April 30th-May 4th

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Today is the last day of the month which means April reading logs should be returned to school tomorrow!  Students will be rewarded for every 300 minutes they read.

Wishlist:  pencils, erasers, glue sticks, expo markers, and whiteboard erasers (which can also be clean, old socks!)

IXL practice:  Geometry (Letter T) and Fractions (Letter U)

Team Blowey did an amazing job with their Biography Day!  They were so excited to see each other dressed up as various famous people from history!  They did a fabulous job presenting their reports to the class and introducing themselves to other classes at Russell School.  It was such a fun day!  Thank you so much for all of your help!  It wouldn't have been possible without your cooperation, too!

 

This week in:

Phonics:  We are practicing the /j/ sound spelled -dge, -ge, -lge, -nge, -rge.  Together, we sounded out, spelled, and sorted the following words:  cage, page, judge, lodge, large, barge, buldge, change, range, and hinge.

Vocabulary:  Our new vocabulary words are:  menu, fetch, forgetting, simmered, assembled, and devoured.  We will use our elbow buddies to define these words, use them in sentences, and build connections to them so we are more likely to remember and use them.  We will search for these words in a story called Bobo's Celebration by Keith Fish.

Comprehension:  This week we will be working on analyzing story structure and distinguishing between fantasy and reality.  When we analyze a stories structure we are looking at the different parts of a story and how they are put together.  For example, we would look at what the story is about, who is in it, where it takes place, and when it takes place.  All of these things will help us to understand the story better.  When we distinguish between reality and fantasy, we are trying to sort out what things in a story could happen in real life and what things could not.  We will practice these skills when we are reading a story called Mice and Beans by Pam Munoz Ryan. 

Grammar:  This week's focus will be on using commas in a series.  Together we will talk about how to use commas when we are listing three or more things.  Student's will also have a chance to practice a few examples on their own.

Writing:   This week, students will be practicing how to spice up their writing using their five senses!  Oftentimes, students struggle with putting more details into their writing.  Using their senses is one way to help them with this.  Students will be challenged to describe a place using their five senses so that their teammates can guess the place they are talking about.  For example, students writing about a swimming pool might write something like:

"I can see lots of people playing games.  I can feel the cold water splashing my face.  I can smell lots of sunblock.  I can hear people laughing and splashing around.   I can taste the chlorine in my mouth."

The goal is that by the end of their description, everyone will be able to guess where they are without having to ask any questions.

Math:  This week, whole group lessons will focus on some geometry vocabulary (such as angles, faces, and polygons) and also being able to identify and draw shapes with specific attributes.  Later in the week, we will begin to talk about arrays where students will be able to construct a rectangle out of rows and columns of same-sized squares and count the total.  Students will participate in whole group lessons and then use their menus to help them practice their individual goal.  When they feel like they are ready to be checked, their work will go into the check-me bucket so that I can see if they are ready to move on to the next goal.

Science:  Last week, we were able to start planting our seeds in our planter in the reading garden!  Team Blowey and Ms. Thornhill's class will be sharing a planter for the rest of the year.  Together, we planted the seeds and we will share the responsibility of taking care of them.  We divided the planter into three parts and planted 3 different types of seeds.  We planted sunflowers, sensation cosmos, and buttercrunch bibb lettuce.  We drew what each of the seeds looked like and what they will look like after the flowers have bloomed.  We should be able to see some things sprout by the end of next week!  We also read a poem about planting and found rhyming words, nouns, and verbs.  

Social Studies:  We are still waiting to hear back from our Flat Stanley Pals!  As soon as we start getting letters back, we'll have a chance to use our map and calculate how many miles we have traveled.  We'll also get the chance to learn some really fun facts about places all over the world!

Other News:  Mrs. Thibodeau will be visiting our room again this Friday! 

April 23rd-27th

I hope you all had a fabulous spring break!  Hopefully you were able to take advantage of some of the wonderful weather we had.  It almost seems like a forgotten memory while I'm sitting here, looking out the window at the gloomy sky, listening the rain pour outside.  Well, at least we had a few nice days to help hold us over until the warm summer days head our way!

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

This Friday night is the Contradance Family Night!  The Family Night will be held at Memorial School.

THURSDAY IS BIOGRAPHY DAY!  Please send your child to school already dressed in their costume.  If their costume is a hat, please make sure they have it with them!  If you need any help at all coming up with a costume, please do not hesitate to ask!  

We are opening up more math standards this week!  We will be working on Geometry and Fractions.  Want to know what to practice on IXL?  Your child can practice T1-T9 and U1-U7.

This week in...

Language Arts:  This week, our main focus in Language Arts will be our biography projects.  By now, students are working on taking their edited rough drafts and turning them into their final drafts.  Students will be looking out to make sure they have upper and lower case letters where they belong, periods at the end of every sentence, and that most of the words are spelled correctly.  Once they have completed their final draft, they will work to create a portrait of the person they have researched.  On Thursday, students will have the chance to present their reports to their teammates.  They will be given time in class to practice their reports so that they are comfortable reading them.  

When students have completed their biography reports they will be participating in their CAFE goal time.  This is the time where they will be working on their individual reading, writing, and spelling goals. 

Math:  We are beginning to wrap up our adding and subtracting using place value unit.  This week whole groups lessons will continue to focus on adding up to four two digit numbers and adding and subtracting three digit numbers using drawings.

This week we are also beginning something called "Investigation Exploration" where we will be investigating and exploring the wonderful world of shapes!  That's right! We are opening up our geometry standards.  Along with geometry, we will also be doing fractions.  Today, students were able to take a pretest to see where they will be starting in the investigation exploration.  Tomorrow, we will be unpacking what we need to do in order to meet these new standards.  This week we will also have the chance to explore some of the new menu options so that students know exactly how to practice their personal goals independently.

Here's a sneak peak of what students will be working towards during the investigation exploration:

-Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.

-Recognize how many faces and angles a specific shape has.

-Draw a shape with a specific amount of faces and angles.

-Be able to divide a circle or rectangle into halves

-Be able to divide a circle or rectangle into thirds

-Be able to divide a circle or rectangle into fourths

-Know that an equal share of identical wholes can be a different shape (example: a rectangle can be divided into halves down the middle or diagonally)

-Partition a rectangle into rows and columns of same-size squares and count the total number of them.

Social Sciences:  Our Flat Stanley Kid Exchange is underway!  We will be waiting anxiously to hear about all of the fun places our flat selves got to travel!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

April 9th-12th

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

There is a note in the boomerang folders with a few more details about the biography project.  If you have any questions about it let me know!

There is NO SCHOOL on FRIDAY, April 13th!  Next week is spring break!  

Classroom wish list:  index cards, expo markers, top erasers for pencils, and whiteboard erasers.

Biography day will be April 26th!  

This week in...

 Phonics:  We are working on hard and soft consonants /k/c, /g/g, /s/c, and /j/g.  We'll be practicing with the following words:  camp, cave, cent, face, girl, wagon, gift, gym, gem, and germ.  We'll practicing sorting the words by their sounds.  We will also practice building and blending words with similar patterns.

Vocabulary:  Our new vocabulary words are:  surface, spacecraft, lunar, visible, footprint, and discovered.  We will use our elbow buddies to help us figure out what these words mean, how to use them in a sentence, and also to build connections to these words so we are more likely to remember and use them.  We'll be searching for these words in a short story called Discover the Moon. 

Comprehension: This week we will be practicing how to summarize a story by picking the most important parts of a story and retelling them in our own words.  We'll also be working on classifying and categorizing.  This means that we will be sorting words, objects, ideas, and people into groups.  Doing this helps us see how items in a group can be alike.  We will be practicing these skills while we read The Moon by Seymour Simon.

Writing:  We are hard at work researching for our biography book reports!  We have been practicing ways to record information and how to sort it all out into a report that makes sense.  We use green, yellow, and red pieces of paper to help students sort out their ideas.  Green sentences are at the beginning and the end of your report.  They tell your audience what it is you are writing about.  Yellow paper shows us our star ideas, the main points we want to make in our writing.  Red sentences are our detail sentence.  We write two red sentences for every yellow star idea.

Math:  This week we are continuing our practice with adding and subtracting 10 and 100 from a number in you head as well as adding four two digit numbers together.  When students are adding four two digit numbers together they can use whatever strategy they want as long as they can label their thoughts.

Social Studies:  We are getting ready to send out all of our Flat Stanley letters across the country.  Students will be addressing the envelopes themselves and then they will be on their way!  We are so excited to learn all about the different places our friends and family members live!

Other news:  Today we headed over to Dunn School to meet up with our book buddies.  We continued the challenge of making rhyming poetry.  This time, Miss Audette had students add to the saying, "April showers bring May flowers."  First students found as many words as they could that rhymed with flowers and showers.  Then, students used those words to make two more lines of the poem.  When they were finished, they had a poem in the shape of a flower!  Students took this project home with them today.  Some students were not able to finish their project today so they may choose to finish it at home, but they do not have to.  It is simply their choice if they would like to finish it or not.

Have a wonderful and fabulous week!

April 2nd-April 6th

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

I still need some of the Flat Stanley papers back!  If you do not have a family member or friend willing to participate in the Flat Kid Exchange, please send the paper back indicating that and I will find an alternative person for your child to mail their flat self to.

Students were informed of our new biography research project!  Students will be picking a person to research, writing a report about them, and then dressing up just like the person.   Our official biography day will be on April 26th.  Students will come to school dressed like their person and present their report.  When it comes to dressing up like their person, it can be as simple as a hat.  For example, if they choose George Washington, they can make a tricorn hat out of construction paper and wear that as their "costume".  More details, information, and guidelines about this project will be going home next week!

Students have been doing a PHENOMENAL job bringing their homework back to school on Mondays!  Thank you for all of the support at home you have been providing.  It definitely makes  a huge difference for your child here at school!

Thanks again to all of the parents who were able to fill out the Parent Parking Lot about spring conferences!  Your feedback and comments were greatly appreciated and I will use them to make conferences better in the future!

This week in...

Phonics:  Students have been introduced to silent letters.  We have practiced /n/ gn, kn; /r/ wr; /m/ mb together.  We looked at the following words together:  knee, knife, knot, gnaw, sign, wrist, wren, thumb, lamb, and debt.  We practiced reading, spelling, and spying the silent letters in each of these words.  We then sorted them into categories based on their silent letter spelling pattern.  It was definitely a tricky list this week!

Vocabulary:  Our new vocabulary words are:  blooming, prickly, muscles, aroma, scent, and trade.  We will be using our elbow buddies to read these words, figure out what they mean, how to use them in a sentence, and also build connections to the words.  We will then search for the words when we listen to the story City Garden by Roberto Salazar.

Comprehension:  In small groups, we have been working on constantly checking ourselves for understanding.  This means that we continually monitor ourselves when we read to see if it makes sense.  If something does not make sense, we need to go back and reread.  Sometimes we need to reread a sentence.  Sometimes we need to reread the page.  One of the best ways to check for understanding is to ask yourself questions about what you are reading!  If you can answer the question, you can move on.  If you can't, you need to go back and reread.  

We will also be working on summarizing stories.  When we summarize a story, we pull out the most important parts of a story and retell them in our own words.  This helps us to remember the story better.  Additionally, we will be working on identifying the sequence of events.  We will look for key words like first, next, and last to help us with this.

Grammar:  We will be working on pronoun-verb agreement.  For example, a present-tense verb must agree with a pronoun in the the subject part of a sentence.  We would say that "she wants to plant a garden" instead of "she want to plant a garden."  We will be doing example sentences together and then students will have the chance to practice a few examples independently.

Writing:  This week we will be focusing on finishing our Flat Kid Letters.  We are writing short letters to the people we will be sending ourselves to!  We will be reviewing the format of a friendly letter and also some of the things that you can write about in letters.  

Math:  Today we talked about our next learning target that we will be working on as a group.  We will be practicing adding and subtracting 10 or 100 from a number in our heads.  This a great review of the ones, tens, and hundreds place in a number!  Students love the challenge of being able to figure things out in their heads too!

Social Sciences:  With our Flat Kid Exchange we will have a chance to visit some of our mapping skills.  Once we begin to receive our return letters, we will be able to map out where our Flat Kids visited and also calculate the number of miles we have traveled!  This is definitely one very fun project and we are so excited to start mailing out ourselves next week!

Other News:  Our biography projects are a combination of reading and writing.  This week, students will be exploring all kinds of biography books in the classroom.  At the end of the week, students will be choosing the person they wish to research.