Today we learned more about giraffes. We've learned that they live in herds, they are the tallest land mammal and today added some facts that make them unique! They have a blue/purple tongue, no two giraffes have the same spots!
We talked about what the word "unique" meant and what we thought were unique features of a giraffe. They wrote down a list and then answered the question on the bottom: What are some things that make you unique? It was such a GREAT discussion. I gave them some scaffolding about what makes us unique and how unique doesn't mean weird/bad and that different is great! They came up with some great shares and the kids did a great job listening and making connections with one another. Not one ill word, laugh or anything mean was said! It was awesome!
0 Comments
Just a fun share! I was giving a DRA and looked up to check what was going on and I saw THIS!! I was so proud of them. I told them what a great job and dropped a handful of buckeyes into the bin! LOVE that they LOVE to read! Now granted, that lasted only 10-15 minutes ha ha! You've got some great kids!
Enjoy some pictures from our map creation! They had to draw a rough draft of their map and key/symbols. Then they had to draw that on their large paper. From there they created their large maps! They did a great job! Even though it was messy (and internally I was cringing) they did a fantastic job! They had to have a map key with symbols, and 3 physical features: forest, lake and mountain.
I introduced some new words today: "chit chat" and "close up reading". We are using these to help us dig more into our reading and help us write better nonfiction responses and research. In May, our focus will be on nonfiction in both reading and writing. We've done A LOT of front work for this and many types of activities and writing to help us prepare. Before we jump on in and do some research, I wanted to help them think more about the facts they are reading. This will help them understand the nonfiction text better and be able to write more detailed research.
I started with close up reading. We defined it as "looking at the key details, word meaning, author’s words & a deep understanding of the text that makes us question. Then in turn makes us go back into the text and provide evidence and reasoning. We did this with an examples from one short page of facts about lions. The first sentence along (4 words) told us 5 facts! We practiced these skills with our chit chat! I put the examples above! We will learn about lions, elephants, zebras and giraffes and practice close reading! In reading, we are looking/reading different forms of poetry. They will explore acrostic, rhyming poems, seasonal and many more! We will talk about the differences we see in poetry compared to regular text. We will then dig into emotional words and adjectives. They will explore adjectives through poems where we will create a list to help us with our writing (a chart we will put up on our writing help bulletin board). Lots of work on "describing words" and how they make writing more interesting (both their writing and reading). Some fun poetry books we've dug into are above!
We've learned a lot about what maps are, different kinds of maps, how to use them and symbols, keys and physical features. Last week I gave them directions, READ ALOUD, to make a map. They had to use their listening skill as well as their direction skills (N, E, S, and W). They created a map of a playground and a map of a farm. You will see these come home today! I had them create their key on their own to add to their map! I was super impressed!
We will continue to work on mapping this week. They will create a 3-D version of a map as a table, working on physical features and then prepare our maps for our trip to UDF! Stay tuned! Thank you for those you sent in cards! Subtraction Salute is a GREAT game for facts! I put the directions below in case you want to try to play at home!
3. Subtraction Salute What they’ll practice: Addition, subtraction What they’ll need: One deck of cards for every three students (face cards are worth 11) How to play: Two players are the “soldiers” and one player is the “general.” Deal half a deck to each soldier. To begin the game, both soldiers salute the general by holding one of their cards up to their forehead (they can’t see the card they’re holding but the other two players can). The general (the only one who can see both cards) adds the two numbers together and says the sum aloud. Each soldier then takes that sum, subtracts the number her opponent is holding, and calls out the value of the card she can’t see. Whoever calls out the correct number first gets to keep both cards. Play ends when time runs out or someone wins all the cards. |
Archives
October 2022
Categories |