Halloween Highlights
Science
Last week we continued our air investigations. The students participated in a lesson that focused on the affects of pushing on air. They used a syringe and plastic tubing to explore the question: What happens when you push air into a smaller area? The students learned new vocabulary words related to the investigation including compress, force, and pressure. The students also had the opportunity to participate in an additional science lesson in Ms. Gillies classroom, which included experimenting with a balloon rocket. This upcoming week the students will travel to Ms. Torniero and Ms. Schlank's classrooms for two more air experiments! Ask your child what they learned about air from our investigations last week :)
Math
In math we have completed Topic 14! The focus of Topic 14 included graphing and using data to answer questions. Graphs are ways of organizing and displaying information in order to describe data and draw conclusions about it. Identifying the attribute being studied is a key concept for accurately collecting and organizing data. The same collection can be viewed or discussed based on numerous criteria. At this point, children learn to correctly identify the attribute used as a basis for sorting. Data is always gathered to answer a question. How the data is organized or sorted depends on the question being asked. When the data is sorted, it can be graphed using a picture graph or bar graph. Both graphs help answer the question by showing the results visually. There is no advantage or disadvantage in the type of graph itself, but different graphs can be more suitable for different data.
Last week we began Topic 1: Understanding Addition. A math tool we will be using continuously throughout the school year includes a part-part-whole model. A part-part-whole model is used to display part-whole relationships and assist students in putting together, taking apart, and comparing whole numbers. The students completed a fun Halloween craft, which consisted of breaking a number into two parts. Their crafts came out awesome! Ask your child what addition sentence their craft is showing :)
Last week we began Topic 1: Understanding Addition. A math tool we will be using continuously throughout the school year includes a part-part-whole model. A part-part-whole model is used to display part-whole relationships and assist students in putting together, taking apart, and comparing whole numbers. The students completed a fun Halloween craft, which consisted of breaking a number into two parts. Their crafts came out awesome! Ask your child what addition sentence their craft is showing :)
Writer's Workshop
In writer's workshop the students practiced using a sketch to add more details to their writing. One of our writer's workshop expectations is students are never truly “done” writing. A way in which students can add to their writing includes making a movie in their mind about the story they are writing about and adding more details to their illustration. In turn, this will enable the students to add more details to their writing as well. We also discussed using labels as a way to help our audience identify the different parts of our sketch. In addition, we are strengthening our speaking skills by sharing our stories out loud with our classmates as they listen attentively.
The students have learned various spelling strategies to help them spell tricky words. The strategies include using stretchy the snake (say the word slowly in your mind, think of the sounds at the beginning, middle, and end of the word, write all of the sounds you know), using known words to spell new words, using the word wall, using their resource folder, and underlining the tricky word and moving on. We have also begun using a checklist to "fix-up" our writing (i.e. to make our writing easier to read for our readers). Lastly, the students have learned about nouns, adjectives, and verbs. We have certainly been hard at work!
The students have learned various spelling strategies to help them spell tricky words. The strategies include using stretchy the snake (say the word slowly in your mind, think of the sounds at the beginning, middle, and end of the word, write all of the sounds you know), using known words to spell new words, using the word wall, using their resource folder, and underlining the tricky word and moving on. We have also begun using a checklist to "fix-up" our writing (i.e. to make our writing easier to read for our readers). Lastly, the students have learned about nouns, adjectives, and verbs. We have certainly been hard at work!
Phonics
We have been very busy in phonics the past several weeks expanding our knowledge of sight words and adding to our repertoire of skills!
We began by discussing glued sounds, which are also often referred to as welded sounds. Glued sounds refer to letters that keep their individual sounds, but are very closely glued together, making the individual sounds hard to decipher. The glued sounds we focused on include /all/, /am/, and /an/. In each of these glued sounds, the consonant or consonants following 'a' alter the sound the vowel is making. For example, in the glued sound /all/, the vowel sounds like the short vowel /o/ rather than /a/. Similarly, since 'm' and 'n' are nasal letters (sounds that are produced by moving air through the nose), when the consonants follow 'a' the vowel sound is changed although still considered to be a short vowel sound. We practiced reading, writing, and marking up words by drawing a box around the glued sound.
Challenge your child to tap out and spell the following words with glued sounds:
-ham -pan -tall -bam -tan -hall
The students have also been reviewing consonant digraphs. Consonant digraphs are two consonants that come together to make one new sound. The digraphs the students have been practicing reading and writing include sh (ship), ch (chin), th (thumb), wh (whistle), and ck (sock). To make digraph learning more fun and exciting, I introduced the students to the H brothers (Charles, Sherman, Whit, and Theo) and their friend (Rick). The students loved learning about the five characters and their silly personalities. Encourage your child to tell you more about these funny characters!
We began by discussing glued sounds, which are also often referred to as welded sounds. Glued sounds refer to letters that keep their individual sounds, but are very closely glued together, making the individual sounds hard to decipher. The glued sounds we focused on include /all/, /am/, and /an/. In each of these glued sounds, the consonant or consonants following 'a' alter the sound the vowel is making. For example, in the glued sound /all/, the vowel sounds like the short vowel /o/ rather than /a/. Similarly, since 'm' and 'n' are nasal letters (sounds that are produced by moving air through the nose), when the consonants follow 'a' the vowel sound is changed although still considered to be a short vowel sound. We practiced reading, writing, and marking up words by drawing a box around the glued sound.
Challenge your child to tap out and spell the following words with glued sounds:
-ham -pan -tall -bam -tan -hall
The students have also been reviewing consonant digraphs. Consonant digraphs are two consonants that come together to make one new sound. The digraphs the students have been practicing reading and writing include sh (ship), ch (chin), th (thumb), wh (whistle), and ck (sock). To make digraph learning more fun and exciting, I introduced the students to the H brothers (Charles, Sherman, Whit, and Theo) and their friend (Rick). The students loved learning about the five characters and their silly personalities. Encourage your child to tell you more about these funny characters!
Reading Workshop
In reading workshop we have been focusing on story elements. In particular, we are currently reviewing characters and setting. We will also focus on plot, problem, and solution in the coming weeks. The students have been practicing identifying and orally describing the various story elements in read alouds as well as their own stories. We have also begun learning about character traits. The students have been using adjectives to describe what characters are like on both the outside (how the characters look) and inside (how the characters feel, think, and act). We will continue to focus on story elements in whole class reading workshop as well as within guided reading groups.