Our annual Read-A-Thon was a huge success! Our day included several mystery readers, including Mr. Melamed, Mrs. Pickens, Mrs. Singer, Mrs. Boyack, and Mrs. Kissner. We were also able to read poetry to Lambeau, a therapy dog. Our day ended when our book buddies surprised us! The day was full of reading fun.
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To wrap up our character analysis unit, we read picture books in small groups and used evidence in the book to infer a character trait. Picture books are great ways to learn about character traits. In our small groups, we took turns reading aloud which also helps us to improve our reading fluency and reading with expression. Currently, we are studying about the Northeast region. We have learned about the landforms of the Northeast region, and that the Appalachian Mountains are a very old set of mountains, therefore their peaks are not sharp. To take the discussion further, we performed a lab titled, "Will a mountain last forever?". Students used their iPads and Mystery Science to learn more about weathering and erosion, and then performed a lab using sugar cubes, plastic containers, markers, and a whole lot of muscle. We learned that mountains will not last forever, because over time erosion and weathering causes the mountains to break apart and change. Check out pictures from our lab below. I can't believe we are nearing the end of trimester 1 already! What a great start to the year. Below are some of the things we are learning about:
Reading: We are beginning to learn about character traits and are doing character analysis. We just finished writing a book summary and review for our first read aloud, Flutter. Writing: Throughout the year, we've written many different types of writing. We've focused heavily on narratives, and will begin to focus on informational writing next. Social Studies: We just started learning about the Northeast region. We will study the geography, culture, landmarks, and history of the area. Math: Currently, we are multiplying multi-digit numbers by 1 digit factors. We have learned many strategies and models to help us solve these problems. Technology: I'm blown away at how well students have adapted to using technology in the classroom. We've explored many different apps and even created YouTube videos promoting our Flutter book summary and review. Thank you for your continued support! To kick-off our unit on scientific inquiry, students were given a bag of pennies and were told to take some time to look at the pennies and come up with questions. Students then used the app Padlet to record the questions on a class notepad. After we recorded questions, as a class, we went through the different questions and determined which were testable. Finally, we came up with the question, what solution makes pennies clean? Students then came up with different topics to research, ranging from what are pennies made of to how do solutions work and which solutions work best. As a class, we then decided on what solutions to try and how we would actually test it out. The solutions ranged from ketchup to sparkling water. Students were responsible for measuring the solutions using measuring cups, and then observing and reporting their team's results. The results are in... It was so much fun to watch the kids come up with different questions and to see the amazement in their eyes as they tried out different solutions. The iPads were handy to take pictures and to record the actual process. After we finished the experiment, students tried new things and tested out new questions that they came up with during the lab. We learned that scientific inquiry is ongoing and the process never stops. We had a FABULOUS time at our classroom Halloween Party. Thank you to Mrs. Eckenstahler, Mrs. Whaples, Mrs. Sagubadi, and Mrs. Kissner for planning and executing a fun Halloween Party. The kids had so much fun...without any food! This party was definitely in the top 5 for best classroom Halloween Party! We are so excited to be an iPad 1-1 classroom this year. To kick off the year using iPad, students learned about being digital citizens. A digital citizen is someone who uses technology and the internet in a responsible, respectful, and appropriate way. Students will have access to the Internet, and I wanted to teach them the importance of being safe in the online community. We vowed that when we are online we will...
To help reinforce main idea and supporting details, students created main idea bags. To do this, students first decided what they wanted their bag's main idea to be about. Students were able to choose anything. Then, students needed to find or draw 3 to 4 objects that would be details to the bag's main idea. We learned that the main idea, or what the text is mostly about, must have supporting detail sentences. It's similar to the palm of your hand. The palm of your hand is the main idea, and the fingers extending out are supporting details. You need both parts to accomplish things. Students were super creative and had a lot of fun trying to figure out classmates main idea bags. Check out the pictures below. I am attaching our weekly spelling assignments with directions to all of the assignments. Please refer to the attached document if there are questions regarding spelling. In writing, we have been working on completing a personal narrative. Students were taken through the writing process to complete the writing. Students began at the pre-writing stage. During pre-writing, students were asked to brainstorm six different things they did over the summer. Students did this on a sheet of paper, and included a pictures with each idea. Then, students looked at their list and picked the thing they did that they were most excited about. After that, we went through the rest of the writing process to write a four paragraph essay. In our introductory paragraphs, students had to come up with an inviting lead to 'hook' our readers, and in our concluding paragraph, students had to share their final thoughts/feelings about their summer event.
To incorporate technology, students used their iPads to take Selfies. After students took the Selfies, they saved it to their Google Drive and then shared it with me. From there I printed them. Students also explained the different components to our project (writing, sunglass illustration, and Selfie), and incorporated our Common Core learning standards into the explanation. Students wrote scripts to explain the components, and then recorded them on the computer. The recording was changed into a QR Code, and students used their QR Readers to listen to the explanations. Please check out the awesome pictures below showcasing our personal narratives, and if you get a chance, come up to Room 812 to check them out in person. |
AuthorI graduated in 2007 from Carthage College with a Business and Marketing Major and in 2010 from the University of Phoenix with a Master's in Elementary Education. Archives
May 2017
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