Over the past two weeks we've had EIGHT jam packed school days...here is a snippet of what we've been up to....
Language Arts...
Our class is the proud owner of a set of Nooks for the next few weeks! It is amazing how excited the kids get about reading when an electronic reader is in their hands! I am running two groups and each group is reading a novel...we are reading How to Steal a Dog and Young Fredle. Each story is full of rigorous vocabulary, underlying themes, and strong plots. This past week our focus was vocabulary. They found words while they read that they weren't quite sure of...then using the surrounding text, they predicted the word's meaning. Using the dictionary feature on the Nook, the kids verified the meanings of these words. We are building strong vocabulary which leads to increased comprehension of the story! Over the next two weeks we will focus on digging deep into the text to find meaning, answering questions using evidence from the text. We will all be sad to see the Nooks go...but we must share!!
I have the final opinion essays with me on my trip and will attempt to grade them while here...or at least on the drive home! This essay was a labor of love that stretched over three weeks. This all started with the reading of a debate..."Should every child receive a trophy?" We all chose a side and then looked for evidence to support BOTH sides. Its important for kids to see that the way they feel isn't always the best side to write about...the best side is the one with the most evidence. After introducing this, the kids read many different debates and chose one they wanted to stand behind. They had to list the YES and NO reasons/details for their particular debate. After this step, I used the "trophy" debate to model every other step. We wrote topic/opinion sentences for trophies...then they wrote their own. We chose strong reasons/details for the side we were supporting about trophies and then they wrote their own. We acknowledged the "other side" of the debate on trophies, and then they acknowledged the other side in their debate. And last, we wrote a conclusion for the trophy essay and they wrote their own conclusion stating the opinion again. All of this was recorded on a graphic organizer. THEN...I wrote a rough draft essay using the graphic organizer about trophies. They had to then write their rough draft. Last, I used a self reflection sheet to revise/edit my rough draft. They in turn, edited and revised their own. Just this week they wrote their final drafts. I am anxious to see their strong opinions come to life in their writing!
Science...
Fiddler crabs and newts and snails, OH MY! We have aquariums in our classrooms with many living organisms! We are studying so many things about their freshwater habitats while learning about the physical features of an organism that help it survive in its environment! This coming week we will shift our focus to food chains, food webs, producers, consumers, decomposers, etc. As you can imagine, the noise level in the room increases quite a bit when we are "doing science" due to their enthusiasm!
The kids have a test on Tuesday where they will have to label each organism listed above plus daphnia...all of the papers they need to study are in their green folders (which I made them all put in their backpacks on Tuesday!!)
Math...
In math we have been working with all things multiplication...and this week we used our knowledge of multiplication and arrays to work with area. But not the area of any old object...your child is designing a brand new candy bar! There are many different skills that go into the creation of this candy bar...but one of them is finding the surface area of the bar itself and then the area of the wrapper that they design to keep their candy bar prototype in. This coming week the kids will be creating a written version of a commercial that we will eventually video to share with all of you! They have taken on the roles of head of their candy company and lead candy bar creator VERY SERIOUSLY...can't wait for you to see the results!! Take a look at the production in action...
We will do a bit of work with fractions at the end of this unit which will be the intro to the fractions unit we will begin in Quarter Two.
REMINDERS...
This coming week we have many fun activities planned...
One is our Pumpkin Math day this Thursday, October 31st. Thank you to all of the parents who have signed up to come in and help...please remember that you must be a "trained volunteer" to work with the kids, so if you haven't completed that training, the link to do so is on the UES website! We will work all morning predicting and verifying measurements of our pumpkins. I have seven parents coming, but only three pumpkins. If you are able to donate a medium sized pumpkin for this Thursday, can you send me an email? I'd really appreciate it!
The next day we have our Fall Festival...on this day the kids can wear costumes, but they do not have to. IF they choose to wear a costume, they should wear them to school...they will be in them all day...the rules for these costumes have been sent out in the UES News...please make sure to read them...its awful to disappoint your child that day when their whole costume is based on a mask and we have to make them take it off because they weren't aware of the rules. http://education.fcps.org/ues/sites/default/files/UES_News/UESNews10-4-13.pdf Visit this link if you have not seen the rules...and please make sure you are on Find Out First...our UES News comes out through that service. If you need help signing up for Find Out First send me an email!!!
Another fun activity planned for Friday is our annual "Walk for the Homeless"...we will do this with our buddy class whom we met earlier this week! We have been paired with Mrs. Beach's 4th grade class and this past Monday the buddies interviewed each other in order to get to know each other a bit better. See below...the kids had a great time!
Well that's it from down south...I will see your kids Wednesday, and hopefully I will see you guys sometime during the week!
