We will conclude our month-long, very exciting March Madness Reading Tournament this week when Kickoff takes on 11 Birthdays for the championship. All children have worked SUPER hard writing and presenting persuasive speeches and posters advertising their books and enthusiasm for reading is SKY HIGH in our classroom right now! Children are taking a look at new books they might otherwise never have tried out before! Through it all they've been great sports and have supported each other. I am so proud of everyone! On Thursday, our two finalists will dress up as the main characters of their respective books and present their stories from the point of view of that character. Then, we'll vote! We can't wait to see which will be the last book standing!
In Reader's Workshop, we have been doing a lot of independent reading and writing about our thinking about our reading. Additionally, we are gearing up for SBAC testing with some really fun activities. For example, this week, we played Reading Jeopardy, a game focused on getting kids to think about Main Idea, Author's Craft, Text Structure, and Vocabulary after they had read a specific text. Everyone is loving the game and really thinking hard and coming up with fabulous answers! Best of all, they don't even know how hard they're working!
In Writer's Workshop, we have been spending a lot of time on our Animal Adaptations research project. Students have used the Internet, library books, videos, and other media to do research on their chosen animal. Now, they are compiling all they've learned into informational books. As a class we have been learning about wolves, which is the animal I have used to model lessons on. When we get back from April break, we will begin a unit on Fairy Tale writing.
This week we will complete our third rotation in science and move on to the last unit of study with Mrs. Grindrod. We should be experts by now on her topic of Animals!
Everyone did a fantastic job on our mid-module assessment in math on fractions. We're continuing on learning about plotting fractions on a number line and improper fractions. It's been hard work, but everyone in Room 29 is up for the challenge. Everyone is actually enjoying working with the manipulatives that are helping them to better visualize this often tricky concept.
Even though I drove home from Easter yesterday in the snow in upstate Connecticut, I'm hoping spring is really here! Remember, we're going outside every day now, so make sure your child is appropriately dressed for the weather!
Happy Spring!!!!
Monday, April 6, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
March Madness Begins
We kicked off our March Madness Book Championship this week with a bang! Students had the opportunity to read their persuasive letters to the class and to students in Ms. B's room. After, we voted to determine the Sweet 16 vote-getters. See the results of our voting below! A schedule of our voting and activities went home on Thursday. Please make sure to check out the dates of our voting and due date for our March Madness poster/advertisement assignment. All students will be making a poster to advertise their favorite book to try to further convince the classes to vote for their book. We started making rough drafts in class, but the rest of the poster project is to be done at home. Posters are due March 18. May the best book win!
Now that we have wrapped up our writing unit on persuasive/opinion writing, we are heading back to focusing on informational writing with an emphasis on researched based writing on a particular topic. We are tying this unit into our science unit on Animal Adaptations. Students will have the opportunity to choose an animal and do research in books and online. They will learn how to take notes, eliminate extraneous information, organize their thinking, and put another writer's words into their own language. I am modeling this lesson using wolves as a subject (as voted on by the class).
We are nearly ready to head to our last science rotation in a week or two. Having finished learning about rocks and minerals, pollution, and matter, students will be heading to Mrs. Grindrod to learn about Animal Adaptations.
In math, we took the end of module assessment for area and began fractions. Everyone did really well on the test on area, which was especially difficult. I am very proud of the kids for their hard work and perseverance. To begin our unit on fractions I gave the class a mini assessment to see where their knowledge base was in order to inform where I would begin teaching. We began with some lessons to re-familiarize ourselves with basic concepts and will move on to learn how to plot fractions on a number line. I have some great hands-on activities and manipulatives that the children will be using to help them with a concept that tends to be intimidating (I know this by all the groans I always get each year when I announce we are about to begin our fractions unit).
It was great to finally have a full week of school! Let spring begin!
Here are the Sweet Sixteen books that will face off in our voting next week:
The One and Only Ivan
The Giving Tree
The Witches
The Hobbit
Arnie the Doughnut
The English Roses
The Yeti Files
Percy Jackson: Lightning Thief
11 Birthdays
Dear Mrs. LaRue
Dear Dumb Diary, My Pants are Haunted
The Day the Crayons Quit
Scaredy Squirrel
From the Mixed Up Files of Miss Basil E. Frankweiler
Kickoff
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
Now that we have wrapped up our writing unit on persuasive/opinion writing, we are heading back to focusing on informational writing with an emphasis on researched based writing on a particular topic. We are tying this unit into our science unit on Animal Adaptations. Students will have the opportunity to choose an animal and do research in books and online. They will learn how to take notes, eliminate extraneous information, organize their thinking, and put another writer's words into their own language. I am modeling this lesson using wolves as a subject (as voted on by the class).
We are nearly ready to head to our last science rotation in a week or two. Having finished learning about rocks and minerals, pollution, and matter, students will be heading to Mrs. Grindrod to learn about Animal Adaptations.
In math, we took the end of module assessment for area and began fractions. Everyone did really well on the test on area, which was especially difficult. I am very proud of the kids for their hard work and perseverance. To begin our unit on fractions I gave the class a mini assessment to see where their knowledge base was in order to inform where I would begin teaching. We began with some lessons to re-familiarize ourselves with basic concepts and will move on to learn how to plot fractions on a number line. I have some great hands-on activities and manipulatives that the children will be using to help them with a concept that tends to be intimidating (I know this by all the groans I always get each year when I announce we are about to begin our fractions unit).
It was great to finally have a full week of school! Let spring begin!
Here are the Sweet Sixteen books that will face off in our voting next week:
The One and Only Ivan
The Giving Tree
The Witches
The Hobbit
Arnie the Doughnut
The English Roses
The Yeti Files
Percy Jackson: Lightning Thief
11 Birthdays
Dear Mrs. LaRue
Dear Dumb Diary, My Pants are Haunted
The Day the Crayons Quit
Scaredy Squirrel
From the Mixed Up Files of Miss Basil E. Frankweiler
Kickoff
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
Friday, March 6, 2015
wishful thinking
Just when I thought we'd finally had enough of winter and could settle into an actual 5 day routine at school, we got socked with more delays and cancellations this week. As usual, however, that didn't keep us from getting a lot accomplished in Room 29.
In language arts we continuing to discuss author's message and meaning in text. We read The Honest to Goodness Truth and compared and contrasted the author's message in that story to the message in The Empty Pot. Students also worked in their reading groups on persuasive passages and will begin to design posters promoting the messages from those stories. This ties in nicely with our previous studies of persuasive writing.
In addition, students discussed their favorite books and started to organize their thoughts and write rough drafts of a persuasive letter for March Madness. The aim of the letters is to convince classmates to vote for students' books during the month. Later, we will make posters advertising books to put on display.
In math we wrapped up Module 4 and will be taking the end of module assessment on Tuesday. Our next math unit is on fractions. Parents, please make sure to check out the Parent Survival Guide to Module 5 on Edline. This will help you understand the curriculum's approach to fractions on a number line (likely not the way you learned them)! We should begin this unit by mid-week.
We are looking forward to the Big Reveal on Monday where we find out what our One School, One Book selection is. Please make sure your child reads the designated chapters nightly so they can answer our daily trivia questions for the chance to win prizes!
In language arts we continuing to discuss author's message and meaning in text. We read The Honest to Goodness Truth and compared and contrasted the author's message in that story to the message in The Empty Pot. Students also worked in their reading groups on persuasive passages and will begin to design posters promoting the messages from those stories. This ties in nicely with our previous studies of persuasive writing.
In addition, students discussed their favorite books and started to organize their thoughts and write rough drafts of a persuasive letter for March Madness. The aim of the letters is to convince classmates to vote for students' books during the month. Later, we will make posters advertising books to put on display.
In math we wrapped up Module 4 and will be taking the end of module assessment on Tuesday. Our next math unit is on fractions. Parents, please make sure to check out the Parent Survival Guide to Module 5 on Edline. This will help you understand the curriculum's approach to fractions on a number line (likely not the way you learned them)! We should begin this unit by mid-week.
We are looking forward to the Big Reveal on Monday where we find out what our One School, One Book selection is. Please make sure your child reads the designated chapters nightly so they can answer our daily trivia questions for the chance to win prizes!
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Finally...A Full Week
Well, it had to happen eventually. We had a full week of school! And what a week it was. There are so many exciting learning experiences going on and the kids are super excited about every single one of them.
First, we have begun talking about author's meaning and message in text in language arts. We read The Empty Pot by Demi, formed small literature groups, talked about a central question about the book, and then designed posters representing the responses students had discussed in their groups. In addition to a talented group of students, we also have some amazing artists in this class! The children's responses were thoughtful and their artwork conveyed the beautiful images of China they had seen in the book and beautifully tied in with their responses.
In Writer's Workshop, students worked on honing their final drafts by using a rubric to find areas in their pieces that needed editing and revising. Working with their partners, they found two key areas and re-worked passages to perfection.
In conjunction with Writer's Workshop, we had our March Madness kick off meeting with Ms. B's class. Students learned we would be spending March creating persuasive letters and advertisements of their favorite books, voting each week, and eventually determining the #1 book in our two classrooms! Let the persuasion begin!
We headed into the last leg of our math module on area and hope to take the final test on Friday. Everyone is doing beautifully on this unit. A study guide for the test will go home on Thursday (assuming good weather).
I've posted lots of recent photos of student work on the Edline site, so please take a peek at it. All pictures are are located in the righthand sidebar under their subject areas.
As we were reading The Empty Pot this week and looking at online videos of the book, we started to think, "Hey, we can do this!" So, we've decided to make a YouTube video of Room 29's reading of one of our favorite books. I cannot begin to tell you how excited everyone is about this venture. It's such a great way to integrate the students' love of reading, a great persuasive text from our curriculum, and technology! The class immediately decided on The Day The Crayons Quit. Students will be voicing the roles of the characters in the story and creating illustrations. Mr. Brakeman has generously offered to help us put it all together. Just an FYI, to protect student privacy, no student names or faces will be used in the final production. You will only be able to hear their voices reading the story. As soon as we complete the project, I will send everyone the link.
Our One School, One Book assembly kicks off next week. I wonder what Stepney's book will be?
First, we have begun talking about author's meaning and message in text in language arts. We read The Empty Pot by Demi, formed small literature groups, talked about a central question about the book, and then designed posters representing the responses students had discussed in their groups. In addition to a talented group of students, we also have some amazing artists in this class! The children's responses were thoughtful and their artwork conveyed the beautiful images of China they had seen in the book and beautifully tied in with their responses.
In Writer's Workshop, students worked on honing their final drafts by using a rubric to find areas in their pieces that needed editing and revising. Working with their partners, they found two key areas and re-worked passages to perfection.
In conjunction with Writer's Workshop, we had our March Madness kick off meeting with Ms. B's class. Students learned we would be spending March creating persuasive letters and advertisements of their favorite books, voting each week, and eventually determining the #1 book in our two classrooms! Let the persuasion begin!
We headed into the last leg of our math module on area and hope to take the final test on Friday. Everyone is doing beautifully on this unit. A study guide for the test will go home on Thursday (assuming good weather).
I've posted lots of recent photos of student work on the Edline site, so please take a peek at it. All pictures are are located in the righthand sidebar under their subject areas.
As we were reading The Empty Pot this week and looking at online videos of the book, we started to think, "Hey, we can do this!" So, we've decided to make a YouTube video of Room 29's reading of one of our favorite books. I cannot begin to tell you how excited everyone is about this venture. It's such a great way to integrate the students' love of reading, a great persuasive text from our curriculum, and technology! The class immediately decided on The Day The Crayons Quit. Students will be voicing the roles of the characters in the story and creating illustrations. Mr. Brakeman has generously offered to help us put it all together. Just an FYI, to protect student privacy, no student names or faces will be used in the final production. You will only be able to hear their voices reading the story. As soon as we complete the project, I will send everyone the link.
Our One School, One Book assembly kicks off next week. I wonder what Stepney's book will be?
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Week in Review Times Two
Given that we have hardly been in school the past two weeks, I thought I'd roll the last two weeks in review into one. Prior to our short February break (hasn't the entire month of February been a break??), we were hard at work on a variety of activities which the students picked up with after we returned this week.
In language arts, students paired up to read books about famous African Americans. Each partnership was assigned one person to study. After doing research both with books and on the Internet, the children created posters displaying what they'd learned. Then they presented their posters to the class. Everyone did an amazing job. I was particularly impressed with the clever ways students decided to present their information. For instance, the students studying Oprah Winfrey, put their information inside pictures they had drawn of microphones and TV screens. Children learning about Jackie Robinson, put their interesting facts on the base paths of a baseball diamond. Students studying Muhammad Ali included their information on a picture of a boxing ring. After they had completed their posters and given their oral presentations, students completed a self assessment rubric and graded themselves on content and effort.
In the computer lab, students learned about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in honor of President's Day. Meanwhile, in the library, they learned about reliable websites as they researched fun facts about US presidents and first ladies from the past and present day.
We also talked about Chinese New Year (2015 is the Year of the Ram/Sheep), which began on Thursday. We read about traditions, foods, and parades, printed out our names in Chinese characters, and made red and yellow lanterns to line the hallway outside our classroom.
In Writer's Workshop, we used self assessment rubrics to monitor our work in progress as we finish up our persuasive writing pieces.
Students are enjoying learning about pollution with Ms. Bentgson in science.
We are half way through Math Module 4, learning about area. Students are learning how to determine area when two sides of a shape are know and how to determine a missing side when the entire square footage is given and only one side is known. We should be finished with this unit and moving on to Module 5 very shortly. Everyone has enjoyed using square tiles and pattern blocks to create rectangles that they can measure the area of.
We have some fun and exciting activities coming up in March. Our One School, One Book school-wide challenge will begin in March. Additionally, Ms. B and I will begin our own March Madness unit to count down to the favorite book in our classrooms. More information on this later! Last year the kids had a TON of fun with this activity--and boy did they do a lot of great reading!
Stay Warm!
In language arts, students paired up to read books about famous African Americans. Each partnership was assigned one person to study. After doing research both with books and on the Internet, the children created posters displaying what they'd learned. Then they presented their posters to the class. Everyone did an amazing job. I was particularly impressed with the clever ways students decided to present their information. For instance, the students studying Oprah Winfrey, put their information inside pictures they had drawn of microphones and TV screens. Children learning about Jackie Robinson, put their interesting facts on the base paths of a baseball diamond. Students studying Muhammad Ali included their information on a picture of a boxing ring. After they had completed their posters and given their oral presentations, students completed a self assessment rubric and graded themselves on content and effort.
In the computer lab, students learned about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in honor of President's Day. Meanwhile, in the library, they learned about reliable websites as they researched fun facts about US presidents and first ladies from the past and present day.
We also talked about Chinese New Year (2015 is the Year of the Ram/Sheep), which began on Thursday. We read about traditions, foods, and parades, printed out our names in Chinese characters, and made red and yellow lanterns to line the hallway outside our classroom.
In Writer's Workshop, we used self assessment rubrics to monitor our work in progress as we finish up our persuasive writing pieces.
Students are enjoying learning about pollution with Ms. Bentgson in science.
We are half way through Math Module 4, learning about area. Students are learning how to determine area when two sides of a shape are know and how to determine a missing side when the entire square footage is given and only one side is known. We should be finished with this unit and moving on to Module 5 very shortly. Everyone has enjoyed using square tiles and pattern blocks to create rectangles that they can measure the area of.
We have some fun and exciting activities coming up in March. Our One School, One Book school-wide challenge will begin in March. Additionally, Ms. B and I will begin our own March Madness unit to count down to the favorite book in our classrooms. More information on this later! Last year the kids had a TON of fun with this activity--and boy did they do a lot of great reading!
Stay Warm!
Monday, February 9, 2015
Another Crazy, Short Week
I don't think the kids will ever know what to do with themselves if we actually manage to come to school on a Monday! However, I always find that during the weeks we have the most disjointed schedule due to weather, we somehow manage to get the most done. This week was no exception.
In ELA, we continued to read great books where the author's (or character's) purpose was to persuade. This, of course, ties in with our writing unit on persuasive writing, a type of writing to which our students are pretty new. Nonetheless, they are taking to it really well (being very opinionated 8-9 year olds helps, I think!). We've had scores of lessons both from Learnzillion.com, from books we have read, and PowerPoint presentations. I've provided the kids with graphic organizers, templates, and tools they can use to organize their thinking over the course of this unit.
We just wrapped up our first big assignment, our letter about Martin Luther King. This assignment has given the kids the opportunity to be self-reflective. I provided them with a rubric to follow to check their work and make an honest appraisal of how well they'd done. Then a fellow student filled out the rubric, providing constructive feedback (some of your kids are going to be teachers some day, I think), and finally, I filled in the rubric with my own comments.
We had a great time in math this week. I am really trying to make our Engage New York Common Core lessons as hands-on and fun for the children as possible. Students worked with rosters of the Super Bowl contenders, answering math related questions about them, and then made posters showing their data. As soon as every group is finished, I will have pictures to post on Edline. It's just taking us a bit to finish up given that we haven't been in school that much. Not only did the kids do a great job in their computation, they had fun designing creative ways in which to show their work.
We wrapped up Module 3 in math this week as well. Overall, everyone did a really good job. Our next unit on area began this week, too. The children had fun working with pattern block to discover the area of various shapes.
We took a one minute timed test on multiplication and division this week (our first was in November). Please make sure your child is going on Moby Max Math at least a few times a week even if it is not specifically assigned for homework. Students who go on Moby Max regularly have made dramatic increases in their scores. It really does help!
We celebrated the 100th Day of School this week by seeing what we could do in 100 seconds. Everyone had a great time clapping their hands, saying the ABC's, writing their names, hopping, blinking their eyes, and a whole bunch of other activities. Then we used the information we gathered to do some math problems!
On February 13, we will exchange Valentine's in our classroom. To make the distribution process easier, I ask that students sign their names to their cards but DO NOT put names of recipients on the envelopes. This makes handing them out much easier as children do not have to be wandering around the room trying to find which Valentine belongs where. Also, I have spoken to Mr. Lazar, and he indicated that it is OK for children to attach a "very small" candy to Valentines that can be eaten at home. So, lollipops, etc. would be the best choices. We do have peanut allergies in our classroom, so please be very mindful of that.
This coming week we will begin partner projects to learn more about a famous African American from US history of the present day in honor of Black History Month.
Enjoy your week and STAY WARM!!
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Are you ready for some football?
Room 29 is gearing up for the Super Bowl by doing some fun, educational work with the team rosters of the Seahawks and the Patriots. After breaking up into cooperative groups, students were given a list of questions to answer relating to the team rosters. The questions required them to put their math skills to the test as they added and subtracted players weights and other statistical information. Of course, the children were also required to work together and create strategies to make the more complicated problems more manageable. After completing all the questions, each group made a Super Bowl poster displaying their work.
Despite barely being in school because of early dismissals, delayed openings, and snow days, we still managed to get a lot accomplished. In math, we wrapped up Module 3 by learning some strategies to use to multiply by 10s. Next week we will take our end of module assessment (please be on the lookout for the review sheet to come home--probably Tuesday barring any more crazy weather events) and begin a new module. Parents, guides to each module can be found on our classroom Edline site in the right hand sidebar. These can help you better understand the strategies we are using for each unit and how to help your child with his/her homework if necessary.
In Writer's Workshop students are learning to work closely with the anchor charts in our room to help them monitor their work in progress. I have taken photos of all the charts and printed them out for the kids to put in their notebooks to make them more accessible. This past week, students worked on a persuasive writing essay about Martin Luther King Jr.
We also read another story about Snowflake Bentley and did some writing about his impact on the world of science.
Students got their first taste of their science unit on pollution with Ms. Bengtson on Friday. They will continue to go to her room for science for the next 6 weeks. Ms. B does a lot of fun experiments in her room, so I know our students will have a great time with her.
Enjoy Super Bowl Weekend! All the kids know who I want to win!!!
Despite barely being in school because of early dismissals, delayed openings, and snow days, we still managed to get a lot accomplished. In math, we wrapped up Module 3 by learning some strategies to use to multiply by 10s. Next week we will take our end of module assessment (please be on the lookout for the review sheet to come home--probably Tuesday barring any more crazy weather events) and begin a new module. Parents, guides to each module can be found on our classroom Edline site in the right hand sidebar. These can help you better understand the strategies we are using for each unit and how to help your child with his/her homework if necessary.
In Writer's Workshop students are learning to work closely with the anchor charts in our room to help them monitor their work in progress. I have taken photos of all the charts and printed them out for the kids to put in their notebooks to make them more accessible. This past week, students worked on a persuasive writing essay about Martin Luther King Jr.
We also read another story about Snowflake Bentley and did some writing about his impact on the world of science.
Students got their first taste of their science unit on pollution with Ms. Bengtson on Friday. They will continue to go to her room for science for the next 6 weeks. Ms. B does a lot of fun experiments in her room, so I know our students will have a great time with her.
Enjoy Super Bowl Weekend! All the kids know who I want to win!!!
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