April 29-May 3

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

I will not be at school Wednesday, May 1.   I will be unable to check my email all day so if you need to get any messages to your child or the school (especially regarding transportation) please email them to Connie Holland at cholland@sad15.org.  She will direct your messages to whom they may concern.  You may also choose to send in a hand written note.

Homework packets are due tomorrow!

Spring Concert is tomorrow night at 6 pm at GNG middle school!  Hope to see you there!

Please remember to send a sweatshirt with your child to school.  Although the weather has started to warm up, the mornings can be pretty chilly, especially when the wind is blowing!  Better to be safe than chilly!

For an upcoming project, I'm hoping that some of you will be able to send in paper towel or toilet paper rolls, after they are empty of course!  We will only be needing the cardboard tube.  If you have any that you would like to send in, please send them to school with your child!  Thank you!

IXL:

The biggest focus should be on anything under letters G or H.  Students may also practice A. 4 and 5.

Here are some extensions:

Add  or subtract 10 or 100 to a three-digit number in my head:  G. 1, H. 1, I. 1, J. 1.

Add up to four two-digit numbers:  G. 13

Add or subtract three-digit numbers:  anything under I or J

Understanding the relationship between addition and subtraction:  anything under K.

This week in...

Phonics:  We are working with the hard and soft c sounds as well as the hard and soft g sounds.  The hard c sound sounds like "cuh" (example:  candy).  The soft c sound sounds like "s" (example: celebrate).  The hard g sounds like "guh" (example:  go).  The soft g sounds like "juh" (example:  general).  Here are our words:  cave, camp, cent, girl, gift, gem, gym, wagon, face, and germ.

Vocabulary:  Here are our words:  footprint, surface, spacecraft, lunar, discovered, and visible.  

Comprehension:  This week we will practice summarizing as we read to find out more about the moon!  We'll be reading The Moon by Seymour Simon.  As we read, we'll check in with each other and talk about the things that we are learning to help us summarize.  We'll be learning lots of things about the moon such as what it looks like, what it's made out of, the first exploration of the moon, and more!  

Writing:  Students will be working on finishing up our poetry unit.  This week we'll write cinquains and diamantes.  A cinquain is a five line poem that follows this pattern:

Line 1:

one word (subject or noun)

Line 2:

two words (adjectives) that describe line 1

Line 3:

three words (action verbs) that relate to line 1

Line 4:

four words (feelings or a complete sentence) that relates to line 1

Line 5:

one word (synonym of line 1 or a word that sums it up)

Diamante poems are poems that follow this pattern:

Noun
Adjective, Adjective
Verb, Verb, Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Verb, Verb, Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun

From poetry4kids.com:

In a synonym diamante, the nouns at the beginning and end are two words that mean basically the same thing. In an antonym diamante, the two nouns are opposites. Here are a couple of examples:

Synonym Diamante

In this diamante, the words “Monsters” and “Creatures” mean the same thing, so they are synonyms.

Monsters
Evil, Spooky
Howling, Shrieking, Wailing
Ghosts, Vampires, Goblins, Witches
Flying, Scaring, Terrifying
Creepy, Crawly
Creatures

Antonym Diamante

In this diamante, you might say that the words “Cat” and “Dog” are opposites, or “antonyms,” so this is an antonym diamante.

Cat
Gentle, Sleepy
Purring, Meowing, Scratching
Whiskers, Fur, Collar, Leash
Barking, Licking, Digging
Slobbery, Playful
Dog

Students will also be beginning their tall tales to integrate into our weather unit!  Students will be making their thinking maps to outline their stories.  These thinking maps will get Team Blowey to think about the characters, setting, problem, events, solution, and the ending of the story.  They will use these thinking maps to create their own "Cloudy with a Chance of _____________" stories.

Math:

We are continuing to work on solving word problems involving two-digit addition and subtraction with unknowns in all positions.  Our focus is on being able to learn how to use multiple tools to solve the same problem.  Please refer to previous posts for more of an explanation about the word problems and the tools.

Science:

This week, students will be observing the clouds.  They will identify the types of clouds they see, and then make a prediction about the day's weather.  We are also beginning to use the weather tools that Team Blowey worked to create last week.  Here are some pictures of the tools along with some of the sayings we use to help us remember what these tools do:

Anemometer... to measure wind speed:

"Anemometer... spins like a top... how fast is the wind blowing... and when will it stop?"

Barometer... to measure atmospheric pressure:

"Rising barometer... SUNNY!  Falling barometer, RAINY!"

Rain Gauge... to measure rainfall:

"Rain gauge... bloop, bloop, bloop, overflowing... FLOOD!"

***no picture since it's outside ready and waiting to collect rain!

Wind Vane... to observe wind direction:

Using our hands as the arrows, we spin around (making wind sounds) and say the directions, "North, East, South, and West!"

We are also beginning our Animal Research Projects.  This week, students will decide on an animal they would like to study and begin taking notes on what the animal looks like, what the animal eats, where the animal lives, and some other interesting facts.  We'll also be discussing how we classify animals into mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians,  insects, or fish.  We'll start by deciding on an animal that we would like to study as a whole class.  From there, I will model note taking skills emphasizing how important it is to organize your information!  When our research is finished we will be working on writing a report where they will have to start with a green topic sentence to tell me what their report will be about followed by some interesting facts, a yellow idea sentence (about what it looks like, eats, or where it lives), followed by two red details sentences, and a green concluding sentence.  Here the example of the report my class from last year helped me write:

Beluga Whales

      Beluga whales are fascinating animals!  They are born gray or brown but then fade to white when they are about five years old.  Beluga whales live in small groups called pods.  They communicate with each other with clicks, whistles, and clangs.   Now, I'd like to share some more facts about the beluga whale.

     First, beluga whales are a smaller kind of whale and only range between 13 and 20 feet long.  They are distinguishable from other whales because of their white blubber!  They also have no dorsal fin and rounded foreheads.

     Next, beluga whales are mammals that live in the ocean.  You will most likely find them in the coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean.  When the water starts to freeze over, they migrate southward.

    Last, beluga whales are carnivores.  They eat octopus, squid, crabs, and other bottom-dwelling animals.  They don't chew their food though!  They swallow it whole!

     In conclusion, the beluga whale is one of the most interesting animals to study.

This kind of writing is also one of the complex reasoning skills that I learned about at the complex reasoning workshop I attended.  It really gets students to think critically when they are asked to provide evidence for what they are saying (i.e. a yellow idea sentence, following by two red detail sentences.

Computer Lab:  We are continuing to practice our typing skills!  Every Tuesday, we'll be heading to the library for 30 minutes so that we can practice specific keys on the keyboard, but also to do some fun projects that involve typing!

Book Buddies:  We'll be working with our book buddies this week!  We are still practicing good buddy qualities such as being respectful to peers and adults, being good listeners, and being good friends.  At the same time, we're practicing our literacy skills!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or insights!

April 22nd-April 26th

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due tomorrow!

Students are bringing home a packet that shows you how to add and subtract two digit numbers using all of the strategies we have been learning here at school.  Please let me know if you have any other questions?

We will be having a special presentation tomorrow!   The Chewonki Foundation will be coming to do a presentation about bats!  This presentation will serve as a way to build excitement for our animal research projects that we will begin in May!

New things in the classroom...

WOW cones:  Wow cones are to reward individual students for "WOW" behavior!  If a student is being a role model or helping out another student in need, for example, they could earn a "WOW" cone.  The cone will stay on their desk all day!  At the end of the day, they will earn an extra "B" buck.

Go for Gold:  To inspire teamwork in small groups, each table is now a team.  These teams are trying to earn points throughout the week.  Teams will earn points for staying focused on their work, cleaning up their table, being ready after countdowns, listening to directions, etc.  The team with the most points at the end of the week will earn gold medals and an extra 5 "B" bucks.

IXL:  Please refer to previous posts for what to practice.

Team Jerseys are not quite finished yet.  I still have a couple kiddos who need to finish their shirts.  Once they are finished and dried,  I will take the jerseys home, wash them, and bring them back to school.  To celebrate, we'll have a Team Jersey Day!  The date for that is TBD.

This week in...

Phonics:  We are working with silent w, silent b, silent g, and silent k.  Here are our words for the week:  wren, wrist, sign, gnaw, debt, lamb, know, knife, and knee and knot.  

Vocabulary:  Our vocabulary words are:  blooming, prickly, muscles, aroma, scent, and trade.

Comprehension:  We'll be working on summarizing and telling the sequence of events.  When we summarize, we are retelling only the most important parts of the story.  When we identify the sequence of events, we are telling about the events in the order in which they happened.  Doing these things will help us understand the story better.  We'll practice these things while we read The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin.  Students will also have the chance to practice these skills while they read their campfire reading books.

Grammar:  We will be working on pronoun-verb agreement.   This means we'll be making sure that the verb in our sentence matches the pronoun.  For example, if we use the pronouns he, she, or it, we will add -s to most action verbs to form the present tense.  Here are some examples:

She WEEDS the garden.

He BRINGS the hose.

It MAKES the soil damp.

Writing:  Continuing with some of the poetry that we have been talking about, we will be writing list poems.  A very famous list poem is called "Sick" by Shel Silverstein.  We'll read this poem and then create our own "Clouds" and "Ouch!" list poems.  Here is my example:

OUCH!

beestings

falling off the swings

tripping over rocks

stubbing my toes

getting a papercut

doing a bellyflop

thorny bushes

dislocated knee

broken arm

OUCH!

Math:  We are continuing to work on adding and subtracting two-digit numbers in word problems.  Here are the steps for solving a word problem:

Step 1:  Read it!

Step 2:  adding or subtracting?

Step 3:  is there more or less at the end of the story?

Step 4:  write a number sentence

Step 5:  solve it!

We have been practicing how to solve these problems using tools like a hundreds chart, number line, or drawings of base ten blocks.  Most recently we have been working on solving with the tens and ones strategy.  We'll use all of these strategies when we solve problems with unknown change as well.  For example, 54 + ____ = 76   or 43- ___ = 21.

NECAP problems:  In order to help second graders prepare for the NECAP tests next year, we will be working on one problem from previous years math test each day.  Students will attempt the problem on their own first and then we'll talk about the problem.  We'll develop test taking skills and also help students get used to the kind of "test language" they will see next year.  Each day, students will bring the practice problem home.  I'm hoping this can be used as a conversation starter between you and your child.  They may not have the correct answer on their paper but they should be able to explain to you how we figured out what they correct answer would be as a whole class.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Flashback Friday:  I'm hoping to leave Fridays as a day for review for students so that they can continue to build on some of the foundational skills that we have been practicing throughout the year.  This week, students will focus on time, money, and math facts.  Students will be working on independent and small group activities (like worksheets, games, projects, etc) that will build on their knowledge as well as review concepts they have already practiced.

Earth Day:  In honor of Earth Day, we read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and brainstormed things that we could do to help our Earth stay clean and healthy!  We each made an Earth Day promise and then worked together to create a world out of our handprints.  Later in the week, students will get to make their very own truffula trees and lorax mustaches!

 

April 8-11

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due tomorrow!

The team jerseys are not quite complete yet.  My hope is to send them home at the end of the week.  Thank you so much to all of you who were able to donate extra shirts and paints for us to use!  

Tomorrow is literacy night!  The event required pre-registration so I'm hoping that all of you who wanted to attend will be able to be there!  Mrs. Sylvester and I will be running a non-fiction reading center about animals!

There will be no school on Friday, April 12th!

IXL:  please refer to previous post.

Classroom Wishlist:  Markers!

This week in...

Phonics:  We are working with the schwa sound!  Our words are:  alone, ago, again, alike, comma, idea, awake, agree, above, and away.  

Vocabulary:  Our words are vast, oceans, areas, voyage, and planet.  We'll figure out what these words mean and build connections to them.  Then, we'll search for them in two short stories, Continents and Oceans, and Record Holders!

 Comprehension:  This week our focus will be on identifying the main idea in a story.  This means that we will find what the story is mostly able and then support it with details.  We'll do this while we read Columbus Explores New Lands.  We'll also ask the questions:  What was Columbus looking for when he set sail across the Atlantic Ocean?  What did he find?

Writing:  This week, we'll begin writing poems.  We'll start with acrostic poems.  An acrostic poem is a poem where you pick a word you want to write about and each of the letters becomes the beginning letter for each line in the poem.  For example:

S:  shines brightly

U:  up in the sky

N:  nice and warm on my skin

Grammar:  We'll be working with possessive pronouns.  A possessive pronoun takes the place of a possessive noun.  Some examples are:  my, his, and her.

Read Aloud:  Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

Math:  We'll continue to work on solving word problems using tens and ones but I will also introduce solving word problems with unknown change.  Here is an example:

Sally baked 74 cookies for the bake sale this weekend.  On Saturday, she sold a ton of cookies!  When the bake sale was over, Sally had 23 cookies left.  How many cookies did Sally sell at the bake sale?

Here are the steps to solving this problem:

1.  Understand what the word problem is asking you to do (find out how many cookies Sally sold... she started with 74 and ended with 23, the numbers got smaller so I need to subtract)

2.  Will there be more or less at the end of the story (She started with 74 and at the end, Sally only had 23 cookies, so there was less at the end of the story)

3.  Write a number sentence to represent the problem (74-___ = 23)

Once I have my number sentence, I can solve it in many ways.

First, some kids use the relationship between addition and subtraction.  For example, I know that 7 + 3 = 10, so 10- 3 must be 7!  So to solve this problem I might try solving 23 + ___ = 74,  or 74-23= ___

Students can use many of the tools they already know as well like the 100s chart, the number line, or drawings of base ten blocks.

Student may also choose to use manipulatives, like snap cubes to find out how many they need to take away to only have 23 left.

Unknown change problems are simply like finding the missing number.  They could be 25 + ___ = 52 or  ______ - 21 = 45.

Science:  We are in our final observations for our brassica plants.  Now that our plants beginning to die, we will be able to see how the plant life cycle can continue!  Some of our plants have grown seedpods so we'll talk about how that happened and why!

April 1- April 5

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due tomorrow!

Please remember to send a plain white t-shirt to school with your child by Wednesday!  We'll be making our jerseys on Friday!

I'm looking for some more volunteers to be able to come in and help us make our jerseys!  We'll need volunteers in two time slots, you can pick which time would be the most convenient for you:  9:45-10:45 or 12:30-1:30.  Please let me know if you are willing and able to volunteer!

THIS THURSDAY IS BIOGRAPHY DAY!  Please send your child to school dressed like the person they have been studying.  Remember, this can be as simple as a hat!  Do not feel like you need to go out and buy anything for this day.  If you need any help at all coming up with a costume, please let me know!

Next Monday is an early release day!  Next Friday, April 12, there will be no school!  The following week is Spring Break!

IXL:  

I can solve word problems within 100 using  a hundreds chart, number line, drawings of base ten blocks, or the tens and ones strategy with unknowns in all positions.

F. 12

 G.  6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14

H. 6, 9, 10, 11, 12

 L.  3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12,

 S.  3, 8

This week in...

Phonics:  We're working with the diphthong oi, oy.  Our words are soil, broil, moist, point, boil, oil, toy, joy, soy, and royal.  We sounded out, sorted, and spelled these words together.  We'll continue to work with them throughout the week.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  gathered, agreed, randomly. jabbing, and signal.  We'll figure out what these words mean and build connections to them.  Then we'll search for them in the short play called Why Sun and Moon Live in the Sky.

Comprehension:  This week, we'll be trying to visualize and identify the problem and solution in a story.  When we visualize, we'll be trying to picture what we're reading in our minds.  This can help us better understand and remember what is going on in the story.  When we identify the problem (something the characters want to change, fix, or find out) and the solution (what solves the problem), we'll be acting just like investigators and be asking lots of good questions and be looking for the details in the story!  We'll practice these skills when we are reading Pushing Up the Sky by Joseph Bruchac.

Writing:  We are working on putting the finishing touches on our biography posters!  We'll be focusing on using our neatest and best handwriting while we add lots of color and details into our pictures.  At the same time, we'll make sure that our "decorations" are focused on our topic and do not become distracting for someone who might be reading our posters.

Grammar:  This week we'll be reviewing the parts of a sentence (subject and predicate) and how it relates to using the words "I" and "me".  We use "me" in the predicate part of a sentence and we use "I" in the subject part of a sentence.  This is one of those age old lessons of trying to decide when to use I or me in a sentence!  For example, we would say that Kira and I sing in the show, not Kira and me sing in the show.  However, we would say... my teacher helps me with the words, not my teacher helps I with the words.

Math:  We are continuing to focus on using tens and ones in order to solve words problems within 100 in our whole group lessons.  Please refer to previous blog posts to see what that looks like.

Science:  We are continuing to observe our brassica plants!

Social Studies:   We have been revisiting our Code of Cooperation and talking about how we follow those codes to make the classroom vision come true.  Here are our codes:

1.  Follow directions and use self control.

2.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.

3.  Dream big and never give up on your goals!

4.  Work together!

March 25-29

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS!

If your conference was rescheduled because of the snow day, your conference will be tomorrow at the same time it was last week!  I sent home a paper reminder with your child today.  If there are any questions, please let me know!  I'm so excited to see you all again!

Homework packets are due tomorrow!

We still need t-shirts!  We will be making our team jerseys (as our classroom reward) next Friday, April 5th!  Please send in a plain white t-shirt for your child ASAP!  I'm hoping to have all of the t-shirts here by the end of the week.  If you have any questions or are unable to send in a t-shirt, don't hesitate to contact me! 

This Thursday, students will be attending a "Kids of the Block" presentation.  Some very fun puppets with great stories will be coming to visit us!  The Kids on the Block program provides
a chance to breakdown barriers and promote healthy attitudes about individual differences.
The three topics that will be addressed are Cerebral Palsy, Vision Impairment and Downs
Syndrome.

Next Thursday, April 4th, will be our Biography Day!  On this day, students are asked to come to school, dressed as the person they have been researching.   When I say dressed, I mean very SIMPLY!  This could be as simple as just wearing a hat.  Please do not feel like you need to go out and buy a costume.  If you are unsure of what you could do to help your child "dress" like the person they have been researching, please let me know!  I would be happy to send some ideas your way!  There will be a paper reminder sent home next week to remind you as well.

IXL:

I can solve word problems within 100 using  a hundreds chart, number line, drawings of base ten blocks, or the tens and ones strategy with unknowns in all positions.

F. 12

 G.  6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14

H. 6, 9, 10, 11, 12

 L.  3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12,

 S.  3, 8

This week in...

Phonics:  We're studying the /ou/ sound with the spelling patterns "ou" and "ow".  Our phonics words are:  clown, growl, howl, brown, crown, round, loud, cloud, house, and sound.  We sounded out, sorted, and spelled this words together.  We'll continue to work with them throughout the week.

Vocabulary:  Our new vocabulary words are:  lenthy, burrow, ranger, warning, distant, and beyond.  We'll figure out what these words mean and build connections to them.  Then, we'll search for them in the short story called The Coatis of the Sonora Desert by Nya Taylor.  We'll also review them in our comprehension story of the week.

Comprehension:  We'll be talking about two skills this week:  summarizing and evaluating author's purpose.  When we summarize, we are retelling only the most important ideas about the story.  When we are evaluating an author's purpose, we are trying to figure out if they were writing to persuade, inform, or entertain us.  We'll be looking for some clues in books that will help us figure this out.  We'll be practicing these skills while we read Dig, Wait, Listen:  A Desert Toad's Tale by April Pulley Sayre.

Writing:  This week, students will be introduced to the idea of organizing information on a poster.  Most students are finished with their rough drafts of their biography projects.  Now, we'll be talking about how to organize all of their research onto a poster board.  We'll also be talking about ways to make our posters colorful and detailed but not distracting.

Grammar:  We'll be working with personal pronouns:  A personal pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or nouns.  For example, I, he, she, it, and you can replace a singular noun.  Here are some sentence examples:  Bobby saw a lizard.  We can replace Bobby with he.  Another example would be:  The desert is a dry area where hardly any plants grow.  We can replace the desert with it.

Math:  We are continuing to work through word problems.  This week's whole group lessons will revolve around reviewing the tools we can use to solve word problems (100 chart, number line, or drawings) and also solving word problems using tens and ones.  For a more detailed description of tens and ones, please refer to last week's post.  

Remember, when your child is on IXL, have them solve the problems using these strategies!  Many students have the ability to manipulate the numbers in their heads but we are really focusing on being able to explain their thinking (by showing their work) and also having the ability to solve word problems using any tool, not just their favorite.

Science:  Our brassica plants continue to grow and we are continuing to observe and log our observations in our plant journals!

I think that's it for now!  If you have any questions, please let me know!  I hope you have a wonderful week!  

March 18-22

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Conferences are this week!  You AND your child will come into the classroom at your scheduled time for the student-led part of the conference and then head over to my table for the teacher-led part of the conference.  If you need a reminder of when your conference is scheduled, please let me know!  If there happens to be a snow day tomorrow, any conferences scheduled will be re-scheduled to the following Tuesday at the same time.  If there any any scheduling conflicts please let me know!

We are going to Hannaford for our healthy choices field trip this Friday!  Please remember to send back a permission slip for your child ASAP.  There will be a second notice in your child's backpack today if I have not received it from you yet!

Homework packets are due tomorrow!

It is still very chilly outside!  Please remember to send your child to school with all of their outdoor gear!  We also have a lot of students coming in wet and muddy so we ask that you please send an extra pair of clothes with them to school, just in case they need them.  The nurse's office does not have a supply big enough to accommodate everyone.

We're still collecting Hop-A-Thon money!  Send in your donations!  The highest fundraising class gets to go to the Special Olympics and cheer on our GNG athletes!

IXL:  Please refer to previous posts to see what to practice on IXL

This week in...

Phonics:  We're working with the variant vowel /o/ with the spelling pattern au and aw.  Here are our words:  pause, draw, launch, law, fault, jaw, fawn, hawk, raw, and crawl.  We'll sound out, spell, and sort each of the these words.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are noble:  promised, gleamed, wiggled, beloved, and glanced.  We'll figure out what these words mean and build connections to them.  Then, we'll search for them in the story My Home in Alaska.  

Comprehension:  We'll be working on making inferences.  An inference is when we use our schema and the evidence from the book, to make a decision about the book.  We'll practice this skill while reading Nutik, the Wolf Pup by Jean Craighead George

Writing:  We're still working on gathering and organizing our research for our biographies.  Students will be looking for when the person was born and died, what they were most famous for, three important events from their life, and a fact that they find really interesting.

Grammar:  We'll be working with contractions.  Contractions are short forms of two words.  For example, can't or didn't.  An apostrophe replaces the letters that are left out when the two words are connected.  We'll be joining words like are not and is not to make aren't and isn't.

Math:  We'll be continuing to work on solving word problems with tools like the 100 chart, number line, and drawings.  Many students are able to use these tools but the challenge is to be able to show their thinking!  My hope is that we'll be starting to introduce the next strategy for solving word problems this week as well.  The next strategy is using tens and ones.  See the example below:

Joe has 34 stickers.  Zoe has 25 stickers.  How many stickers do they have all together?

    If you are solving this word problem with tens and ones, you need to go through the steps on your check list.

Step 1:  Is this problem asking you to add or subtract?  (add)
Step 2:  Will you have more or less at the end of the story?  (more)
Step 3:  What is the number sentence that represents this problem?  (34+25=_ )
Step 4:  Use tens and ones to solve the problem.

First thing you do is take out the tens from each number and then add them together.

30 + 20 = ____  (I got 30 from 34 and 20 from 25)  The sum is 50.

Then, you take out the ones and add them together.

4 + 5 = ____ (I got 4 from 34, and 5 from 25)  The sum is 9.

Then you add the sum of the tens to the sum of the ones.

50 + 9 = 59.

Your answer is 59 stickers.

Science:  Our plant observations continue as we watch our brassica seeds grow!  Our focus is still on being able to use science words and write about only what we see!

Conferences:  Today, students have been hard at work preparing for their student-led part of the conference!  They are very excited to show you how much they have progressed and also very excited to show you some of their work!

Technology:  Students have been heading down to work on the computers to practice their typing skills.  Recently, your child practiced their typing skills and made a word cloud!  Our typing practice will continue this week as well!

Book Buddies:  We will have book buddies this week!  Since it is the first day of spring, we'll be reading a spring time story and help our buddies make some spring time crowns!

Weather:  It is Team Blowey's job to update the weather board that is in the cafeteria for the first graders and kindergarteners to check out.  The board will tell them the season, what kind of weather it is today, the temperature, whether it is indoor or outdoor recess, and also what kinds of clothes they will need to wear. 

I think that's all!  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!  Have a wonderful week!

March 11th-March 15th

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Thank you so much to all of you who came out to support Team Thornblowdo at Dancing with the Staff!  To be completely honest, I was a nervous wreck leading up to the show!  But the second I walked out on stage and heard your cheers and saw your posters, I was completely at ease!  I know that there were many more of you who wanted to be there and, let me tell you, I definitely felt your spirits there!  It was definitely a close finish but congratulations to the ladies from the middle school!  Your dance across the decades was spectacular!

Last week in totes I sent out information about spring conferences.  On the back of that sheet, you are able to pick your top three times for your conference.  Please fill those out and return them as soon as possible!  Conferences will be set up on a first come, first serve basis!  Please let me know if you have any questions at all!

Homework packets are due tomorrow!

A request is being sent home today with students.  All students will be asked to bring in a plain white t-shirt to be decorated as our team jersey.  This is our next classroom reward!  We will be making jerseys on Friday, April 5th.  We'll need your help to do it!  If you are able to donate any puffy dimensional tape, extra t-shirts, or your time, please let me know by writing your name on the request and sending it back to school.  You are also welcome to email me if that is easier for you!

We are collecting money for the MDA Hop-A-Thon!  Students are asked to donate a dollar.  The top fundraising classrooms from each grade will be going to the Special Olympics to cheer on our very own GNG athletes.

For IXL, please refer to last week's post.

This week in...

Phonics:  We will be working with the spelling patterns /oo/, /ui/, /ew/, /ue/, and /oe/.  We find these patterns in the following words:  root, boot, suit, fruit, clue, glue, flew, new, shoe, and canoe.   Together we will sound out these words, spell them, and sort them into their appropriate categories.  We'll continue to work with them throughout the week.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  violent, beware, prevent, uprooted, destroy, and grasslands.  We will work together to figure out what these words mean and build connections to them.  Then we will search for them in the short story called Wild Weather Hits Florida by Lisa O'Neil.  

Comprehension:  This week, we will be reviewing what it means to check for understanding while we are reading.  Another way to say this is that we will be self-monitoring.  If we are monitoring ourselves while we read, and we realize that we are not understanding what we are reading, then that is our cue to go back and reread.  We'll also be working on making and confirming our predictions.  This means we'll use the text and our schema to make a good guess about what will happen next.  When confirming a prediction, we will read on to see if what we guessed is what actually happens in the story.  We'll practice these skills while reading the story called  Super Storms by Seymour Simon.

Writing:  We are continuing to work on our biography projects.  Students have already identified the person they will be researching.  They have been actively reading and gathering information about the person's life.  By the end of this week, the goal is to have all of the research complete so that students may begin working on their rough draft.

This week I am also hoping that I can begin to introduce one of the complex reasoning tools that I learned about when I was at the workshop for two days.  Something we learned is that being able to compare and contrast is deceptively simple.  It is, in fact, complex in nature.  In order to really help students to do this, I will be using a comparison matrix.  The matrix is basically a rockstar version of a venn diagram.  However, students are asked to focus their thoughts and information in a more direct manner.  Instead of just brainstorming off the top of their heads, we will be deciding categories on which to compare and contrast multiple topics.  

This week, we will be comparing two types of weather.  For example, a blizzard and a heat wave.  Together we'll decide categories to compare and contrast them on.  Ideas might be precipitation, activities we do, safety rules and equipment, and temperature.  Then, we will use this information to write a comparison paragraph together.

Math:  We are continuing to solve word problems within 100 using tools.  We will be using a hundreds chart, number line, and drawings to help us solve these problems.  Although students might prefer one tool over another, it is important for students to be able to know, understand, and be able to use all of the tools.  When students are practicing this goal on IXL, they will need to tell you which tool they are using to solve the problem.  Here is the checklist students will be following:

1.  I can understand what a word problem is asking me to determine (add or subtract).

2.  I know if there will be more or less at the end of the story.

3.  I can write a number sentence that represents the problem.

4.  I can use drawings and manipulatives of base ten blocks to solve word problems.

5.  I can create a number line with equally spaced points that starts at 0 and I can use it to help me solve word problems.

6.  I can use a hundreds chart to help me solve word problems.

7.  I can show you what strategy I used and label my thoughts.

Science:  We will be observing our brassica seeds in their life cycle.  Already, we have some that have sprouted!  Team Blowey's scientists will be drawing and writing about what they see.  It will definitely be a challenge to use descriptive words and write about ONLY what we see.

Have a wonderful week!