Before we jump into informational text in the 3 trimester, we are going to take the next week to review what kinds of writing we can make! My goal is to touch on: How-To's, Informational (because we will do A LOT of this during the last part of the year), fiction, and opinions (beyond just a letter). They may brainstorm more pieces/types of writing as well to add to our list! After our brainstorm, we will spend a few days working on informational writing (an introduction to taking sticky notes) then we will focus on fiction writing and create a story together as a class that we made up. I will round out the week with expanding on our opinion writing, going beyond a letter, but writing a paragraph about what we think and why. Now we've spent time on each of these types of writing throughout the year, so this will be a bit of a reminder/review of the different types of writing. At the end of the third trimester there will be time to revisit this type of writing as well, and during various times of writing workshop. The attached picture is an example of how to take sticky notes. They will write the fact on a post it and put the post it on the paper. Normally there are 3 pages of notes to take about a specific topic. The first two pages are prompted and the last page is blank to include any type of fact they wish. This is to get them thinking about what type of information is included in nonfiction writing.
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We will finish up Topic 9 mid week. They did a pretty good job on their pre assessment! My small groups are focusing on what I see on both as an individual and as a whole group. Greater than and less than are tricky because of the vocabulary used but with lots of work and practice on the 100's chart they will have it! Topic 10 focuses on "Adding with Tens and Ones". We will be adding double digit numbers to ones. The previous two topics helped set us up for this one quite well. They will learn to move around the 100's chart even more (moving down is adding, moving back is subtracting). They will also work with adding 10's to two digit numbers. So this may be a bit difficult but they will use multiple strategies: using sticks/ones (manipulatives), using their 100's chart and I will also teach them how to solve using facts (vertical notation). So there's a lot going on here, and depending on the pre assessment, I may take a few days to each part. If you are looking for some extra math practice at home (it wouldn't hurt) I found this article from parent magazine with their 10 top math apps. I haven't actually played any of them but if you have any questions before you purchase (if they aren't free), pleas ask! http://www.parents.com/kids/education/math-and-science/best-math-apps-for-kids/ Also on the link section of this weebly, you will find more links to math games! If you find a good one, let me know and I will post the link!! This week we are going to dig into making connections to our reading. During their reading assessments (DRA) there is a part that asks the student to make connections to the story, as well as it being part of the common core curriculum. We have done some introduction with this already so this may sound familiar. No we are going to focus on making connections to self, connections to a text and connections to the world. We will read good books that will help them make those connections: The Relatives Came, My Rotten Red-Headed Older Brother, My Mouth is a Volcano, Bear Has a Story to Tell, Roxaboxen. After reading each day we will share out our connections. Children at this age, tend to focus on themselves (text to self connections) because that's really what they know! So there will be encouragement to share connections to other books and to others (world). This would be a great thing to do after their reading. Ask them what they think of after reading? What connections to they have? We will also do some connection puzzles and write about our connections. Our next nonfiction study will focus on Polar Bears. So far, we have learned a lot about South Pole Animals (Penguins/Seals) and learned a bit about a North Pole animal (Walruses). They asked some great questions about the interactions of these animals (Do walruses eat penguins for example) and we looked at our maps and learned that they live in different poles so that answered our question! These studies are really creating an opportunity for questioning at all levels and it's great to see them problem solve to try to figure out the answers instead of just telling them. They are using all sorts of nonfiction/informational text resources such as PebbleGo, books, and National Geographic for Kids. Our polar bear study will jump off with an experiment about blubber. We never got this because of our snow days so this will be perfect with connecting our past study of Walruses and our new study of Polar Bears together. They will put their hand in a bag that is insulated by Crisco into cold ice water. They will also do this without the Crisco and compare. In their packet is a sheet to fill out their observations and conclusions. Then we will begin to learn about the polar bear. Starting with a diagram and can/have/are. This upcoming week I will start off with Topic 9 pre-assessment to determine where small group instruction and activities for math workshop. Topic 9 is 'Comparing and Ordering Numbers to 100'. They will use their 100's chart a lot (either on their nametag or the individual ones I have) to move around the chart adding/subtracting 10. We did a lot of work with taking away 10's this week as review to the previous topic so I hope this will give the background knowledge they need to feel comfortable. It will just be different because they will not be familiar with the 100's frame like that. We will also compare numbers using < , >, and the = symbol. Vocabulary I use in here is pretending it is an alligator and the alligator is so hungry it wants to eat the bigger number always. So it's mouth is pointed towards the bigger number. They will also order 3 different numbers from least to greatest and greatest to least. This week we are going to read some really fun, great books to help us with our retelling. After completing DRA's earlier this month, I noticed an area that we need to work on is comprehension. This week, we will start off by doing some whole group instruction and repetitive retelling for practice. Comprehension is a large part of reading, especially as they continue to grow into stronger readers (reading longer books). The first few days, we will talk about what is in a story and chart on the board (who-characters, what-plot, where-setting, how did it end?) and then eventually chart answers to all those questions. The books we are going to read are: Bad Case of the Stripes, A Chair for My Mother, Amazing Grace and Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock. I will read aloud the books to the kids and then have them listen online to Bad Case of the Stripes. It's a fun online site where actors read aloud stories. It's under my links page if you want to check it out! Just another way to show them how you can read/be read aloud too! http://www.storylineonline.net This week in writing we will continue to work on punctuation. I have noticed in various parts of the day where we are writing, as well as our letters, students are still not placing punctuation correctly or at all. So we will work on something called Daily Math and Language. It's a short sheet where the students will work on various problems aligning with the standards. One part of the daily language is fixing sentences; placing correct punctuation (?, . and !), correct capitalization, as well fix spelling. This will be a good way to see incorrect conventions but then also apply what they know. We will work on punctuation for a few weeks. Hopefully this learning will show up in their writing soon! Some books we will read: Lyle Lyle Crocodile, Nate the Great, The Snowy Day (perfect for this winter), and Sebastian's Roller Skates. |
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