What's Happening in Room 127? (March)

 March in Review

Here are some things we worked on in March:

Reading:  We continued working on our Character Studies unit and preparing to take the IAR assessments.  The students all participated in a book club and applied our work with theories, theme, and story elements while they were reading these books.  The students will be completing a culminating project for the book that they read.  They will work as a club to create a poster that shows a story mountain for the book, identifies the main character and traits for this character, secondary characters and their roles in the story, the problem/solution, and the theme of the book.  They will then creatively display all of this information in their poster.  We will be wrapping up this unit in the next couple of weeks.

Writing:  We worked on writing written responses to prepare for IAR testing.  Written responses for IAR are very similar to the literary essays that we have been writing.  The main difference is that the kids have to answer a specific question with multiple parts rather than just supporting their own opinion.  We have been working on writing checklists before we write our response to help make sure that we have all of the parts of the question included in our writing.

Math:  We are continuing to work with fractions.  Students used tape diagrams to help compare fractions.  The tape diagrams help with reasoning to see how the size of the parts are different.  We also focused on fractions on a number line.  Students relate a fraction's value to its size, its location on a number line, and its distance from 0 to find pairs of equivalent fractions.  Not only do students need to identify where fractions are located on a number line, but they also need to create and partition the number lines independently.

Science:  We have been having a lot of fun learning about weather!  In the first half of the unit we focused on the three components of weather:  temperature, wind, and precipitation.  Coming up we will be learning about how weather is predicted, how weather and climate are related, and different types of extreme weather.

Coming Up

Some of the things we will be working on in April are:

Reading:  We will be moving back into focusing on nonfiction texts.

Writing:  We will be starting a unit on adapting fairy tales.

Health:  We will be continuing "Let's Eat!" for a little bit longer.  Our unit after that is titled "The Better to See You With".

Dates to Remember

April 1 - April 8 - IAR Testing

April 18 - No School

April 29 - Field Trip (information to come home on 3/31)

What's Happening in Room 127? (February)

 February in Review

Here are some of the things we've been working on this month:

 

Reading:  We are working on a unit called Character Studies.  With this unit we are diving deeper into our reading to look at the characters and use evidence to support our ideas and theories that we have about them.  We also are looking at the structure of a story and how a character can go up and down a story mountain, looking at the challenges our characters face and how they react to those challenges, and the roles that secondary characters play in stories. We read the novel Because of Winn-Dixie and used the main character of Opal to practice this work and are now reading Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel. We are using this book to compare/contrast characters and themes to Because of Winn-Dixie. The students have just started book clubs where they are reading a novel with a small group and working on practicing all of these skills.

Writing:  In Writing we have continued to write literary essays.   When writing a literary essay the children need to name the story they are writing about, state their opinion or thesis, give evidence from the story by using exact quotes or summarizing parts of the story, use transitional phrases to lead into the evidence, and explain why their evidence matters.  

 

Math:  We completed a unit on area. In this unit we explored the attributes of squares, rectangles, and trapezoids, tiled rectangles and squares to related the side lengths to area, used multiplication to find the area of rectangles, decomposed to find the total area of a rectangle, and found the area of composite figures. We are now just beginning fractions. Within this unit we will be working on partitioning a whole into equal parts, taking unit fractions and understanding their relationship to the whole, identifying fractions on a number line, finding equivalent fractions, and comparing fractions.

 

Social Studies:  We just finished a unit on economics. The focus was for the students to understand what a free market economy is, supply and demand, how and why people save money, and global trade. We played some fun games during this unit to help the students understand the concept of supply and demand and global trade!

 

Coming Up

Some of the things that we will be working on in March are:

Science:  We will be starting a new unit about weather.  In the first half of the unit we will focus on the three components of weather:  temperature, wind, and precipitation. 

 

Health:  “Let's Eat!" is the title of our next health unit.

Dates to Remember:
March 24-28- Spring Break

What's Happening in Room 127? (January)

  January in Review

Here are some things we've been working on this month:

Reading:  We continued and wrapped up our mystery unit.  We worked on identifying clues and motives for different suspects as we were reading our mysteries.  (Really looking closely at our reading to pay attention to these types of things.)  We also learned about red herring clues, which is when an author tries to trick the reader and the crime solver with a clue that throws us off track.  To wrap up this unit we learned that the skills that we use when reading mysteries also help us when we are reading any type of fiction book. During our word study we continued to work with different vowel combinations and the different sounds that they make such as the combinations that make the "aw", "ow", and "oy" sounds.  

 

Writing:  During the first couple of weeks of January we did some seasonal writing.  We have now moved into the "Baby Literary Essay" unit.  With this unit we will work on identifying and supporting our opinions about texts.  When writing a literary essay the children need to name the story they are writing about, state their opinion or thesis, give evidence from the story by using exact quotes or summarizing parts of the story, use transitional phrases to lead into the evidence, and explain why their evidence matters.  

Social Studies:  We are wrapping up our second unit "History".  With this unit we learned about why people have come to settle in the United States from other countries.  We also spent a lot of time learning about how all of our cultures are unique.  We learned about different languages, holidays, traditions, and foods that communities share.  As part of this unit we learned about different individuals who worked to make their community better.  In groups the students read about one individual and created a human monument that represented the work that this person did.  They also created a plaque describing what the monument shows and how this person helped their community.  You be able to see pictures of these monuments at Open House!

Math:  We finished module 3 by learning how to multiply by multiples of 10, patterns for multiplying by 11 and 12, and solving two-step word problems. It is very important that students keep practicing their multiplication and division facts!  Our current unit is on area.  So far in this unit we have explored the attributes of rectangles, squares, and trapezoids.  We have also tiled rectangles and squares to relate the side lengths to area. 

Coming Up

Some of the things we will be working on in February are:

Reading:  We are beginning a new unit called "Character Studies".  We are focusing back on fiction reading and will be learning more about the theme of stories, plot, and comparing/contrasting characters.

Social Studies:  Our next unit will be about economics.  

Health:  "I Like Your Attitude" is the title of our next health unit.

Dates to Remember:
Feb. 13 - Open House

Feb. 14 - Staff Development Day--No School

Feb. 17 - President's Day--No School

What's Happening in Room 127? (December)

 December in Review

Here are some of the things we've been working on this month:

Reading:  We have just started a mystery unit, which the students and I are all really enjoying!  With this unit we are learning about the mystery genre and how mystery books tend to go.  We also are working on making our prediction and summarizing skills more secure.

Writing:  In Writing we are finishing publishing our informational books.  I'm so impressed by the knowledge that the students have about their topics!  They will be sharing these with you after break. We also did some seasonal writing and work with nouns. 

Science/Social Studies:  We wrapped up our forces and motion unit by creating electromagnets and learning about static electricity.  We then moved into our second social studies unit "History".  So far we learned about why people come to settle in the United States from other countries.  We are now learning about how all of our cultures are unique.  We are learning about different languages, holidays, traditions, and foods that communities share.  We will continue with this when we return from break.

Math: In module 3 we are continuing to focus on multiplication and division.  We are focusing on the facts for 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 and 1. We have been using the distributive property and grouping factors using the associative property to help with multiplying.  We have also been solving one step word problems including a variable for the unknown and recognizing patterns in input-output tables.  It is very important that students keep practicing their multiplication and division facts!  

Coming Up
Some of the things that we will be working on in January are:

Reading/Writing:  We will be continuing our mystery unit and will be starting a unit on literary essays.

Math:  We will be continuing with multiplication and division.

Health:  Our next unit is called, "Things You Might Catch".

Dates to Remember:

Dec. 19 - Holiday Sing 

Dec. 21-Jan. 5 - Winter Break

Jan. 20 - No School

What's Happening in Room 127? (November)

November in Review

Here are some of the things we've been working on this month:

Reading:  We have been continuing to work on reading nonfiction text.  We have transitioned from reading expository nonfiction to reading narrative nonfiction, such as biographies.  We worked on reading this type of nonfiction from two different lenses.  One is reading it as a story--there are characters, a setting, problems, and solutions.  The other lens is reading the story to learn information.  During our word study we worked on different long vowel letter combinations such as long o and long a.  We've also been working with words with the "ew" sound spelled ew and u_e.

Writing:  In writing we have been working on informational writing.  Students are writing books on a topic that they are experts on.  The first part of our unit 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.  Now we are working on drafting our chapters, elaborating on the information, adding text features, and editing.  We hope to finish up our books in the next week or so.  

Science:  We are studying forces and motion.  During this unit so far we have worked on identifying the position and motion of forces, balanced vs. unbalanced forces, we measured patterns of motion to make predictions of future motion, and we learned about bar magnets. The students completed a STEM challenge where given only certain materials (magnet, paperclip tied to a string, masking tape, cups of different sizes, and popsicle sticks) they needed to design and build a structure that would allow a paperclip to float in the air, against the pull of gravity. When we return from break we will be creating electromagnets and studying static electricity.

Math:  In module 3 we are back to focusing on multiplication and division.  We are focusing on the facts for 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 and 1.  With this, we are working a lot on using the distributive property (or breaking apart method as we sometimes call it) to help break a harder multiplication problem into two simpler problems that are easier for us to solve.  This will be helpful for students when they face a problem that they don't know the answer to, instead of drawing arrays and equal groups.

Second Step:  Our Second Step curriculum, along with our school theme, has been focusing on feelings.  We have been working on identifying our own and other's feelings.

Coming Up
Some of the things that we will be working on in December are:

Reading:  Our next unit will be a mystery unit.

Social Studies:  When we finish our science unit we will be doing a history unit in social studies.

Health:  Our next unit is called, "Community Health".

Dates to Remember:
Dec. 9 - MAP testing this week (specific days to come later)

Dec. 19 - Holiday Sing 

Dec. 21-Jan. 5 - Winter Break

What's Happening in Room 127? (October)

 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.  

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. 

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.

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:

Nov. 5--No School

Nov. 25-29--No School

What's Happening in Room 127? (August/September)

 August/September in Review

At the end/beginning of every month I will send out a newsletter to let you know what has been going on in Room 127, and what will be coming up.

Reading:  This month we have been working on our first reading unit called "Building a Reading Life".  During this unit we have been practicing giving ourselves comprehension checks as we are reading, making movies in our minds to help us envision what we are reading, and making predictions using evidence from the text to support our ideas.  When students are giving themselves a comprehension check they are asking themselves what happened, who was in that part, and is it new information or does it connect to something else in the story?  If students can't answer these questions they need to go back and reread that section/chapter.  This is an extremely important skill!

During our word study we have been reviewing consonant clusters (blends) where we hear a sound that is connected to each of the letters, digraphs where two letters represent one sound (th, ch, sh, wh), short vowels, and vowel-consonant-silent e.

Writing:    In Writing we have been working on our personal narratives by writing about a "small moment" that happened in our lives.  We are working on writing leads, telling our stories bit by bit, writing dialogue, and using vivid language.  We are also working on the fact that our story has to have three parts:  a beginning, middle, and end.  Revisions and editing work are also a part of this unit.  

Science:  Our first science unit is called "Environments and Living Things".  During this unit we have been reading and completing investigations to understand why some animals survive better in certain habitats, why some live in groups and others live alone, and why plants and animals change when the environment changes.  We are also learning about fossils and seeing what information the fossil can tell us about the organism from long ago.

Math:  We have been working on multiplication and division with units of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10.  To start, we worked on the conceptual understanding of multiplication and division.  We then moved into understanding the properties of multiplication.  To explore the commutative property we skip-counted the rows and columns in arrays.  We used arrays and number bonds to model the distributive property when finding the products of unfamiliar facts.  Currently we are working on two interpretations of division to help solidify students' understanding of the relationship between multiplication and division and show division as both unknown factors problems and division equations.  We are now in the last part of the unit and working with the associative property of multiplication and solving two-step word problems using multiplication and division.

Second Step:  Each week we work with a social/emotional program called Second Step.  In August/September we have been focusing on growth mindset and goal setting.  The students have been learning about what happens in their brain when they are learning a new skill.  Growth mindset is going to continue to be a focus for us throughout the school year.

Also, as part of our opening morning activities each week we focus on a different manner/habit.  The manners/habits that we have discussed so far are:  track the speaker with our eyes and ears, congratulate the winner or when someone does well, don't brag if you win/don't show anger if you lose, cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough, respectful/disrespectful body language, and the power of doing random acts of kindness.

Coming Up

Social Studies:  In the coming weeks we will be starting our first social studies unit which will focus on geography.

Math:  We will be wrapping up our first math unit this week.  Our next math unit is working on place value concepts through metric measurement.

Health:   Our next health unit is titled, "When Bodies Have Challenges".

Take Note:  

*Everyday students make a goal for what page they will read to in their book that evening.  We have talked about making realistic yet challenging goals.  Each child is expected to read at least 15-20 minutes a day Monday-Thursday, and at least one time over the weekend.  I monitor each child's progress with their independent reading as it is an important part of our reading program.

Dates to Remember:

October 11 - Staff Development Day--No School

October 14 - No School
October 15, 17 - Conferences