March 19, 2016

Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library 
April 7 and 8: Parent/Teacher Conferences



Report Cards went home on Friday. Please sign the envelope and return it to school on Monday. You may keep the report card.

The Fun Fair on Friday was so much fun! I hope you enjoyed it!

Literacy:
We have been having a blast making our voices sound like a storyteller. In order to do this, we have
to pay attention to the punctuation and think about what is happening in the story. We reread to make it sound even better. This is so much fun and the kids are doing a great job with it.

Math:
The class started working on developing a strategy list to show all the different ways they can solve one problem. This helps the mathematicians become flexible thinkers when solving problems. When a mathematician can show their thinking in more than one way, we call it using multiple pathways.

For the rest of the unit in math, we are going to be pushing our thinking to become more flexible as we develop higher level strategies that allow us to be quicker and more accurate in our work.



Science:
We had the best time planning our own healthy meals! We use the My Plate format to make sure we had  each food group represented. After planning the meal, the students used construction paper to make the meal which will be displayed. We were all hungry for these yummy sounding meals by the end of science!



Classroom Fun:
I really hope you got outside last week and enjoyed some of the beautiful weather. We never knew what to expect each day when we walked outside for recess, but one day in particular was gorgeous! We all enjoyed the sun on our faces!

March 13, 2016

Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library
Wednesday, March 16 Delayed Start
Friday, March 18 Fun Fair 4:30-6:30




Literacy:
We love the Knuffle  Bunny books! This week we read Knuffle Bunny Too. As we read, we worked on thinking about the characters by asking questions such as:
What is the character doing? Why is the character doing that? What is the character feeling? Authors leave us clues to help us answer these questions. We can find the clues in the pictures and the words.

During writing time, we learned how to be a writing partner! The students are learning to give feedback and ask questions about their partner's writing. Then, the writers go back and add to their work. Working with a partner not only helps us improve our writing, but it's fun!

Math:
Story problems and fact families continued into this week. The students are developing a deeper understanding of addition and subtraction, and how they connect with each other. I am part of the math studio group, and my math teacher came in to observe the class. He was impressed with their mathematical thinking. Good work mathematicians!

Science:
We are starting to take our knowledge of food groups and applying it to creating a healthy meal. We used the My Plate organizer and pictures of foods to create well balanced, yummy meals. We were all starving by the end of the activity!

Classroom Fun:
We had Jump Rope for Heart this week! I was hoping to take more pictures, but it was really hard with all the jump ropes going at once! The kids did a great job!

March 5, 2016

Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday: Library
Wednesday, March 9: Jump Rope for Heart
Wednesday, March 16 Delayed Start
Friday, March 18 Fun Fair

It was a busy week back at school! First we had a delay and on Friday we got to see the 4th and 5th
grades put on the play Mary Poppins. Our class did a wonderful job getting back into our routine and even adding in a few new daily routines.We even squeezed in a trip to the library since we missed it the week before vacation due to a snow day and we didn't have it scheduled for this week because there was no school on Tuesday. Thanks Ms. Abbene for finding a time for us to go and get some books!

Literacy:
We are taking a deeper look at characters in fiction books. We read Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. As we read, we talk to our reading buddies about what the characters are doing and why they are doing it.

Math:
The mathematicians amazed me with their mathematical thinking and use of mathematical language! We are working on fact families and understanding story problems. The students are working on developing a conjecture or big idea of what a fact family is. We have used dominoes and a fun class sorting activity where students had to find all the members of their fact family.

Here is are the members for the fact family group 1, 9, 10. After the whole group activity, the students had to go back to their seats to complete some independent work. 

The other big concept, story problems, involves understanding the difference between an addition, subtraction, or combination problem. The students must first identify what type of problem it is before solving it.

Science:

We have started a mini unit on how to keep our bodies healthy. First, we brainstormed what we already knew about staying healthy. The class came up with great ideas including stay hydrated, practice mindfulness, exercise, and eat healthy. This week we started looking at the food groups and talking about ways to stay active.

 We tried out a new activity to stay active this week. I taught the children how to use Chinese jump ropes. They did a great job!