Newsletter May 9- 20th

Volunteer Schedule for May
 

 

In Reader's Workshop we are continuing to learn all about Fluency. Good Readers know that fluency helps their audience understand the story (mood, character, conversation) and it helps the reader understand the story (if children are having to work very hard to read and it is choppy then they're comprehension is negatively impacted).

Fluency is reading:

• smoothly (words are connected, they flow instead of 1 at a time)
• accurately
• with good pace (changing depending on the mood of the text)
• with expression (teacher voice!) 

We will wrap this unit up with a performance of a Readers Theater- in which the kids will have an assigned role and perform their most fluent reading for an audience. I can't wait!

 
The list is always on my website:

May 12+	We are "officially" finished with spelling at this point, however we will continue to review for children who have struggled with spelling throughout the year.

In Writers' Workshop we have wrapped up "How-To" writing, now formally known as Instructional Writing. We are now reviewing all 3 genres of writing we have learned this year:
Narrative- Story Telling
Informational (formerly expository)- How To & Expert Writing
Argument (formerly persuasive)- Book Reviews and persuasive letters

Unit 5: Geometry (2D shapes only)
This unit helps students review and reinforce 2 dimensional shapes.
Students are working on these standards (ask them what the G stands for!):

Reason with shapes and their attributes.

• CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.1 (1.G.1) Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes.
• CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.2 (1.G.2) Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.

• CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.3 (1.G.3) Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.
  
  
  Students seem to really enjoy "composing" (a fancy word for creating) new shapes using familiar shapes. We've used our pattern blocks as well as a geoboard app that is free and I highly recommend! They are also doing a wonderful job playing "What am I" where they listen to clues about a shapes sides and vertices (a fancy word for corners) to pick which shapes is the mystery shape. The only one they are really struggling with is the trapezoid!
   

 Next up we will move to the third standard which focuses on "partitioning" (a fancy word for breaking into equal parts... aka fractions) circles and rectangles into "halves" and "fourths/ quarters". I just know they will all be experts! 
You can help them by using their new words at home and reviewing the shapes.

 

 

Newsletter April 28- May 9

Volunteer Schedule for May
 

 

In Reader's Workshop we have been learning all about Fluency. Good Readers know that fluency helps their audience understand the story (mood, character, conversation) and it helps the reader understand the story (if children are having to work very hard to read and it is choppy then they're comprehension is negatively impacted).

Fluency is reading:

• smoothly (words are connected, they flow instead of 1 at a time)
• accurately
• with good pace (changing depending on the mood of the text)
• with expression (teacher voice!) 

We will wrap this unit up with a performance of a Readers Theater- in which the kids will have an assigned role and perform their most fluent reading for an audience. I can't wait!

 
The list is always on my website:

April 28 - May 2	New: by, may, just, work, after Practice Review:  once, over, rain, walk, house Practice
May 4- 9	New: open, round, behind, live, know Practice Review: by, may, just, work, after Practice
May 12+	We are "officially" finished with spelling at this point, however we will continue to review for children who have struggled with spelling throughout the year.

As always please visit the kidblog to see your child's work and give them some feedback! 

• The password is "2013/14". 

• Just be sure to sign your comments with who you are, you can just say _____'s Mom/ Dad, so the kids know who you are.

In Writers' Workshop we have been working on "How-To" writing, now formally known as Instructional Writing. This unit will help children learn to share directions to complete a task in an orderly way. 
Like all other expository writing we will learn "How-To" writing begins with an opening topic sentence, has details (steps), and ends with a closing sentence.
Some examples of things children have written about include how to:

• Brush your teeth
• Make a friend
• Plant a flower
• Play a game
• Do a chore

You can help your child at home by talking about things they do regularly but may not think of as a topic. Just make sure you help them review the steps in order and encourage them to use them during Writers Workshop!

Unit 4: Addition and Subtraction to 100
This unit relies heavily on our knowledge of place value (tens and ones) and what those number represent because of their location (tens place vs. ones place means the number 3 can mean 3 or 30!). Please, please, please continue talking to your child about numbers and their values :)

 

We have learned to put all that we learned about addition and subtraction to work in order to add and subtract numbers with tens and ones. While we will use the term "regrouping", we do NOT teach children to "carry" a ten or to do equations without manipulatives. It is imperative that they learn what is happening when numbers are being exchanged by building and breaking tens and ones so memorizing the traditional method will NOT help them get a deep understanding of the process. Here is the online version of digital manipulatives that your child uses on their iPad. We also use the actual base ten blocks at school.
Students will not only be asked to answer double digit addition with regrouping and subtraction by multiples of tens equations, but they will also have to demonstrate how they could find the answer using the appropriate tool (number lines, 100's charts, base ten blocks, ten frames, etc.).

For example, adding or subtracting by ten on a 100s chart is movement up or down. But to add using a number line students would have to start with the first number and then show how to add tens and ones.

 

Newsletter April 7th - 11th/ 21st- 25th

Volunteer Schedule for April
 

 

In Reader's Workshop we used the week before vacation to work on a brief unit focused on Harder Decoding Strategies that are needed now that we are getting into tougher books with longer words. Some of the things we have learned to read include:

• long vowels vs. short vowels
• contractions and compound words
• word endings (-s, -ed, -es, -ing)
• antonyms/ synonyms
• sight words

This week in Reader's Workshop we will be looking at Fluency. Good Readers know that fluency helps their audience understand the story (mood, character, conversation) and it helps the reader understand the story (if children are having to work very hard to read and it is choppy then they're comprehension is negatively impacted).

Fluency is reading...

• smoothly (words are connected, they flow instead of 1 at a time)
• accurately
• with good pace (changing depending on the mood of the text)
• with expression (teacher voice!)

 
The list is always on my website:

April 7 - 11	New: every, most, again, does, quick Practice Review:  draw, very, please, pretty, yes Practice
April 21 - 25	New: once, over, rain, walk, house Practice Review: every, most, again, does, quick Practice
April 28 - May 2	New: by, may, just, work, after Practice Review:  once, over, rain, walk, house Practice

As always please visit the kidblog to see your child's work and give them some feedback! 

• The password is "2013/14". 

• Just be sure to sign your comments with who you are, you can just say _____'s Mom/ Dad, so the kids know who you are.

We used the week before break (and the amazing weather) to learn about Poetry in honor of National Poetry Month! There are many kinds of poems including acrostic, rhyming, and mood poetry and we will use our senses to try our hand at being real poets! We also learned about stanzas, rhymes, and patterns in poetry by examining poems written by others.
We are putting our acrostic poems on display in the hallway and creating a "Poet-tree" for additional poem space, starting with our shadow poetry.  

Moving ahead, in Writers' Workshop we will be working on "How-To" writing. This unit will help children learn to share directions to complete a task in an orderly way. 
Like all other expository writing we will learn "How-To" writing begins with an opening sentence, has details (steps), and ends with a closing sentence.

Unit 3: Counting and Place Value
We have learned to talk about, represent, and recognize numbers to 120. For numbers up to 100, we can draw or build them as tens and ones. We can compare numbers using words (less than, greater than, equal to) or symbols (<, >, =). We also learned to justify our answer by saying why. For example: 64 is greater than 46 because it has more tens.

 
We wrapped up this unit and took our post test before vacation. Some children ran out of time and will be given time to finish and then I will send them home for you to see what they have learned and what to still work on.

We are now onto Unit 4: Exploring Addition and Subtraction within 100
We will be combing all that we learned about addition and subtraction with the most recent learning about numbers as tens and ones (place value) to add bigger numbers all the way to 100. While we will use the term "regrouping", we do NOT teach children to "carry" a ten or to do equations without manipulatives. It is imperative that they learn what is happening when numbers are being exchanged by building and breaking tens and ones so memorizing the traditional method will NOT help them get a deep understanding of the process.

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