ELA
The focus of our spelling this week was short e words and words from the -et and -en word families. Children are starting to write more detailed and interesting sentences for their spelling word home work. Using adjectives is a great start to making more colourful sentences.
In Readers' Workshop we practiced building stamina and staying focused while reading. Students learnt that if they are distracted or disrupted during their reading that they should refocus by rereading the last part they just read. They also learnt that by rereading the whole book again with a story teller voice can make the story more interesting and fun for themselves and other listeners. I read The Chick and the Duckling first in a monotone, robotic or " "race car" voice and everyone agreed that the second reading using a storyteller voice was much more enjoyable to listen to. Rereading a book is also a way to learn something new from a book that you may have missed the first time, either from the words or the pictures. I have noticed that as the student's confidence has increased I'm hearing more stories (on Raz Kids and in the class) being read with more enthusiasm. We will continue to work on using a story teller voice throughout the year. Students practiced rereading with their reading buddy.
In Writing we focused on the first two steps of the Writing Process. Children learned first to "prewrite" where they made a list of topics they may like to write about, settled on one topic, made a story map/word web and drew a rough picture of their idea. The following day they ordered their ideas and started writing their rough draft. In the drafting phase students are not using erasers and not worrying about making mistakes with spelling but rather focusing on getting their ideas down. During the edit process students will use editing and proofreading marks to correct their own work. You will see several of these marks in the corrections I use for the Spelling sentences.
This week we looked at ways to add by counting on from the greater number, using number lines, fact families and by using number bonds. Children were also introduced to addition stories and real world problems that required them to get information from pictures to write small stories. Children enjoyed playing an addition card game with a partner. Students wrote addition sentences into their math journal to match the cards they were using to play the game.
This week saw us finishing Unit 1- How Scientists Work. In order to assess how students have understood the concepts of senses, inquiry skills and planning investigations we presented students with unseen objects in paper bags. Students had to write down educated guesses using sensory clues given by the teacher as to what they thought could be in the bags. We also reviewed the steps of planning an investigation. Students worked in their table groups to try to come up with ideas about how to work through the steps of an investigation.
We discussed the need for rules at school and laws in the community. Students have been practicing a simple song about following the rules at school. We also looked at what it is to be a leader and who our leaders at home, school and in the community are. The role of leaders include deciding what to do, making rules and keeping people safe.
Previously we had talked about how we could be a good citizen in the community by following rules, helping others and by keeping the community clean. We put this into practice with Eco Patrol on the University campus. Students paired up and used tongs to pick up trash and were surprised how much we picked up!
Larissa