Here's a quick summary of what we are working on / learning about:
Writing Workshop: We are mid-way through our first unit of study on writing realistic fiction. Most students are about half done with drafting their stories, and our core work each day is focusing on skills such as using the right word for said to convey tone and emotion, using the right action verb to help readers visualize movement, choosing powerful words and creative language to help our stories come to life, and how to use action, dialogue, or describe the setting to write the lead (beginning). Bailey reminded our class today about how they learned last year in third grade to be storytellers, not reporters, as they draft. Great advice!
Spelling: The students have shared that they really like using Spelling City, so we will continue with that plan for our assessing and providing options for practicing weekly words at home (don't forget that students can log in to this website at home to play games to practice weekly words!). Each week when I introduce our new list to the class, we spend time working with the root and the meanings of each word. I love how using these roots and affixes also promote such rich language and vocabulary development. May of our words this week were chosen because of our science and math units, but in our discussion we found many other applications for them...including the context of the Captain America movie. LOL! I have shared with students that this weekly list is not the only source I will base their grades on. The standards call for students to spell and understand roots and affixes, but they also call for students to spell accurately in their writing. This application will bear more weight as we begin looking at progress reports during November.
Reading: We are still working our way through Because of Winn-Dixie and hope to wrap up within the next two weeks. After completing this novel study we will begin implementing our routines for small group reading.
Math: Our current unit is from Engage New York and has plunged us into the world of geometry and measurement as we work with lines and angles. Students have learned to identify different kinds of angles, use both full and half circle protractors to measure angles, and are currently working on figuring out the measures of unidentified angles using the measures of neighboring angles (I hope that made sense...describing in words vs. showing an example is tough!). We have even been writing equations using variables! These guys are going to be SO smart by the time we're done...I don't remember writing variables until my seventh grade pre-algebra class!!!
Science: After two units in social studies we have switched over to our Land and Water unit in science. We will complete a variety of experiments to study how land and water affect one another. So far we have created a model of the water cycle and observed how rain affects exposed soil. Can you say washout?!
Fantasy Project: Three weeks ago I had students check out a fantasy book from the library for a book study, and at that time we determined that most of us might need a month instead of two weeks to finish reading. That month will be here next week! As I've shared with the students, we will be creating book trailers for our fantasy books using a website called Animoto. If you have experience with this site and would like to begin working at home please let me know. I will forward a few examples for you to see before you and your student begin!
Book Studies: Your student may or may not have shared that I fell out of love with the book study projects that I was creating and am in the process of developing a new plan. I will be launching a class book club call the Page Turners Club! I am still in the process of working out details, but I do know that we will have a monthly book club meeting, very likely on Fridays or before long weekends. During these meetings I will be looking for volunteers to come in to lead a discussion group and help facilitate a craft or activity. There will, of course, be treats involved. Volunteers are welcome to come for one or all meetings and can be a parent, grandparent, etc. My mom and Mrs. Syvertson have already volunteered. We are all very pumped!!!
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