Boy are we busy!

Although it has been over a month since we've had a full week of school, I feel that students are right on track and have kept most of their reading stamina and knowledge, as well as their math understanding.  Thank you to parents for continuing all of our hard work at home over the break and on snow days!

Fun times and projects:

 

You know you've worked on something fun when you have grody fingers! 

           

     

       





 

Social Studies:
Students are taking all that they know about the United States and using it to understand the American Indians.  So far, they have spent time with me learning about the Lakota tribe.  They learned about the Lakota tribe through videos and pictures.  They have learned that the Lakota tribe lived in the Plains, near Wyoming and the Dakotas.  Buffalo was the main food for the Lakota people.  The Lakota tribe lived in tepees because they were easy to take down and move to a new location because they followed the buffalo!  They are finishing their time learning about the Pueblo tribe with Mrs. Hartman.  The Pueblo tribe was located in the Southwest.  They used the mud and warm sun to create clay pots.  Check your child's backpack for their beautiful pots.  Next week, students will go to Mr. Foreman to learn about the Powhatan tribe.  By the end of the unit, students will know the difference between the three tribes in the areas of location, food, shelter, and transportation.

         

Ways to help at home:
- Find books or videos on the American Indians.  Make a tepee (when Bree was in 2nd grade, she begged us to make a tepee!) or pick berries in the wild.  This summer, grow beans (a popular crop of the Powhatan tribe) or maize (aka corn!). 


Word Study:
Students continue to sort their words with me.  We spend a great deal of time talking about the sort and the reason we drop an e then add an ending or double a letter before adding an ending.  They have enjoyed writing their sort alphabetically!


Writing/Skills:
Students are writing stories, letters, notes, and even poems!  Most students enjoy writing time.  We have completed our stories to Henley Middle School's drama department.  They will turn them into plays, which we will watch in March-ish! 

We are currently working on alphabetizing.  Students began with a review of the alphabet.  We then visualized walking into a doctor's office and saying "Hi.  My name is Darci Palmer and I am here to see the doctor.  Can you find my file?"  Students realized they don't just throw the files into the cabinet, but keep all the files organized in alphabetical order.  Students learned how to organize words by the first letter, then we talked about what happens if the first letter is the same...you go to the second letter.  This seemed to come naturally to most students. 

     

Ways to help at home:
- Give your child a simple picture and ask them to describe it using lots of details.
- Look around the room and name 5 objects, then put them in alphabetical order!


Reading:
Last week, I introduced students to different roles in which they are responsible for completing and bringing with them to use as our reading group conversation.  Some students are the visualizer (draw a picture of what we read that day), word detective (use dictionaries to define challenging or interesting words), relater (connect what we read to something that has happened in their life or in another book), profiler (describe the character), highlighter (reading a part of the book which was most interesting to them), or the question maker (writing a few "I wonder..." questions to spark a conversation).  We also began reading our reading group books with a partner.  They have to sit properly and follow along with the reader.  They love it!

         

Ways to help at home:
- As always, continue to have your child read between 20-30 minutes per day.
- Make reading fun and interesting.  Write a script with your child then act it out.  Use great prosody (expression and intonation)! 

Math:
Students continue to grow as mathematicians!  Students are solving problems using pictures, numbers, and even words.  I have introduced them to many different strategies and students have been able to explore them and then determine which strategy is right for them at that time.

To make sure students are gaining an understanding of the concept of adding numbers, we play games.  Students are able to add and subtract by ones, fives, and tens in these games.

We are currently working on problems with a sum of up to 100, and in the next few weeks we will get to the point where the two addends are in the hundreds with a sum up to 500.

Lastly, we have computers on Friday afternoons in which we spend time on Reflex and ST Math.  Most students are making great progress, but the concept of adding is building throughout each level they play on ST Math.  Continue to allow your child to work on ST Math and Reflex at home, which will greatly build their number sense and their fact fluency!

 

           
  
Ways to help at home:
- Ask your child to show you how to solve a problem a few different ways!