Spring Break!

         

Wishing everyone a happy and safe spring break!

See you back in school April 1, 2013!

New Target Work

I can't believe we have arrived at the third trimester!

I am still trying to figure out where fall went and here we are getting ready for spring!

We have had an amazing week filled with hard work.

The class has been very excited to start our new social studies geography unit.

They are asking excellent questions!

So far we have learned the seven continents, four oceans, and the following landforms:

continent

mountain

hill

plateau

valley

island

peninsula

We learned that a landform is a naturally occurring part of the Earth; people did not create it.

The students should also be able to give descriptions of each of the above landforms.

We started creating a book that shows their place in the world.

It begins with the child and will eventually take them to the world.

This week we worked on the first 2 pages.

Working together to answer a geography question.

 Giving the signal to show their table is ready!

 The class loves graphing!

This week we used data from a made up class to create a pictograph and bar graph.

This helped us learned to organize information and how to interpret information contained in each type of graph.

The next day we learned that sometimes the images in a pictograph do not always represent 1.

We worked on this together.

During literacy we are looking at how a character acts, what they think, or what they say and 

using that information to describe the character.

We watched a video and focused on one very dramatic character.

We wanted to use interesting vocabulary to describe, rather than saying happy or sad.

In the video Lola had a range of emotions from feeling amazed to disappointed to proud.

The pink paper you see us holding is our list of character traits. 

 The following pictures show us working at our various literacy centers.

We work on word work, writing, independent reading and comprehension, listening to reading,  reading with a partner, and meeting with the teacher.

We read Arthur's Pet Business to practice our extends reading target.

The students will have to respond to a hypothetical "what if" scenario.

This would be great practice at home after reading together!

 Today we played a St. Patrick's Day math game which continued our practice of math facts and groups of ten.

Have a great weekend!

Fresh Start

After our unexpected four day weekend we started trimester 3 with freshly organized desks and cubbies.

The kids were great about helping each other!

We will be spending a great deal of time during reading looking at character traits and motivation,

and retelling a fiction story.

As an introduction we read a short passage called What Will Susie Choose?.

After we read it twice, we highlighted things that Emily (the main character) did, said, or thought that gave us insight into her character.

Then we read Wolf's Chicken Stew together, then the class worked in small groups to determine character traits and support their ideas with the text.  Next they filled out a story map, and finally wrote a retell of the story.

In order to help give us more practice, the students brought home a book retell assignment yesterday.

This can be on any book of their choice, as long as it is an appropriate book for their reading level.

Please remember this is not a book report.  The students should not tell everything that happens in the story.

Please see the blog titled Retelling, Science, and Problem Solving

for a review of a retell we did together on Beatrice Doesn't Want To.

**Correction**

The due date on the assignment should read March 22, 2013.

I apologize for the error!

Here are some pictures of the work in action.

 Last Friday, one of our math centers involved measuring our arm spans.

On Thursday we used the data to determine the mode and median arm span measurement in the class.

We learned the mode is the number that occurs most often in a list of numbers, and the median is the middle value.

We also discussed the terms maximum and minimum.

 This trimester allows us to continue to work on opinion writing.

Together we wrote descriptive sentences about Oreos.

Then each student selected from a shortened version of the safe snack list and

wrote 5 descriptive sentences about their chosen snack.

Today we shared our writing with the class and brainstormed why each snack would be a good snack to have at a class party.

In the pictures below, the text in blue are the descriptions and the text in pink are the reasons.

Next week, we will write an opinion essay about which of the snacks we think would be best.

We will include a topic sentence that states our opinion, 3 reasons, 3 supporting details, and a closing sentence.

 We ended our Friday with time to read and share books with a partner.

 Remember to turn your clocks ahead one hour on Sunday!

Have a wonderful weekend!