October in Review
Here are some of the things we've been working on this month:Reading: We completed our first reading unit, "Building a Reading Life". In this unit we focused on identifying character traits and supporting it with evidence, making a prediction with support, retelling what you've read, and author's craft (putting yourself in the author's shoes). We will continue to be working on these skills throughout the year. Next, we are working on a nonfiction reading unit.
Throughout the first part of the unit we are focusing on reading expository nonfiction texts. We are learning that when reading we need to be looking out for the main idea and supporting details. Sometimes there are headings to help us with this, but other times we need to look for "pop-out" sentences. We are using "boxes and bullets" to help us organize the information that we are learning as we read.
During our word study we worked on words ending in a double consonant, ending consonant clusters, and vowel teams ee, ea, oo, oi, ai, and ou.
Writing: In Writing we finished writing our personal narratives (or "small moments" as we've been calling them). We spent a lot of time revising our writing. We worked on developing leads and the closing to the stories. Now we have moved into information writing. Students will be writing books on a topic that they are experts on. The first part of our unit is focused on organizing our books with a table of contents and then organizing each chapter. The structure that we are using for this organization is called "boxes and bullets". The "box" is the subtopic that is being written about. The "bullets" are the supporting details that you are going to be writing about to further develop the subtopic.
Writing: In Writing we finished writing our personal narratives (or "small moments" as we've been calling them). We spent a lot of time revising our writing. We worked on developing leads and the closing to the stories. Now we have moved into information writing. Students will be writing books on a topic that they are experts on. The first part of our unit is focused on organizing our books with a table of contents and then organizing each chapter. The structure that we are using for this organization is called "boxes and bullets". The "box" is the subtopic that is being written about. The "bullets" are the supporting details that you are going to be writing about to further develop the subtopic.
Math: We began our second module which is called "Place Value Concepts Through Metric Measurement". We have estimated and measured weight and liquid volume by using grams, kilograms, liters, and milliliters. We also read temperatures on a thermometer, which provided an initial context to rounding to the nearest ten or hundred. The students used a vertical number line to round numbers and apply their rounding skills to estimate sums and differences. We are now working with different strategies to add and subtract larger numbers. There are different ways you can manipulate numbers to do these operations, along with the standard vertical form. The idea is that students will be more comfortable in working with numbers and be able to choose a strategy that they feel comfortable with using.
Social Studies: We are on our way to finishing our first unit on geography. During this unit students learned: the location of the continents and oceans, how to use cardinal/intermediate directions to describe the location of different places, ways people adapt to different environments based on geography and climate, how the Native Americans adapted to the environment long ago.
Second Step: We still are talking about growth mindset, but we have also shifted to talking about emotions and what emotions can teach us.
Second Step: We still are talking about growth mindset, but we have also shifted to talking about emotions and what emotions can teach us.
Coming Up
Some of the things that we will be working on in November are:
Reading: We will continue to work on the nonfiction unit.
Writing: Information writing will be our focus.
Some of the things that we will be working on in November are:
Reading: We will continue to work on the nonfiction unit.
Writing: Information writing will be our focus.
Math: In a couple of weeks we will be wrapping up our second module and will move into module three where we will be revisiting multiplication.
Health: The next unit is "My Family, Your Family".
Dates to Remember:
Health: The next unit is "My Family, Your Family".
Dates to Remember:
Nov. 5--No School
Nov. 25-29--No School