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D103 in full swing!

8/25/2019

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What another engaged 2 weeks we had together learning about each other and building a safe learning environment for us all.  Students have learned about routines of our classroom that will help us to be efficient.  Some of these routines include: classroom jobs, morning routines & bellwork, bathroom usage and signing in every morning.    

During read aloud time, Students are really enjoying our read aloud story The War with Grandpa by Robert Kimmel Smith.  This story is about a boy named Peter Stokes who has to give up his most prized possession...his room, when Grandpa comes to live with them.  Peter loves his Grandpa but he wants his room back!

Here is a summary of what happened in our classroom:
Getting to Know Each Other…
  • Individually, students took a reading survey that asked questions about what books they like to read, how often they read, what genre they enjoy most, and how they learned (still learning) to read.  It was very powerful to see how everyone reads for different purposes (to be entertained, to learn new things, for homework, etc…) and how books are a very special part in everyone’s life! ​​
In Langauge Arts...
  • Students used highlighting strategies to find text evidence in the stories they read from Wonders.  As students were asking and answering questions about the text, they learned to use Q.A.D. = Q=Repeat the Question, A= Answer the question, D=Provide Details from the text.  Students used this nemonic device to help them answer the questions in a complete sentence and with text evidence.  
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  • Students listened to and watched an interactive story called Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae.  In this story, Gerald the Giraffes watches all his friends boogie down to the beat at the Africa Jungle Dance and his only wish is that he could dance just as well.  He tries hard to learn, but his clumsy body and his friends telling him "Giraffes can't dance" discourages him to even try.  Finally he meets a cricket who tells him to listen to the music and "find your song."  Gerald soon realizes he can dance he just needed to try again to different music!  After reading this story, students enjoyed two songs which can be found here on our class website Don't Give Up by Bruno Mars and The Power of Yet by Janelle Monae.  Students then thought of an academic and personal goal that they have and posted it on our "Things We Can't Do....YET!" poster.  ​​
  • During grammar lessons, students are practicing to capitalize and end their sentences with the proper punctuation.  They are also identifying whether a sentence is a statement, a question, or a command.  They learned how to find root words and can identify inflectional endings such as ed, ing, s, & es.  ​
In math...​
  • By grouping 10 tens, students learned that it makes a 100!  Students composed and decomposed quantities of base-ten pieces (blocks) to show that numbers can be represented in more than one way.  This skill of decomposing and composing will help students later with trading and regrouping when adding and subtracting numbers.    
  • Students learn about place value, this week going up to the hundreds place.  They also practiced writing numerals and number names for three-digit numbers.  Students learned that with three-digit numbers you say the tens and the ones together, but the hundreds is said separately, so a hyphen is needed between the tens and ones, but not for the hundreds.  For example, three hundred fifty-nine.   ​

Using Numeral Expanders to Foster Thinking Skills from ORIGO Education on Vimeo.

  • Students reviewed the counting-on strategy from 1st grade. Students learned it's much more efficient when you start at the larger number and count on the smaller number. Using this strategy is faster and leaves less room for error. Students applied this counting-on strategy when solving word problems.  They had to write matching equations with the unknown in the correct position to various math stories.  For example, the following problem would have the following matching equation. 
    • ​​​​​There were 12 lollipops in a bag.  Mom bought some more.  Now there are 16 lollipops altogether.  How many did Mom buy?   12 + ? = 16​ Students learned to count-on from 12 to 16 to find the answer.

Teaching the count-on strategy for addition from ORIGO Education on Vimeo.

  • ​Student explored even and odd numbers and investigated the conditions for a number to be even or odd.  
In Social Studies...
  • We kicked off our "Stranger Danger" Project-Based-Learning Unit.  So far students have watched some age-appropriate short news clips of children in their community who almost became victims of "stranger danger" but acted in a safe way and prevented themselves from getting harmed.  Not intended to scare the children, but rather these lessons and videos will be used to bring to light the realities of the situation.  Ultimately we all want our children to make smart choices and behave safely in risky situation. ​​
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  • Students participated in bullying prevention lessons.  They learned how to recognize, report, and refuse bullying.  They also learned how bystanders have a role and just how powerful they can be in stopping bullying.  
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  • We also began our Culture and Family History Study.  Students are enjoying as they learn about why many groups of people came to America.  After reading a wonderful story called We Came to America by Faith Ringgold, students identified that the author's message was- while we all look very different on the outside, have different cultures, race and religions, we are more alike than we think.  We all want to be loved, happy, and accepted for our differences.  WOW!  What a powerful message!​  
REMINDERS AND ANNOUCEMENTS
  • Don't forget to check and sign your child's planner daily!  Thank you!
  • Please help your child log the genre he or she reads daily.  It is important to expose them to the correct genre name when referring to the books they read.  The Genre-at-a-Glance chart is located behind the reading log (laminated to the manilla folder).
  • Please make sure your child is reading the "Words to Read" lists daily, as this is a reinforcement of the spelling sound they are learning about in class.  ​
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A Great Start!

8/10/2019

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What an amazing (and BUSY!) first week we had in school!  It was an exciting week getting to know the children of D103 (who I am enjoying immensely by the way), setting up routines, and creating a safe and open environment where the children will grow and learn this school year. 
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Here is a summary of what happened in our classroom:
Getting to Know Each Other…
To build inclusion and practice communication and listening skills, students created paper T-shirt designs that represented themselves.  Their paper shirts were divided into sections to include topics such as family, favorite place, favorite food, etc...  Students could share their shirts with the class as others listened and learned about their new classmates.  

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To showcase their birthdays, students designed their own cupcake using construction paper.  Which is now on display!
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This week's goal was to build a strong community and foster our Tribal Agreements.  Each day we focussed on one tribal agreement, and with the help of some great children's literature, we discussed in detail what each agreement looks like, sounds like and feels like.  ​​
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The children in Miss Nelson class from the story Miss Nelson is Missing taught us important lessons about mutual respect and attentive listening.  We read another story called My Mouth is a Volcano!  In this story we learn about interrupting others and why we should never do it (unless there's an emergency).  Using both stories, students brainstormed many ways to show attentive listening in our own classroom!
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At the end of the week, as a culminating activity, we created our class "Recipe for Success" using the Tribal Agreements discussed earlier in the week and a few others that make a successful student.  Students enjoyed mixing different "ingredients" that symbolized the different traits of a successful student.  I hope they shared their recipe for success with you!  Because success is always better when shared!

​In Langauge Arts...
Students listened to many stories this week.  One in particular,  an Aesop fable, The Lion and the Mouse was used to help students practice visualizing as they read.  As students were read the story, they were asked to make a "mental movie" of various scenes in their minds. Using this story, student discussed a very important life lesson:  No matter if you're big or small, you can make a difference!  

Without looking at any illustrations, students used their visualization strategy to really listen to the story I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll.  Halfway into the story, students had to illustrate one scene from their mental movie.  This particular story included rich vocabulary and word choice, so it lent itself well to visualizing the details.  Students got to share their monsters.  Then we read the story looking at the illustrations in the book.  It was really cool to compare students' interpretations!  

After reading a picture book called Wolf! by Beeky Bloom, about a wolf who struggled to learn to read but never gave up and eventually became the best reader in his town, students wrote down what they think good readers do.  We later made a circle map with all our ideas.  This map is now decorating our classroom, as there are many wonderful ideas that we never want to forget like...Good Readers...
  • reread the story if it does not make sense
  • focus on their mental movie
  • never give up when the words get hard
  • ask for help
  • sound out words
  • stop and check
  • read everyday! 
  • use picture clues, etc... 
  • Share their reading and books with others
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In math...
Using our Stepping Stones curriculum, students started to learn about place value, specifically tens and ones.  They also practiced writing numerals and number names.  They are still working on adding in the hyphen when needed in number names.  Extending their knowledge of place value, students compared two-digit numbers and even ordered numbers from greatest to least or least to greatest.  

REMINDERS AND ANNOUCEMENTS
  • Field trip is on Monday 8/12 (shoes and home lunch is needed)
  • Don't forget to check and sign your child's planner daily!  Thank you!
  • Please help your child log the genre he or she reads daily.  It is important to expose them to the correct genre name when referring to the books they read.  The Genre-at-a-Glance chart is located behind the reading log (laminated to the manilla folder).
  • Use only the "learned words" for spelling homework.  Also the spelling of these words should be memorized, as they cannot be sounded out.  Students should read the words daily on the "Words to Read" sheet on the back of their reading log to familiarize themselves with the focused sound of the week.  Some of the words on the "Words to Read" sheet might be on the test.  So...students need to memorize the learned words (these words will be on the spelling test).  Students also need to learn the rule of the sound of the week.  An additional 6 phonetic words with the sound of the week will also be on the test for students to sound out. 
 
  • And one last thought… most of my updates won’t be this long- there were just so many different activities that we did this week that I wanted to share! As a mom of two (one of them a 12-year-old boy who always has a hard time sharing what he does in school with me) this is what I hope for- a way to find out what goes on at school so an extension of learning at home can take place or simply engage in productive conversation at home.  It’s what I hope these updates will do for your family. ​
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