We are almost to the end of January and this month has flown by! Everyone has been having so much fun learning this week! During the week, we talked about starting a Monday recess club during our second recess. Sometimes it is hard to make friends out on the playground or sometimes the playground gets too crazy so some students have asked to stay in during recess. Together our class talked about things they want to do during the recess club and many students surprised me by saying they want to learn how to bake some things! On Tuesday, students can stay in from second recess to learn how to bake cookies! We will measure out the ingredients and talk about how baking is a science! The next recess club students can choose to color a picture or do puzzles. Hopefully the recess club will allow students to form stronger relationships with one another that can then transfer to the playground!
Writing: This week students focused on editing their writing. Each student looked for their “mess ups” and tried to fix them to enhance their writing. Students also made sure they are putting important facts in their story so their readers can learn something. Some students shared their stories so we could learn all about their topic. One student wrote about T-Rex’s and each time we learned something we gave a thumbs up! It was fun to learn from our classmates! Next week we will start writing our own chapter books! Reading: Our class have become better readers this week! Together we talked about how important it is to never give up on hard words. Instead, we focused on using different strategies to help learn new words. We even used the example of made up words in our read aloud The BFG! Some students even pointed out how I have to use reading strategies for some larger words and made up words. Together we practiced using different reading strategies with a partner. Everyone kept trying new strategies and learned new words. Some students even came up to me during quiet reading to tell me which new words they just read! Math: We have continued learning about measurement in math this week. Many students came into this unit knowing about measurement already and were able to use things they have already learned before to help them. Together we measured different objects around the classroom with centimeter cubes. Using centimeter cubes as our measuring unit, most students were able to make a statement about their object such as “The marker is 6 centimeter cubes long.” Next week we will be comparing the different measurement lengths and using them to make number sentences. Social Studies: This week we have started to wrap up our study of the world. Our class had a blast travelling all over the world seeing the different kind of houses, buildings, plant life, and even animals! We finished off our unit by creating different art pieces from around the world and read a book about how our skin colors can give us an idea of where our ancestors are from! Next we will start learning new things about magnets and motion in science! If you want to participate in STEM Night don’t forget to submit your forms! We will be having our Friendship Celebration on February 14th from 2:30-3:30! Please feel free to come join and help out during our celebration! I have also sent home a class list of names if students wanted to make or bring in gifts for their classmates. Please make sure to bring one for each student if you plan on bringing some! Have a great weekend! Spelling words this week: plate, grate, late, flake, make, and rake. Happy Friday! This weekend is a 3 day weekend in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr Day so there is NO SCHOOL on Monday! I hope you all have more time for relaxing, playing, and other fun activities! We had so much fun finishing this week with our PJ and Cupcake party. Even with all the excitement of this week we still learned so many new things!
Writing: Many students finished their first non-fiction writing piece! Students read their stories to their writing partner and shared with table groups. I am excited to read some stories about the Rain Forest, Baking, Minecraft, and many other topics! This week our class focused on spelling fancy words that come up when writing non-fiction stories. We practiced saying the word slowly, thinking about what letters we hear, thought about the vowels in the word, and then spelled it bit by bit. Many students were able to be brave and write some fancy words! Reading: This week our class continued reading with their good reading habits and practiced solving tricky words. We learned new strategies like thinking about what word would come next and thinking about what is happening in the story. After using these strategies, we asked ourselves if the word we chose made sense, if it sounded right, and if it looked right. Many students were able to read new words like beetle, lunch, and dirty. We also completed our second spelling tests! Everyone is getting better at spelling! Next week our spelling words will be: brush, truck, grape, crayon, price, and drive. Math: Our class completed module 2 in math and finished their end of module assessments. Glancing across the assessments I can see that each student has developed math strategies and can apply them to new problems! We started module 3 and began learning about measurement. So far we have compared the lengths of objects and used vocabulary such as longer than, shorter than, and equal in length as. We have been having a lot of fun measuring different things around the classroom! Social Studies: We continued travelling around the world and learned some specific holidays, traditions, and history of different countries and continents. After learning about Chinese New Year, we created our own Chinese lanterns to hang in our classroom! We also learned about aboriginal dot art from Australia and created our own aboriginal art pieces! This unit has been so much fun! STEM: I gave each table group a challenge on Wednesday! Using only one piece of paper, one piece of aluminum foil, four straws, and one strip of tape, each table group had to make their boats to float on water! Each group collaborated and communicated while building their boat and each one was able to float! Family STEM Night is fast approaching and we are getting excited to share a wonderful variety of engineering activities, including Flying Contraptions from the Museum of Flight. Your family will work as a team on many STEM challenges. Come prepared to learn a trick or two from your child and perhaps they’ll learn something from you too as you work to solve hands-on problems together. The evening starts at 6pm and you’ll want to be at Maple Hills right on time to have enough time to fit in all the activities. Science Fair Projects will also be on display in the hallways. Maple Hills teachers are looking forward to seeing you and your family on Friday, March 8th, 6pm-7:30pm, at the Family STEM Night. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the extra rest! This week was filled with excitement and flexibility as we began the week with a 2-hour delay thanks to the windstorm! I hope this weekend will be more restful and we all come back prepared for the new week!
Friday morning I attended a professional development course to continue building our math teaching practice. It was great to learn some new strategies and techniques that I am excited to add to our lessons! Next week our spelling words are: swim, smart, street, string, splash, and spring. Please practice writing these words at home if you have time! Writing: During our writing this week took a closer look on how to make informational stories. Together we brainstormed topics we can teach others about such as how to walk your dog, zip up your jacket, or making a pizza! Our class has loved this new unit and are excited to keep writing new informational stories. We finished the week by writing an informational piece about our favorite ice cream flavor and what makes it so good! Some the details made my mouth water! Reading: We continued being the BOSS of our reading this week and strategically used good reading habits to help us solve tricky words. Each student used more and more strategies to help learn new words. Many students were surprised at how many new words they were able to read! Next week we will continue to grow as readers! Math: This week we continued our practice of RDW and added an additional challenge: story problems! We highlighted the key parts in the story problem and then drew a picture with labels, made a number sentence, and then wrote a statement. We also started to solve difficult math equations using a two-step method. For example, in the problem 7+8=__ we take 2 from the 7 and make the 8 a 10 (2+8=10). Then we take the 10 and add the remaining 5 from the 7 to make an easier equation, 10+5=15. Students then note that 7+8=15 and 10+5=15. We will continue practicing this new strategy next week. Social Studies: We traveled to Asia and Australia this week in social studies! We took a walk on the Great Wall of China, visited the Taj Mahal, swam in the Great Barrier Reef, and visited Fiji! Our class has had so much fun seeing other parts of the world and learning about their cultures! We even talked about the Arctic, which is neither a continent nor country. To celebrate the forgotten Arctic, we created our own polar bears! Next Friday is Popcorn Friday! Don’t forget your quarters! It was so nice to see smiling faces return from break! Even with the short week, each student learned new things, worked hard, and even had some fun in between! I hope the weekend will provide some well-deserved rest for everyone!
Writing: This week during writing we started our new unit: Information Writing. During this unit, students will be picking topics to write about for their classmates. Using all the skills they have learned from our Narrative Unit, students will write texts informing others about their topics in detail using correct structure, development, and conventions. Each student wrote their first information text during our On Demand writing. I was so impressed that many already knew how to write an informative text! Reading: We rang in the New Year by switching the books in our book boxes and rearranging our library. Each student was excited to change books and start reading! During our lessons, we have started being the BOSS of our reading by stopping at the first sign of trouble, trying something to figure it out, and then keep trying when we are still stuck. Students used their Good Reading Habits to solve tricky words when they got stuck in their books. Math: During math this week we learned a new strategy to help solve story problems. Together we learned about our acronym: RDW. Using RDW, students were able to read the story problem, draw a picture with labels, and write a number sentence and statement that matches the story. We will continue building this skill next week! Social Studies: Our class travelled to Africa this week! We saw the Great Pyramids in Egypt, saw restaurants in Madagascar, visited a volcano in Ethiopia, and penguins down in South Africa! Our class is having so much fun visiting the different continents around the world and seeing how people live. Next week we will be travelling to Europe! I hope you all had a wonderful winter break and enjoy a relaxing weekend at home! |