I am back in the classroom as usual this week. Thank you to Mrs. Stech for her hard work during her takeover weeks!
This week we will focus our whole group reading sessions on character traits. Students will be responsible for identifying personality traits of characters and also identifying text evidence to support their opinions. We will be discussing this concept as well as creating written responses. Students will be using their opinion writing paragraph template using a topic sentence two reasons with supporting evidence and a closing sentence. Our text connection for the week will be Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.
In writing we will be starting a new theme of outdoor fun. Students will write to a vareity of genre under this theme. This week we will be working on a personal narrative about a fun outdoor experience. Students are now required to write their narratives using all components of the writing diamond. These include an entertaining beginning, descriptive setting, fully developed main event and an extended ending. We will also be learning about Haiku poetry and alphabetical order to the third and fourth letter.
In math, we continue with Unit 10. This week our lessons will focus on place value to the ten thousands and grouping with parentheses. We will assess unit 10 early next week.
We have a special presentation by the Acton Discovery Museum Wednesday on the different states of matter. They will be visiting our classroom with a variety of different experiments. We will also review the core concepts and vocabulary of our unit and will have our assessment next Monday. Study cards will be coming home this week to help prepare. I will also send home an electronic copy of the PowerPoint presentation showed in class to help review as well.
Have a great week!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
4.22.13
Just a reminder, Mrs. Stech will continue to assume full classroom responsibilities this week. Next week, I will be back in the classroom as usual! Please see the note about this week's activities from Mrs. Stech below.
This week in writing, the students will compose their own
haiku and acrostic poems about science. They will also apply their knowledge of
math to science by collecting data and making glyphs for the class bulletin
board. In addition, the States of Matter Project will be added to the bulletin
board as the students complete them. Through experiments, the students will
also observe chemical as well as physical changes to matter.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Weekly Update: 4.8.13: A Note from Mrs. Stech
This will be a busy week for the students. April Jones, a local author, visited the students and shared some of her books. The students will learn firsthand what it takes to be a good writer. In addition, on Friday, the students will have an opportunity to see “Charlotte’s Web” at Mechanic’s Hall.
The students are learning how to write a persuasive paragraph. They are reading about the language used in persuasive writing. The students are also learning to back up their opinions with reasons and examples, as they share their point of views on different topics.
We have begun our Science unit on the three states of matter. They have discovered that matter is everywhere around us and is anything that takes up space. Through music and movement, the students will learn how energy affects the different states. The students will be making posters to illustrate the different states. They will also be contributing to our bulletin board in the hallway. In order to do this, however, the students will need pictures to cut out and sort into the different states of matter. If you have any magazines you could donate to the class for this purpose, it would be greatly appreciated if you can send them in this week.
Thank you, Mrs. Stech.
The students are learning how to write a persuasive paragraph. They are reading about the language used in persuasive writing. The students are also learning to back up their opinions with reasons and examples, as they share their point of views on different topics.
We have begun our Science unit on the three states of matter. They have discovered that matter is everywhere around us and is anything that takes up space. Through music and movement, the students will learn how energy affects the different states. The students will be making posters to illustrate the different states. They will also be contributing to our bulletin board in the hallway. In order to do this, however, the students will need pictures to cut out and sort into the different states of matter. If you have any magazines you could donate to the class for this purpose, it would be greatly appreciated if you can send them in this week.
Thank you, Mrs. Stech.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Weekly Update 4.1.13
This week, we will shift gears into a new comprehension strategy. Our focus strategy will be inferring. Inferring is when reader's draw conclusions from text. Readers take the information from the text and merge it with their schema, or prior knowledge, to draw a conclusion. This week our text connection is the story What Mary Jo Shared. Students will be discussing inferences as well as listening to "think alouds" in order to understand the metacognitive process that occurs when readers make inferences. Students will also begin to identify text evidence to support their inferences. Guided reading groups will be finishing up their non-fiction material this week before moving on to new fiction stories next week.
In writing, we are wrapping up the publishing process for our Trimester Two stories. The publishing process has been very helpful as students have learned more about revising, editing and conferring. They have learned how to accept feedback, offer feedback to others, identify areas for improvement and set a plan on how to improve their work. We continue to work on opinion writing in our reading response journals as we write about texts and focus on finding text evidence to support the main opinion in these pieces.
In math, we will conclude Unit 9 this week and have our assessment on Tuesday. The rest of the week will be spent reviewing secure second grade skills in small groups for both review and enrichment opportunities. These secure skills include subtraction with regrouping, word problems, as well as telling time and elapsed time.
We will be discussing timelines in social studies this week. We will begin by defining timelines and creating timelines of important personal events. We will then take a look at timelines that show information from important dates in history.
Just a reminder, Mrs. Stech, our student teacher, will be taking over the class starting on Monday. She will be in charge of planning and delivering instruction for all academic areas and will be running the classroom all week long. I will be in the building all day as well and will be available if needed. As always, I am available on email throughout the day for questions, concerns and any dismissal/attendance notifications!
Upcoming Dates:
Tuesday April 9: Early Dismissal for Students
Friday April 12: Field Trip to Mechanics Hall 12:30 showing of Charlotte's Web
Friday April 12: Spring Vacation Begins
In writing, we are wrapping up the publishing process for our Trimester Two stories. The publishing process has been very helpful as students have learned more about revising, editing and conferring. They have learned how to accept feedback, offer feedback to others, identify areas for improvement and set a plan on how to improve their work. We continue to work on opinion writing in our reading response journals as we write about texts and focus on finding text evidence to support the main opinion in these pieces.
In math, we will conclude Unit 9 this week and have our assessment on Tuesday. The rest of the week will be spent reviewing secure second grade skills in small groups for both review and enrichment opportunities. These secure skills include subtraction with regrouping, word problems, as well as telling time and elapsed time.
We will be discussing timelines in social studies this week. We will begin by defining timelines and creating timelines of important personal events. We will then take a look at timelines that show information from important dates in history.
Just a reminder, Mrs. Stech, our student teacher, will be taking over the class starting on Monday. She will be in charge of planning and delivering instruction for all academic areas and will be running the classroom all week long. I will be in the building all day as well and will be available if needed. As always, I am available on email throughout the day for questions, concerns and any dismissal/attendance notifications!
Upcoming Dates:
Tuesday April 9: Early Dismissal for Students
Friday April 12: Field Trip to Mechanics Hall 12:30 showing of Charlotte's Web
Friday April 12: Spring Vacation Begins
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