Ms. Clark's Class
Welcome to Looping 1-2!
Check out our classroom Bloomz for more updates and photos!
May 18 Update
In Word Study, we have been practicing r-controlled vowel syllables, (-ar, -er, -ir, -or, -ur). We have been practicing our non-fiction text features with National Geographics and discussing Main Idea and Details in our read alouds. In math, we have begun place value to 100 and comparing numbers up to 120 with greater than, less than, and equal to. They have been doing a great job with this and I have been impressed with their place value understanding! I was so touched by the cards and treats that the students gave me for teacher appreciation week, I feel lucky to have so many awesome, thoughful students in my class! Below I have attached pictures of our show and tellers sharing, our VIPs from last week and this week, students finding text features in the Nat Geo articles, and a few of students playing our fact fluency game, "I Love Math!" Have a great weekend. :)
In Word Study, we have been practicing r-controlled vowel syllables, (-ar, -er, -ir, -or, -ur). We have been practicing our non-fiction text features with National Geographics and discussing Main Idea and Details in our read alouds. In math, we have begun place value to 100 and comparing numbers up to 120 with greater than, less than, and equal to. They have been doing a great job with this and I have been impressed with their place value understanding! I was so touched by the cards and treats that the students gave me for teacher appreciation week, I feel lucky to have so many awesome, thoughful students in my class! Below I have attached pictures of our show and tellers sharing, our VIPs from last week and this week, students finding text features in the Nat Geo articles, and a few of students playing our fact fluency game, "I Love Math!" Have a great weekend. :)
May 4 Update
This week during our CAFE/Writing block, we published the narratives that we have been working so hard on! They came out so awesome, and we are going to display them for a little while before sending them home! In word study, we have been focusing on the different ways to spell long i and o sounds. In STWEAM we began learning about different animal characteristics. We used special number-by-sticker paper to create abstract photos of different animals, and write 3+ facts we noticed about the characteristics we saw. In math we practiced adding tens and ones to 2 digit numbers...it's tricky stuff, but we are making a lot of progress and doing a really nice job using different strategies! We also were able to go to the vernal pool behind the school on Wednesday and Friday with Mr. I. We searched for and caught different creatures, including yellow spotted salamander eggs and case building caddisflies! Friday was so nice, we decided to take our book buddies outside for Read to Someone time. Nia and Justin were our fabulous VIPs, great job being classroom leaders!
Check out Bloomz for more updates and photos!
This week during our CAFE/Writing block, we published the narratives that we have been working so hard on! They came out so awesome, and we are going to display them for a little while before sending them home! In word study, we have been focusing on the different ways to spell long i and o sounds. In STWEAM we began learning about different animal characteristics. We used special number-by-sticker paper to create abstract photos of different animals, and write 3+ facts we noticed about the characteristics we saw. In math we practiced adding tens and ones to 2 digit numbers...it's tricky stuff, but we are making a lot of progress and doing a really nice job using different strategies! We also were able to go to the vernal pool behind the school on Wednesday and Friday with Mr. I. We searched for and caught different creatures, including yellow spotted salamander eggs and case building caddisflies! Friday was so nice, we decided to take our book buddies outside for Read to Someone time. Nia and Justin were our fabulous VIPs, great job being classroom leaders!
Check out Bloomz for more updates and photos!
4/27 Update
This week in word study we focused on long a words and long e words. We have been working hard to finish our small moment narratives...students are finishing up their final drafts and we will be making our covers to publish them next week! In math we have continued to grow our place value understanding to help us add and subtract within 40. Right now we are adding tens and ones to 2 digit numbers! STWEAM this week was all about US Monuments and Symbols. We watched a quick video about the different monuments and symbols, and discussed some of the important monuments and symbols in our country. Afterwards, the students were broken up into teams to take a Kahoot Quiz challenge on the iPads. Then, we learned how to draw a bald eagle, and drew and painted a watercolor of one. We made frames to show that the bald eagle is a symbol of strength and freedom. They look great and we're going to put them on display for a while before sending them home! We ended the week with an awesome puppet show, and the presenters talked about body safety and safety rules. Our wonderful VIP's this week for showing excellent student behavior and attitudes, along with being a great classmate are Nia and Justin!
Just a reminder that "Screen Free Week" begins next week, if you and your family would like to participate. A few notices went home this week with a little more information on this, along with some ideas of activities you could do instead. This is leading up to the WES Fun Run, our first "Tough Warrior" on Sunday, which will be lots of fun! You can still register if you haven't gotten the chance to yet.
4/23 Welcome Back!
I hope everyone had an awesome April vacation! I stayed at home most of the vacation, but did go to North Conway for a couple of days and luckily had some great, sunny weather! It was so nice to come back to students with so much happy energy and excitement this morning. I just wanted to give a quick update.
Our school will be doing a "Screen Free Challenge" next week. Today I sent home a paper for students to record the amount of time they spend in front of a screen (all kinds-phones, computers, game systems, tablets, etc) for non-school activities. This will be a way to discover how much time they actually spend in front of a screen. You will be getting some additional flyers on how your kiddos can prepare for Screen Free Week for next week, including some activities students can do when spending time away from screens!
Have a great week! :)
I hope everyone had an awesome April vacation! I stayed at home most of the vacation, but did go to North Conway for a couple of days and luckily had some great, sunny weather! It was so nice to come back to students with so much happy energy and excitement this morning. I just wanted to give a quick update.
Our school will be doing a "Screen Free Challenge" next week. Today I sent home a paper for students to record the amount of time they spend in front of a screen (all kinds-phones, computers, game systems, tablets, etc) for non-school activities. This will be a way to discover how much time they actually spend in front of a screen. You will be getting some additional flyers on how your kiddos can prepare for Screen Free Week for next week, including some activities students can do when spending time away from screens!
Have a great week! :)
4/13 Update
What a busy few months we have had! We worked hard to prepare for conferences, and students were very proud of all the hard work they put together to present to their families! We had extra practices and worked as a team to get ready for our Tikki Tikki Tembo performance, and they did an excellent job! Students wrapped up the China study they had been working on in core, and we wrote cinquain poems about the Chinese Dragon. To go along with that, we also created dancing Chinese Dragons, which were displayed around the stage for the big show. In CAFE, students have been learning about author's purpose: Did the author write the story to entertain, persuade, or inform us? They presented their author's purpose pie tins at conferences and some of the work we did with, "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late", "The Gruffalo", and "National Geographic: Penguins". In writing workshop, we have been focusing on our small moment narratives...students have picked a small moment in their life to write a story about, and we are currently in the editing process with our rough drafts. We plan to finish them up when we are back from April vacation! In math, we have been learning new strategies to add and subtract within 40, focusing on place value by looking closely at ones and tens. Check out Bloomz to see a picture of our VIPs, Michael and Gabby this week, and Nevaeh and Christopher from last!
What a busy few months we have had! We worked hard to prepare for conferences, and students were very proud of all the hard work they put together to present to their families! We had extra practices and worked as a team to get ready for our Tikki Tikki Tembo performance, and they did an excellent job! Students wrapped up the China study they had been working on in core, and we wrote cinquain poems about the Chinese Dragon. To go along with that, we also created dancing Chinese Dragons, which were displayed around the stage for the big show. In CAFE, students have been learning about author's purpose: Did the author write the story to entertain, persuade, or inform us? They presented their author's purpose pie tins at conferences and some of the work we did with, "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late", "The Gruffalo", and "National Geographic: Penguins". In writing workshop, we have been focusing on our small moment narratives...students have picked a small moment in their life to write a story about, and we are currently in the editing process with our rough drafts. We plan to finish them up when we are back from April vacation! In math, we have been learning new strategies to add and subtract within 40, focusing on place value by looking closely at ones and tens. Check out Bloomz to see a picture of our VIPs, Michael and Gabby this week, and Nevaeh and Christopher from last!
Week of 2/26/18
We had a busy, busy week! In word study, we focused on the soft c and g sounds, like in "cent" or "germ". In writing workshop, we are continuing to focus on narrative writing, and will begin a new unit on personal narrative this upcoming week. In math, we are almost wrapped up module 2, and this week we practiced strategies for solving addend unknown problems within 20. In STWEAM, we built our own triaramas of either the northern or southern hemisphere. Students will eventually build one for each, using the information they have learned about the North Pole and South Pole, Polar Bears, and Penguins. So far they are looking awesome! As we wrap that unit up, we began discussing the moon, and will be learning more about the phases of the moon, as students observe the moon each night and record in their moon journal. There was a lot of excitement with Read Across America week! On Friday morning, we participated in a Read Across America read in, when the whole school dropped everything and read. We also had a celebrity reader, Mrs. Abbott, who used to be a first grade teacher! She read us some stories and told us some great fairytales. In the afternoon, we made our very own bookmarks and went to the library, where the Wells public librarian and Cat in the Hat were waiting for us. We played some Dr. Suess games with the other 1st grade classes, and listened to a Dr. Suess book.
Please don't forget to have your student record what the moon looks like in their moon journal and read for 20 minutes every night!
I sent home a spring conference sign up sheet, please select your top 3 time preferences, and send back by the end of this upcoming week!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)
We had a busy, busy week! In word study, we focused on the soft c and g sounds, like in "cent" or "germ". In writing workshop, we are continuing to focus on narrative writing, and will begin a new unit on personal narrative this upcoming week. In math, we are almost wrapped up module 2, and this week we practiced strategies for solving addend unknown problems within 20. In STWEAM, we built our own triaramas of either the northern or southern hemisphere. Students will eventually build one for each, using the information they have learned about the North Pole and South Pole, Polar Bears, and Penguins. So far they are looking awesome! As we wrap that unit up, we began discussing the moon, and will be learning more about the phases of the moon, as students observe the moon each night and record in their moon journal. There was a lot of excitement with Read Across America week! On Friday morning, we participated in a Read Across America read in, when the whole school dropped everything and read. We also had a celebrity reader, Mrs. Abbott, who used to be a first grade teacher! She read us some stories and told us some great fairytales. In the afternoon, we made our very own bookmarks and went to the library, where the Wells public librarian and Cat in the Hat were waiting for us. We played some Dr. Suess games with the other 1st grade classes, and listened to a Dr. Suess book.
Please don't forget to have your student record what the moon looks like in their moon journal and read for 20 minutes every night!
I sent home a spring conference sign up sheet, please select your top 3 time preferences, and send back by the end of this upcoming week!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)
Week of 2/5
It's hard to believe that we are already in February! This week in word study we focused on more initial blends: scr, str, spl, spr. In writing workshop, we have been working very hard on a special valentines day themed writing piece, which will be sent home next week. Due to the funny schedule on Wednesday, we had to push back our plans, which involved more study of Polar Animals, and we used our smaller STWEAM block to make our Valentines Day holders. In math, we related and compared counting on and taking from 10, and we also began subtracting from teen numbers. For grammar, we began learning more about adjectives, which we will continue in the upcoming weeks! I wasn't great at taking pictures this week, but posted the few I was able to snap during recess on Bloomz. :)
I sent home a spring sight words list with students this week, which is a list of the top sight words that students in class spell incorrectly according to our most recent sight word assessment. Some of our favorite ways to build words during word study are with playdo, magnet letters, pyramid letters, bubble letters...you could even build them with cereal! Please don't forget to have your kiddo read for 20 minutes a night! :)
I also posted a sign up for our upcoming Valentines Day classroom party on Bloomz...thank you all for your contributions to our classroom parties!
It's hard to believe that we are already in February! This week in word study we focused on more initial blends: scr, str, spl, spr. In writing workshop, we have been working very hard on a special valentines day themed writing piece, which will be sent home next week. Due to the funny schedule on Wednesday, we had to push back our plans, which involved more study of Polar Animals, and we used our smaller STWEAM block to make our Valentines Day holders. In math, we related and compared counting on and taking from 10, and we also began subtracting from teen numbers. For grammar, we began learning more about adjectives, which we will continue in the upcoming weeks! I wasn't great at taking pictures this week, but posted the few I was able to snap during recess on Bloomz. :)
I sent home a spring sight words list with students this week, which is a list of the top sight words that students in class spell incorrectly according to our most recent sight word assessment. Some of our favorite ways to build words during word study are with playdo, magnet letters, pyramid letters, bubble letters...you could even build them with cereal! Please don't forget to have your kiddo read for 20 minutes a night! :)
I also posted a sign up for our upcoming Valentines Day classroom party on Bloomz...thank you all for your contributions to our classroom parties!
Week of 1/22
We had a great week! In writing workshop, we focused on when to capitalize in our writing. In word study, we focused on blends sp, st, sw, sn, sm, sc, sk, tr, and tw. For some grammar practice, we continued our study of nouns. For STWEAM, we continued learning some more details about Martin Luther King Jr. and wrote about our own dreams to make the world a better place. In math we learned more about the commutative property and how to make a ten when one of our addends is 8. We are currently reading "The Tale of Despereaux" and are really enjoying it so far! Some other exciting news...Matt Tavares, the author of "Red & Lulu" was in the building and saw the display of our Red & Lulu project, and he left us a special note!
P.S. Students have been loving our new app for Listening to Reading called Epic. I will be sending home a note about this and how families can access it at home, too!
We had a great week! In writing workshop, we focused on when to capitalize in our writing. In word study, we focused on blends sp, st, sw, sn, sm, sc, sk, tr, and tw. For some grammar practice, we continued our study of nouns. For STWEAM, we continued learning some more details about Martin Luther King Jr. and wrote about our own dreams to make the world a better place. In math we learned more about the commutative property and how to make a ten when one of our addends is 8. We are currently reading "The Tale of Despereaux" and are really enjoying it so far! Some other exciting news...Matt Tavares, the author of "Red & Lulu" was in the building and saw the display of our Red & Lulu project, and he left us a special note!
P.S. Students have been loving our new app for Listening to Reading called Epic. I will be sending home a note about this and how families can access it at home, too!
1/19/18
I can't believe this week is already over, we have been very busy! This week in word work, we worked on some blends and will be looking at different blends next week. We also spent some time talking about the different types of nouns. In math, we discussed how we can solve problems by counting on, but can add more efficiently by making a ten when one of our addends is 9. Unfortunately, because we were out on a snowday Wednesday, we weren't able to have STWEAM, but will make up for it next week! In Writing, students wrote a personal narrative about a small, special moment in their lives. Lastly, we had some wonderful show and tellers, and I'll post their pictures on Bloomz. Looking forward to hopefully a full week next week! Have a great weekend!
I can't believe this week is already over, we have been very busy! This week in word work, we worked on some blends and will be looking at different blends next week. We also spent some time talking about the different types of nouns. In math, we discussed how we can solve problems by counting on, but can add more efficiently by making a ten when one of our addends is 9. Unfortunately, because we were out on a snowday Wednesday, we weren't able to have STWEAM, but will make up for it next week! In Writing, students wrote a personal narrative about a small, special moment in their lives. Lastly, we had some wonderful show and tellers, and I'll post their pictures on Bloomz. Looking forward to hopefully a full week next week! Have a great weekend!
12/4/17
We continued to focus on literary elements in CAFE and Writing Workshop. In word study, we practiced the consonant digraphs (2 letters making 1 sound) ch, wh, tch. In math, we mainly worked on subtraction word problems, ("story problems"). We were able to go visit Mr. I for STEM on Friday, and experimented with the behavior of light. On our Wednesday STWEAM day, we spent our time talking about different holidays and traditions. For Hanukkah, we made potato pancakes "latkes", for Kwanzaa, students practiced weaving placemats out of the traditional Kwanzaa colors. Students learned about the German Evergreen tradition, and crafted their Evergreen candle centerpieces. Thank you to everyone that was able to come help us celebrate our family holiday traditions, I know the kids had a great time at the party!
We continued to focus on literary elements in CAFE and Writing Workshop. In word study, we practiced the consonant digraphs (2 letters making 1 sound) ch, wh, tch. In math, we mainly worked on subtraction word problems, ("story problems"). We were able to go visit Mr. I for STEM on Friday, and experimented with the behavior of light. On our Wednesday STWEAM day, we spent our time talking about different holidays and traditions. For Hanukkah, we made potato pancakes "latkes", for Kwanzaa, students practiced weaving placemats out of the traditional Kwanzaa colors. Students learned about the German Evergreen tradition, and crafted their Evergreen candle centerpieces. Thank you to everyone that was able to come help us celebrate our family holiday traditions, I know the kids had a great time at the party!
11/27/17
This week we continued our focus on literary elements with Owl Babies. Students were buddied up and asked to retell the story using the characters and setting that they made. We also watched a short clip about a red balloon, which was completely silent, and students were asked to retell the characters, settings, and plot...but had to wait until the red balloon reached them to share! In word study we focused on "sh" and "th" sounds. In math we looked at patterns to improve fluency with addition and practiced our fluency with up to ten. We had STEM with Mr. I this week, and observed more behaviors of light. In writing workshop we focused on adding setting to our writing. I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving, I can't believe it is already December!
This week we continued our focus on literary elements with Owl Babies. Students were buddied up and asked to retell the story using the characters and setting that they made. We also watched a short clip about a red balloon, which was completely silent, and students were asked to retell the characters, settings, and plot...but had to wait until the red balloon reached them to share! In word study we focused on "sh" and "th" sounds. In math we looked at patterns to improve fluency with addition and practiced our fluency with up to ten. We had STEM with Mr. I this week, and observed more behaviors of light. In writing workshop we focused on adding setting to our writing. I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving, I can't believe it is already December!
11/17/17
Happy Friday everyone! This week we focused on reviewing our I PICK method of picking out good fit books...I choose a story, Purpose, Interest, Comprehension, and Know most of the words. We also learned a new Accuracy strategy: Chunk Letters and Sounds with one of my favorite stories, "The Sandwich Swap". In word study, we focused on short u words, like cub, mud, and yuck. In math we talked a lot about the = sign and the commutative property (3+4 = 4+3). On Tuesday we had our stuffy picnic, which we ended up doing on the rug in our classroom because it was pretty chilly outside. On Wednesday we had our Green Hour with our grade 3/4 buddies and made observations about the tress that we selected, (see STWEAM post below!) Today, some of our students were recognized for super behavior at the breakfast of champions and we're so proud of them! Also, the Wells Warrior football teamed walked the halls of our school as we cheered them on before they head to their championship football game this weekend! We ended the day with a great show & tell from Madilyn, some people sharing for author's chair, and read with our 4th grade book buddies to end the day.
Happy Friday everyone! This week we focused on reviewing our I PICK method of picking out good fit books...I choose a story, Purpose, Interest, Comprehension, and Know most of the words. We also learned a new Accuracy strategy: Chunk Letters and Sounds with one of my favorite stories, "The Sandwich Swap". In word study, we focused on short u words, like cub, mud, and yuck. In math we talked a lot about the = sign and the commutative property (3+4 = 4+3). On Tuesday we had our stuffy picnic, which we ended up doing on the rug in our classroom because it was pretty chilly outside. On Wednesday we had our Green Hour with our grade 3/4 buddies and made observations about the tress that we selected, (see STWEAM post below!) Today, some of our students were recognized for super behavior at the breakfast of champions and we're so proud of them! Also, the Wells Warrior football teamed walked the halls of our school as we cheered them on before they head to their championship football game this weekend! We ended the day with a great show & tell from Madilyn, some people sharing for author's chair, and read with our 4th grade book buddies to end the day.
Week of 11/6/17
In word study this week we focused on our short o words. In math we practiced more addition story problems and learned some new strategies for counting on. In writing workshop, we talked about organizing stories by beginning, middle, and end. In STWEAM on Wednesday, we looked at the question, "Which way does a river flow?" and wondered, "If you floated down a river, where would you end up?" We answered these questions by looking at maps to see if we could find any patterns to learn about where rivers begin and end. We also looked at maps to observe rivers around us. We tested our hypotheses by creating paper mountains with a partner, using watercolor markers to add rivers, using spray bottles to create rain on our mountains, and observing what happened. We discovered that rivers start up high on mountaintops and flow low, eventually emptying into oceans. We added our observations to our "I Wonder" journals and there are also pictures of the student's mountains on SeeSaw! We ended the week by talking about what Veteran's Day is and with a wonderful Veteran's Day assembly.
A huge thank you to everyone that made donations to make our Veteran's holiday care packages happen! Have a great weekend.
In word study this week we focused on our short o words. In math we practiced more addition story problems and learned some new strategies for counting on. In writing workshop, we talked about organizing stories by beginning, middle, and end. In STWEAM on Wednesday, we looked at the question, "Which way does a river flow?" and wondered, "If you floated down a river, where would you end up?" We answered these questions by looking at maps to see if we could find any patterns to learn about where rivers begin and end. We also looked at maps to observe rivers around us. We tested our hypotheses by creating paper mountains with a partner, using watercolor markers to add rivers, using spray bottles to create rain on our mountains, and observing what happened. We discovered that rivers start up high on mountaintops and flow low, eventually emptying into oceans. We added our observations to our "I Wonder" journals and there are also pictures of the student's mountains on SeeSaw! We ended the week by talking about what Veteran's Day is and with a wonderful Veteran's Day assembly.
A huge thank you to everyone that made donations to make our Veteran's holiday care packages happen! Have a great weekend.
10/30/17
This week was shorter than usual, but we managed to get a lot of work done. In CAFE, we talked about non-fiction text features and learned about titles, headings, and captions. We focused on short i and final x in word study this week. In math, we looked at "change unknown" problems and used 5 group cards. We also learned a new math with someone game, Addition Double War, which was really fun. We started talking about organization with beginning, middle, and end in writing workshop. We ended our week with reading with our book buddies in Mr. Hopwood's class! I had a great time meeting with the families that came to conferences on Thursday, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else on Tuesday! Have a great weekend.
10/27/17
We had a great, busy week! In word study this week, we practiced short e words and continued to learn about CVC closed syllable words! We started working on our white boards which was really fun. In writing workshop, we kept talking about adding details to our writing to make it more interesting. We solved story problems, also known as 'put together with result unknown' word problems. We talked about how counting on, rather than counting all, is a more efficient strategy when solving addition problems! In math workshop, we got our sumdog logins to take home and we added it to our math workshop menu! A Sumdog challenge starts today and goes until Nov 2, so your kiddo might want to play more than usual! Wednesday was exciting because there was an awesome Harlem Rockateers assembly that was SO much fun! Then, later in STWEAM, we observed 3 different sized pumpkins and hypothesized the question, "Do large pumpkins have more seeds?" After we carved them open, we split up into groups and had to decide on a strategy to count in the most efficient way, (groups of 2, 5, 10, by 1?) and read the story, "How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?" Afterwards, we had to fill out a chart with our results. For CAFE, we read "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and talked about inference as we wondered what that crazy pigeon was thinking on the pages that didn't have any words. We ended our week with a great round of flashlight Friday!
We had a great, busy week! In word study this week, we practiced short e words and continued to learn about CVC closed syllable words! We started working on our white boards which was really fun. In writing workshop, we kept talking about adding details to our writing to make it more interesting. We solved story problems, also known as 'put together with result unknown' word problems. We talked about how counting on, rather than counting all, is a more efficient strategy when solving addition problems! In math workshop, we got our sumdog logins to take home and we added it to our math workshop menu! A Sumdog challenge starts today and goes until Nov 2, so your kiddo might want to play more than usual! Wednesday was exciting because there was an awesome Harlem Rockateers assembly that was SO much fun! Then, later in STWEAM, we observed 3 different sized pumpkins and hypothesized the question, "Do large pumpkins have more seeds?" After we carved them open, we split up into groups and had to decide on a strategy to count in the most efficient way, (groups of 2, 5, 10, by 1?) and read the story, "How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?" Afterwards, we had to fill out a chart with our results. For CAFE, we read "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and talked about inference as we wondered what that crazy pigeon was thinking on the pages that didn't have any words. We ended our week with a great round of flashlight Friday!
10/16/17
Another busy week in looping 1-2! We focused on the CAFE accuracy strategy, "Use Beginning and Ending Sounds with "The Brand New Kid" and "Fall Friends." In word study, we focused on our short a words and learned about closed syllable, or CVC words. We began writing workshop conferences and started up author's chair, which is when 3 students get to share what they wrote with the class. We talked about adding details to our writing. In math, we learned about number bonds and part, part, whole...we looked at the different number pairs when the whole (total) is 6, 7, 8, and 9. We also learned some fun new games for math workshop, like Ways to Make 9 and Spill the Beans! On Wednesday, we got together with our multi 3/4 and 4th grade STWEAM groups and found, observed, took photos of, and sketched a special tree. We will be observing this tree that we chose and marked over the course of the different seasons. We ended the week with our 4th grade book buddies!
Another busy week in looping 1-2! We focused on the CAFE accuracy strategy, "Use Beginning and Ending Sounds with "The Brand New Kid" and "Fall Friends." In word study, we focused on our short a words and learned about closed syllable, or CVC words. We began writing workshop conferences and started up author's chair, which is when 3 students get to share what they wrote with the class. We talked about adding details to our writing. In math, we learned about number bonds and part, part, whole...we looked at the different number pairs when the whole (total) is 6, 7, 8, and 9. We also learned some fun new games for math workshop, like Ways to Make 9 and Spill the Beans! On Wednesday, we got together with our multi 3/4 and 4th grade STWEAM groups and found, observed, took photos of, and sketched a special tree. We will be observing this tree that we chose and marked over the course of the different seasons. We ended the week with our 4th grade book buddies!
10/10/17
This week we got a lot accomplished. Our Daily 5 is in full swing and it has been going great. We learned the strategy, "Blend sounds, stretch, and reread" with "Bruce's Big Move." I worked with students individually this week, but I am excited to begin working with small reading groups this upcoming week. On Wednesday, which is our STWEAM day, we focused on learning about Apples and what a producer and a consumer is. There is a great applesauce recipe in the back of "Bruce's Big Move," so we rewrote the recipe, and everyone chopped up apples for the crock pot. The whole hallway smelled like cinnamon applesauce, and it came out delicious! We also observed the outside and inside of apples with magnifying glasses and drew diagrams of the different parts of an apple in our I Wonder journals. It was Fire Prevention week, so we had a nice presentation about fire safety and got some goody bags from the Wells Fire Department. I showed the class Seesaw, which is our classroom blog that students can post their work on. We practiced this a little bit and we're excited to post more and more! Once students are comfortable on this, it is something that we will be sharing so parents can see our work, too! Lastly and most importantly, we met our goal of filling up our "Shiny" jar, so we brainstormed and voted on an award that we'd like...deciding on reading to Mrs. Fox's kindergarten class! We had so much fun reading to the kindergarteners and being awesome role models. Some kiddos in class even got to read with their relatives, which was great! Have a wonderful weekend!
This week we got a lot accomplished. Our Daily 5 is in full swing and it has been going great. We learned the strategy, "Blend sounds, stretch, and reread" with "Bruce's Big Move." I worked with students individually this week, but I am excited to begin working with small reading groups this upcoming week. On Wednesday, which is our STWEAM day, we focused on learning about Apples and what a producer and a consumer is. There is a great applesauce recipe in the back of "Bruce's Big Move," so we rewrote the recipe, and everyone chopped up apples for the crock pot. The whole hallway smelled like cinnamon applesauce, and it came out delicious! We also observed the outside and inside of apples with magnifying glasses and drew diagrams of the different parts of an apple in our I Wonder journals. It was Fire Prevention week, so we had a nice presentation about fire safety and got some goody bags from the Wells Fire Department. I showed the class Seesaw, which is our classroom blog that students can post their work on. We practiced this a little bit and we're excited to post more and more! Once students are comfortable on this, it is something that we will be sharing so parents can see our work, too! Lastly and most importantly, we met our goal of filling up our "Shiny" jar, so we brainstormed and voted on an award that we'd like...deciding on reading to Mrs. Fox's kindergarten class! We had so much fun reading to the kindergarteners and being awesome role models. Some kiddos in class even got to read with their relatives, which was great! Have a wonderful weekend!
9/24/17
We had a lot of awesome stuff going on this week! We started off the week learning about "mindfulness" and we talked about what it means and why we do it: to have a healthy mind because it helps us be calm, relaxed, and focused, to help us deal with our problems in a healthy way, keeps our bodies healthy, and boosts our mood to help us feel good! We'll be learning different yoga moves, stretches, breathing exercises, and meditations to use throughout the day! We focused on the book "Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf" to learn a few new CAFE reading strategies. We learned the strategies "Predict what will happen; use the text to confirm," "Use beginning and ending sounds," and "Use prior knowledge to connect with text." Now that our read to self stamina is so amazing, (at over 25 whole minutes!!!) we finished learning about the last 2 Daily 5 choices: Word Work and Listening to Reading. In math workshop, we talked about using math tools and did some exploring with them, and learned some new Math by Myself activities: Roll & Write and Number of the Day. We're excited to learn even more math workshop activities for Math by Myself and Math with Someone soon. We had some great narrative writing time and wrote about a small, special moment in our lives. We ended the week with Shayne doing a great job as our show & teller and did a round of Flashlight Friday!
We had a lot of awesome stuff going on this week! We started off the week learning about "mindfulness" and we talked about what it means and why we do it: to have a healthy mind because it helps us be calm, relaxed, and focused, to help us deal with our problems in a healthy way, keeps our bodies healthy, and boosts our mood to help us feel good! We'll be learning different yoga moves, stretches, breathing exercises, and meditations to use throughout the day! We focused on the book "Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf" to learn a few new CAFE reading strategies. We learned the strategies "Predict what will happen; use the text to confirm," "Use beginning and ending sounds," and "Use prior knowledge to connect with text." Now that our read to self stamina is so amazing, (at over 25 whole minutes!!!) we finished learning about the last 2 Daily 5 choices: Word Work and Listening to Reading. In math workshop, we talked about using math tools and did some exploring with them, and learned some new Math by Myself activities: Roll & Write and Number of the Day. We're excited to learn even more math workshop activities for Math by Myself and Math with Someone soon. We had some great narrative writing time and wrote about a small, special moment in our lives. We ended the week with Shayne doing a great job as our show & teller and did a round of Flashlight Friday!
9/18/17 Week
This week we continued working hard on launching Daily 5. Our Read to Self stamina is getting better with every day, and we began to focus on Work on Writing. We took ideas that we brainstormed from our memory baskets and idea maps to use as writing topics. On Wednesday we watched a new science video from Mystery Doug. We watched some great videos about bubbles and got to do some bubble exploration with our Multi 1-2 friends next door. We also had the opportunity to use Mr. Hopwood's chromebooks, and were able to go up to their classroom on Friday for book buddies! We're still loving James and the Giant Peach and we were left on quite the cliffhanger. Also, Jack was a great Show & Teller on Friday!
This week we continued working hard on launching Daily 5. Our Read to Self stamina is getting better with every day, and we began to focus on Work on Writing. We took ideas that we brainstormed from our memory baskets and idea maps to use as writing topics. On Wednesday we watched a new science video from Mystery Doug. We watched some great videos about bubbles and got to do some bubble exploration with our Multi 1-2 friends next door. We also had the opportunity to use Mr. Hopwood's chromebooks, and were able to go up to their classroom on Friday for book buddies! We're still loving James and the Giant Peach and we were left on quite the cliffhanger. Also, Jack was a great Show & Teller on Friday!
9/11/17 Week
This week we talked about Good Fit Books. Sometimes books are too hard, sometimes they're too easy, and sometimes they're just right! Every student was asked to pick out 6 Good Fit books for their book box, and could also have 1 challenge book, and 1 holiday book. This week we made memory baskets and idea maps for our writing binders, so we could have plenty ideas when it comes to "Work on Writing" and writing workshop. We also designed covers for our writing binder. This week's CAFE Strategy was Use Punctuation and Enhance Prosody, with books like, "The Recess Queen." We also continued practicing the strategy "Tune Into Interesting Words" while reading "James and the Giant Peach." We watched a video by Mystery Doug on Wednesday, to learn about why Zebras have their stripes and how they help them. Then, we took our selfies and wrote 2 goals that we have for 1st grade, which are now posted in our wing! They had great selfies and even greater goals! MS was our show and teller, and did an awesome job showing us his owl! We ended our week with a round of Flashlight Friday-which is when all of the lights go out, except for the disco light, and everyone gets finger flashlights to read with.
This week we talked about Good Fit Books. Sometimes books are too hard, sometimes they're too easy, and sometimes they're just right! Every student was asked to pick out 6 Good Fit books for their book box, and could also have 1 challenge book, and 1 holiday book. This week we made memory baskets and idea maps for our writing binders, so we could have plenty ideas when it comes to "Work on Writing" and writing workshop. We also designed covers for our writing binder. This week's CAFE Strategy was Use Punctuation and Enhance Prosody, with books like, "The Recess Queen." We also continued practicing the strategy "Tune Into Interesting Words" while reading "James and the Giant Peach." We watched a video by Mystery Doug on Wednesday, to learn about why Zebras have their stripes and how they help them. Then, we took our selfies and wrote 2 goals that we have for 1st grade, which are now posted in our wing! They had great selfies and even greater goals! MS was our show and teller, and did an awesome job showing us his owl! We ended our week with a round of Flashlight Friday-which is when all of the lights go out, except for the disco light, and everyone gets finger flashlights to read with.
Week 1
What a great week we had! It seems like just a few weeks ago we were packing up our backpacks and classrooms and locking up the school for summer vacation. This week was all about getting to know each other and our new classroom. We played a few fun name games and shared lots of fun facts about ourselves! We talked a lot about what our different classroom routines look like. One of the most important things that we did was talk about being peacemakers, what classroom rules the students thought we should adopt, and we created our classroom Code of Conduct. We started talking about the Daily 5 right away and talked about the 3 ways to read a book: Read the Words, Read the Pictures, and Retell. Every student got a copy of "Little Owls Day" to keep in their book box so they'd always have a book they can retell. We worked so hard ALL week talking about what "Read to Self" should look like, and practiced, practiced, and practiced our stamina. We did awesome and our stamina reached 14 minutes and 35 seconds-pretty impressive for the first week back to school! In addition, we practiced some new reading strategies that go on our CAFE menu. CAFE stands for comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expand vocabulary. Students learn so many of these great strategies so they can use them independently while they read.
CAFE strategies this week:
-Check for Understanding "The Cool Friend", "First Day Jitters", "The Invisible Boy"
-Tune Into Interesting Words "James and the Giant Peach"
-Cross Checking
We also had book buddies with Mr. Hopwood's class, which we will have every Friday!
What a great week we had! It seems like just a few weeks ago we were packing up our backpacks and classrooms and locking up the school for summer vacation. This week was all about getting to know each other and our new classroom. We played a few fun name games and shared lots of fun facts about ourselves! We talked a lot about what our different classroom routines look like. One of the most important things that we did was talk about being peacemakers, what classroom rules the students thought we should adopt, and we created our classroom Code of Conduct. We started talking about the Daily 5 right away and talked about the 3 ways to read a book: Read the Words, Read the Pictures, and Retell. Every student got a copy of "Little Owls Day" to keep in their book box so they'd always have a book they can retell. We worked so hard ALL week talking about what "Read to Self" should look like, and practiced, practiced, and practiced our stamina. We did awesome and our stamina reached 14 minutes and 35 seconds-pretty impressive for the first week back to school! In addition, we practiced some new reading strategies that go on our CAFE menu. CAFE stands for comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expand vocabulary. Students learn so many of these great strategies so they can use them independently while they read.
CAFE strategies this week:
-Check for Understanding "The Cool Friend", "First Day Jitters", "The Invisible Boy"
-Tune Into Interesting Words "James and the Giant Peach"
-Cross Checking
We also had book buddies with Mr. Hopwood's class, which we will have every Friday!