Reading Workshop
We have been very busy in reading workshop! The students have been learning how to recognize and explain cause-and-effect relationships. A cause-and-effect relationship explains why things happen. Readers who recognize cause-and-effect relationships understand that in-text events happen (effects), along with the reason why they happen (causes). When students recognize this relationship, comprehension is increased.
Recognizing and explaining cause-and-effect relationships is a strategy used by readers to understand why things happen the way they do in the text. Students are taught to look for clue words that will assist them in determining the cause and effect of the events in the text. It is a strategy that is not only used in reading, but experienced in day to day life.
How can you help your child with this strategy at home?
1. Encourage your child to look for clue words when reading. These clue words include: because, if, then, since, so, therefore, & as a result of.
2. When reading with your child, show examples of cause-and-effect relationships in the text. This modeling is essential to understanding.
3. Sometimes we must infer the cause because it is not always stated in the text.
4. Spark conversation about the text by using the following questions:
Recognizing and explaining cause-and-effect relationships is a strategy used by readers to understand why things happen the way they do in the text. Students are taught to look for clue words that will assist them in determining the cause and effect of the events in the text. It is a strategy that is not only used in reading, but experienced in day to day life.
How can you help your child with this strategy at home?
1. Encourage your child to look for clue words when reading. These clue words include: because, if, then, since, so, therefore, & as a result of.
2. When reading with your child, show examples of cause-and-effect relationships in the text. This modeling is essential to understanding.
3. Sometimes we must infer the cause because it is not always stated in the text.
4. Spark conversation about the text by using the following questions:
- What happened and why did it happen?
- What were the clue words?
- Why would this have happened?
- Give examples of cause-and-effect relationships.
We have also been focusing on making meaningful connections to text. So far we have learned about two different types of connections, text-to-self and text-to-text. The background knowledge we bring to our reading colors every aspect of our comprehension. We simply can't make sense of what we read, listen to, or view without thinking about what we already know. As we encounter information, we connect it to our personal experiences and our inner voice resonates with phrases such as It reminds me of... One way that readers merge their thinking with the text is by connecting to it. But making connections for the sake of it is not the point. As kids actively notice personal connections, their prior experiences can open wonderful windows into understanding!
Phonics
Last week we began to discuss vowel teams. A vowel team is two vowels side by side in a word that spell one sound (for example, ee in feet). The students are currently learning the vowel teams oe and ee. These vowel teams are considered predictable because they always make the same sound.
Writer's Workshop
The students continued to practice their fluency and presentation skills by sharing their Perfect Pet writing with Ms. Schlank's class!
Math
We are currently finishing up Topic 10: Adding with Tens and Ones. The students have learned and used many computational strategies for single-digit addition and subtraction. Many of these strategies apply to multi-digit arithmetic as well. Fluency with traditional algorithms for operations with multi-digit numbers (i.e. procedures that are followed in order to solve mathematical problems) requires a conceptual understanding of numbers. Number sense provides a critical foundation for understanding and remembering algorithms. Base-ten materials and the hundred chart can be used to represent the meaning of addition. During this topic students worked with base-ten concepts and models.
Check out abcYA.com for additional practice games! |
Social Studies
In Social Studies the students determined what a community is and what makes a community strong. The students agreed one of the most important features of a good community is having members who are able to cooperate with one another to accomplish the same goal. The students also discussed who are helpers in our community, what citizenship is, and how we can be good citizens of our community.
Habitat Visit
We had a special visit from Habitat to learn about frogs and salamanders!