Update 2/16

The kids had a great time celebrating our 100th Day of School and Pajama Day on February 13h!!  Wednesday was our class Valentine's Party.  It was fun to see the kids giving and receiving Valentine's cards.  We are very grateful to AmyJo Koser and Ruthanne Madsen for all of their work coordinating our classroom parties this year!  

We have been enjoying our time in Asia and learning about the geography of the biggest continent of the World. We also spent time reading about Japan and learning about their culture. After vacation we look forward to teaching the children about Children's Day and how the people in Japan fly carp kites to celebrate. We are even going to make our own carp kites! We will also spend some time writing Haiku poems, which is a type of poem that originated in Japan.

The students ability to write opinion pieces is continuing to strengthen. After putting the final touches on our restaurant reviews, the children are now writing other reviews.  This time they got to pick the topic they would like to write an opinion piece about. Some children have chosen to review a game, toy, place, famous person, pet, or sport. We also reviewed how to use a revision checklist.  Many of their revised pieces will be included in their Writing Portfolios that they will be bringing home to share with you at the end of the year.

In math, the children have been introduced to various diagrams to help them organize their mathematical thinking in order to solve addition and subtraction problems. The diagrams we discussed were: Total and Part Diagrams, Change Diagrams, and Comparison Diagrams. The children used their knowledge to decide what diagram worked best for various word problems. We also spent some time discussing Ballpark Estimates and Strategies for Adding 2 and 3-Digit Numbers (including Partial Sums).  It is a lot of information at once, but our hope is that at least 1 or 2 of the strategies will stick with the children as they move forward.  Today was our Unit 6 Assessment.

During Guided Reading, we have read a variety of fictional texts. After reading the stories, we focused on 2 essential questions. The first being "What do you think was the most important event in the story? And Why? The second being "What do you think the author was trying to tell you in this story? These questions require the children to interpret and reflect on their reading. Next week I plan to begin checking in with each child and doing a DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) in order to get ready for the end of Term 2 and to adjust reading groups as necessary. I can't wait to share your child's reading growth with you at our next conference in March.

Upcoming Events:

February Vacation- February 17th-25th 

I hope you have a fun and relaxing February Vacation!