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
Friday, March 13, 2015
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?
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