Week in Review--Thanksgiving Week!

This week was all about giving thanks! Below are several activities we completed learning about the first Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Native Americans, turkeys and more!

This is a video of each student telling the class what he/she is thankful for...

Reading:

During our reading time this week we read several stories about Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Native Americans and turkeys. We focused on the story elements "main idea, characters and setting" in our first book this week!


We did not have new sight words this week. We reviewed all of our current sight words each day and even practiced them at home using our "Lightening Words" practice page. Tuesday, we played one of our favorite review games called "SWAT IT". 

Another reading lesson this week during Daily 5 focused on comparing and contrasting characters in a story. The story I picked was about Pilgrims and Native Americans. We first wrote down things we learned about each group and then realized after reading another story later that most of those things we wrote under each group, actually can fit in our "both" column!


Content:

We had a LOT of fun learning about Thanksgiving this week. Our afternoons were taken up by learning in our content area that we did not get to math this week. We practiced our word family words by reading them and having a turkey "gobble" them up! We also wrote about chores we do at home, just like the Pilgrims had to do chores and wrote a second sentence about something the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims to do! It was a lot of fun learning, discussing and creating these projects this week.

We painted hand turkeys on a paper that says...

"This isn't just a turkey

As anyone can see.

I made it with my hand,

Which is party of me.

I come with lots of love,

Especially to say...

I hope you have a very

Happy Thanksgiving Day!"

Writing:
During our writing time this week, we focused on writing a "Who, What, Where" story about Thanksgiving. I sent home a paper for each family to fill out sharing what each child's Thanksgiving plans were going to be in order to help us write the piece. We sat in groups and completed our books. I am so very proud of each book! Below are two examples from the class.

Story 1:

I will go to my grandma and grandpa's.

I will be with my family.

I will eat and play.

Story 2:

I will go to my grandma's.

I like to be with my mom.

I play and eat.

Bat Facts!

Week in Review--Nocturnal Animals Week!

Math:

-We started to practice addition up through 5 this week. We will have this as a choice during Math with Someone. The students are allowed to use a number line or manipulatives to help them for the time being. Eventually those items will be removed and the students will need to know the facts by heart. I will be sending home addition flash cards with your child next week to practice at home.

-We have two new choices during Daily 5 Math this week. A new choice at Math with Someone is a memory game that helps with number recognition, counting and addition! The second new choice is for Math by Myself. This choice has the students practicing drawing their 2d shapes…square, circle, triangle , rectangle and hexagon.

Writing:

-We focused on several items this week during our Writer’s Workshop. The first mini-lesson this week was all about noodle and meatball spaces. It’s important for students to learn to add spaces in between their words when writing. If they do not have spaces, it makes their writing hard to read. We use a visual item to help students with this skill. Each student has a fork with a meatball on the end where the student places the meatball after each word to give a space before they write the second word. We also introduced our new writing goals and each student was given a specific goal to work on during both their independent writing, as well as when they are working with the teacher. One other lesson this week focused on adding middle sounds to our words by using one of our vowels. By adding a vowel to a word it automatically helps the word become easier to read, even if the vowel the student chooses is incorrect, it will help the reader get an idea of what the writer was writing.

Reading:

-We started TWO sight words this week-- “now, are”.

-The CAFÉ strategy we worked on this week was the strategy.

 “Respond to Questions About the Story”

Learning to ask questions before, during and after a story is an important reading strategy because it teaches the reader to think out loud. It helps readers review important details throughout the story, make connections and refine predictions.

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

1.    1. Model asking questions throughout the story by stopping during the reading to question what is going on in the text. Use questions such as:

                 -“What does this mean?”

                 -“Is this important?”

                 -“How do I think this story will end?”

                 -“What does this word mean?

                 -“Do I need to read this again?”

2. Then have your child practice asking questions independently.

2.     Preselect several stopping points in a text to stop and ask questions. Have your child verbalize questions out loud.

3.     Encourage your child to even write down the questions as they read.'

Content:

We learned all about nocturnal animals this week. We focused specifically on bats and owls. We read several books and completed many fun projects. We read along and put all the characters in our very own “old lady” that swallowed a bat, owl, cat, ghost, goblin, bones and wizard! We also wrote a predictable chart about facts we learned on owls, read a mini bat book, watched bat and owl videos, made an owl puppet and turned ourselves into bats flying at night!











Other:

We had a FANTASTIC time at our second Parent University. This night was all about our writing workshop! Below are pictures from our night and a video we showed the families who were there explaining our writing workshop block of time. I hope to see more families at our third and final Parent University in the spring!

Poem of the Week--Rainbow Fair

Week in Review--Creeeeepy, Crawwwwly,SPIDERS!

MATH:

-We continued practicing number bonds this week. We reviewed numbers 1 and 2 and then went on to practice 3,4 and 5. We have a new option in our “Number Work” choice where the students roll a dice to decide the number they are going to work with, write the number down on the number bond paper, take that many cubes out and complete the number bond and addition portion of the page! They continue rolling the dice to create new number bonds!

-Our classroom iPod touches were also introduced this week. The class is on a rotation where we go in number (ABC by last name) order to use them. We have two iPods so the two students each round are able to use them. During our Daily 5 reading block, they play educational apps that practice letters, words and reading! During our Daily 5 math block, they practice more educational apps that are related to numbers, counting, addition and shapes!

WRITING:

-We worked in writing groups this week on creating books that have a beginning, middle and end, as well as staying on the same topic throughout the entire book. Some groups are focusing on staying on topic, others are working on sight words, stretching out words they don’t know and writing down the sounds they hear, meatball spaces, writing with lower case letters and adding details to their writing. Each group has one or two main focuses during our writing session.

-We also practiced this week adding punctuation to the end of sentences depending on if they were a telling sentence, exciting sentence or an asking sentence.

-One other lesson we worked on this week was looking through our journals and finding what makes the writing easy or hard to read. We discussed why it was easy to read and why it would be hard to read. We want to always strive to make our writing easy to read!










-During our morning work this week, we practiced writing sentences with specific sight words. After morning announcements, we gather as a class and create a class sentence using the sight word of the morning and write it together! We are getting really good at writing sentences, which makes Mrs. Brown VERY happy!

READING:

-We started TWO sight words this week-- “what, you”.

-The CAFÉ strategy we worked on this week was the strategy...

 “Make a Picture or Visual Image”.

This is an excellent strategy for readers to use when recalling details in the text. Making a picture or mental image assists readers in understanding what they read by creating images in their mind, based on the details in the text and their prior knowledge.

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

 1. Remind your child that when making a picture or mental image, readers put themselves in the story or text by making a mind movie. They also look for important details that help them make pictures in their minds. 

2. Explain that there are many ways pictures help readers remember what they are reading. They can do this by:

- thinking about what they know about the text before they read

-using sensory details to create mental pictures (what did it smell like, feel like, look like, etc.)

-looking back at the picture in your brain after the story to remember what has happened. 

3. Read to your child and model how you make pictures in your mind. Then, give your child a chance to try it. Read a selection to your child and ask:

-What do you see in my mind as I read this selection?

-Can you see yourself in this selection?

-Explain to me the picture in your mind.

"-AT" WORD FAMILY

-To practice our first word family this week, the "-at" word family, we started WORD SEARCH WEDNESDAY. This is when we work as a class to find words from our word family and circle, read and spell them in a word search!
-I also sent home a new piece of homework this week called "ROLL & READ" this page will be sent home every Tuesday and needs to be completed by Friday. This is yet another way for you and your child to practice reading sight words AND words from our word families!

Below are a few pictures of the class doing their "jobs" during Daily 5 Reading this week!

WORD WORK

READ TO SELF

READ TO SOMEONE

WORD WORK

OTHER:

-We had quite the creeeeepy, crawly week here in room 26 learning all about spiders! We first started the week by writing down all the things we already knew about spiders and then as we learned new facts, we put them on the “learned” side of our chart. By then our “learned” side was even longer than the side we already knew! We practiced fact vs opinion, wrote a creative writing sentence with a spider and created a spider web with a spider and even some a “bug” as prey!
























EXTRA:

-We had our Veteran's Day Program on Thursday morning this week. The 4th and 5th grade students performed several patriotic songs and all of the veterans in attendance were recognized for serving their country.