Thank you for visiting our class blog! This is the place to find the latest information on the happenings in room 315. Be sure to look to the right for calendar items to add to your agenda. I will give a detailed explanation of what we've been working on academically below. You will also find a section with any class announcements. I hope you find this blog useful and continue to visit it on a weekly basis.
Reading: I introduced the students to my daily reading workshop and my expectations during this time. We created a chart, listing behaviors good readers exhibit while reading. We are working on building our reading stamina, which is reading for a long period of time without being distracted. We also learned how to find a "just right" book. We will take the Reading Inventory next week and discuss the lexile level and expectations as we move through each quarter this year. PLEASE get your child in a chapter book and make sure he/she is reading EVERY night for a minimum of 30 minutes. This is the only way to improve reading skills. We spent a long time talking about how athletes refine their skills. They practice EVERY day for a long period of time. I will be preaching this all year long!
Writing: I also introduced the children to how writers' workshop will function in our classroom. We will be writing every single day. We set up our writing notebooks and went over what will and won't be done in this notebook. This week, we focused on several ways to generate ideas for narratives. We also learned that to be great writers, we must be great storytellers. We began working on our first narrative.
Math: We jumped right in to our unit on ROUNDING to the nearest 10 or 100 in our Numbers and Operations in Base Ten strand. We focused on identifying the two benchmark numbers when given a number to round to the nearest 10, identifying the mid-point between two benchmark numbers, then explaining why we would round down or up. This can be a very tricky skill because it is abstract, especially rounding to the nearest 10 when you are working with three digit numbers. Students may round 234 to 200 instead of to 230 when asked to round to the nearest 10.
Content: We began our unit on BUILDING COMMUNITY and read the first four chapters in our 7 Habits of Happy Kids book. We discussed the habits "Be Proactive", "Begin with the End in Mind", "Put First Things First" and "Think Win-Win". One main theme that will follow us through the year is to set goals and then put a plan into action to achieve those goals. We will have academic and social goals to work towards.
Dinner Conversation Starters...Have you ever asked your child how school was or what they did at school and gotten a less than detailed account of their day??? Well this section is just for you! Use the questions and ideas below to get the conversation started.
*Ask your child to tell you the story of the time I thought Maggie was going to die while we were camping.
*Play a verbal game with your child in the car...say a three digit number, have your child identify the two benchmark numbers, and then round to the nearest ten. Example: Say "543" and your child should say "The benchmark numbers are 540 and 550 and I should round to 540".
*Ask your child how many class dojo points they got this week.
*Ask your child to tell you who Bo Haney is. Also ask why Robbie York doesn't like him.
*Ask your child where he/she was when the fire alarm accidentally went off this week.
*Get your child to tell you about our morning routine. What do we do in the morning before the bell rings?
Class News and Announcements...
Don't forget to send in your "In a Million Words or Less" letters or emails!
Don't forget to send in your "In a Million Words or Less" letters or emails!
I hope to see all of you at Open House next Thursday at 6:30. You can come straight to the classroom. There will not be a PTA meeting beforehand. If you have a child in the primary grades, Open House will be on Tuesday and there will be a PTA meeting first.
Thank you to all those who have sent in classroom wish list items.
If you haven't done so, please send in earbuds or headphones by Monday for our next computer lab visit. I'd love everyone to also have a pair for the classroom.
For more detailed curriculum information, check our our grade level website. You can click on the link on the Kemp website right above our faculty pictures.
Thank you to Mrs. Newlin, who has graciously offered to be be our class Room Mom. She's the absolute best!
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