we reviewed and focused on addition and subtraction. We compared the two different math skills and talked about what they have in common and what makes them different. We practiced both types of problems and are working really hard on using mental math to solve addition and subtraction problems under 5 without any math tools, number lines or even our fingers!

 

 

Writing:

 

We finished up our second writing unit this week! We took our post-test on informational writing and I could not be any prouder of each students final writing piece. I will be showing each of you their final piece at parent/teacher conferences this week. Be sure to scan the QR code next to your child's picture out in the hallway to see, read and listen to other informational writing books they completed with a partner and individually using Book Creator. They really are smart cookies writing to teach others about things they are experts in! We also took a pre-test for our next writing unit...Opinion Writing. We will officially begin opinion writing when we return from spring break.

 

Other writing news...we used one of our new favorite programs Pebble Go this week to learn even more facts about weather that we may or may not have already known. We are working with a partner to learn about specific types of weather and will put our facts into an app called Shadow Puppet EDU next week. An example of one we created as a class is below. Students will create their own with their partner and their own facts that they learned next week!

 



 

 

Content:

 

This week has been all about weather! We study weather for two weeks b/c there are so many exciting things to learn when it comes to weather. We started the week off by creating a class Popplet using emoji's from the iPad keyboard to help show off things we already know about weather. We continued the week by learning about different types of clouds and creating a flip book showing a weather word and then drawing a picture that goes with that word. We will continue next week by completing a creative writing and a few other weather related items!

 

 



 

 

PRACTICE AT HOME:

Practice mental math by having your child envision a number line or math tools and add and subtract numbers under 5. For example, tell your child 3+1=?? or 4-1=?? and only focus on numbers adding and subtracting under 5. See if they can solve the problem without using their fingers or any other tools to get the correct answer.

Next Week:

• In reading we will focus on comparing and contrasting.
• In writing we will continue weather reports.
• In math we will learn about addition stories.
• Our theme next week is all about WEATHER!

  
Important Dates/Information:

• 3/15 and 3/17 Parent/Teacher Conferences--please return the day/time green paper I sent home confirming your conference
• 3/18 3rd Nine Weeks Awards Ceremony 2:00PM
• 3/ 21-3/25 NO SCHOOL SPRING BREAK
• 4/8 Spring Pictures
• 4/29 Spring Carnival
• 5/5 Muffins for Mom
• 5/10 Field Trip to Indy Zoo