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Happy Gobble Gobble Day!

11/25/2017

Our Second Annual Turkey Trot was a huge success. Bright but cool weather made for the perfect jog! Because of all the generous donations from D103 students and parents, our class won the pizza party for the class with the most dollar amount in donations!!! Our very own student, Arius Glatt, won the prize for the most monies donated by a single person! All donations will be put to good use in providing technology and resources for our Ho`okele Keiki. Thank you all for your generous contributions!

Here is a summary of what happened in our classroom:

In Langauge Arts...

Continuing our Unit on informational and expository text from last week, students read a non-fictional article about Poison Dart Frogs. Using this article, students learned about various text features such as heading, subheading, bold print, glossary, captions, photos, etc... Students learned how authors uses these text features to organize information.
Using this same article, students determined the main idea, which was that poison dart frogs can be very deadly. Students looked for supporting details. Some of the details included the following: a small drop of their poison can kill ten men, native people living in the rainforest use their poison on spears and arrows to help with hunting, their bright color warns other animals to stay away, only one animal eats them-the fire-bellied snake-the only animal that developed a resistance to the poison. Using the main idea and supporting details, the children begun working on a constructed response to answer the following question: Explain how the Poison Dart Frog is one of the world's deadliest animals.
As we read more and more books on coral reefs and the ocean, students are starting to become experts on the topic. They learned the location of coral reefs around the world; they're found in shallow, warm, tropical waters; there are three zones within a coral reef (fore reef, reef crest, and the back reef). Students also learned that coral are animals not plants.

In math...

Students learned how to add two-digit number using an open number line. Many students found the open number line easier to show their thinking on than a segmented one because you don't have to think about the exact position of each number. Students learned that on an open number line, the position of your jumps need not to be so precise.
Students practiced more addition and subtraction strategies using dominos to help find the missing parts. We reviewed that subtraction is Total - Part = Part and addition is Part + Part = Total.
Students practiced addition using double-facts or near-double facts.

In science...

Students participated in a science lab about plant pollination. Using fake flowers and cooking flour (pollen), students transferred the pollen on the stamen of one flower to another flower of the same species' stigma using pipe cleaners, to simulate a bee's leg. Students labeled a diagram of the plant parts and learned about others ways pollination can occur (wind and other animals).

REMINDERS AND ANNOUCEMENTS

Our field trip to HTY will be on December 1. Please have your child wear shoes and bring home lunch on that day.
If you have not returned your child's progress portfolio and evidence binder, please do so. Thank you!
Our Parent activity is on December 14. A yellow participation/attendance form went home regarding this activity. If you have not returned this form please turn it in as soon as possible so we can get a more accurate head count.

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Two very busy, busy weeks

11/18/2017

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Here is a summary of what happened in our classroom:

In Langauge Arts...

Students read narrative non-fiction this week. We talked about the characteristics of this type of genre. Students learned that narrative non-fiction is when a text presents true information in a style very close to fiction. The two narrative non-fiction stories we read this week were Prairie Guard Dogs by Wonders and Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! by April Pulley Sayre. Using these stories we answered the following essential question this week: What are the features of different animal habitats?
Using Prairie Guard Dogs, students learned about main topic and main idea. The main topic was Prairie Dogs and the main idea of this text was that prairie guard dogs works hard to protect their family from danger. After determining the main idea, students identified 3 supporting details that support the main idea. Some of the details included the prairie guard dog peeks his head out and makes sure the coast is clear, then tells his family when it's safe to come out of the burrow; the prairie guard dog is restless and constantly looks around for danger; when the prairie guard dog saw a badger he barked to warn his family to get to safety; and prairie guard dogs take turns with shifts to guard.
Students then had more practice determining main topic, and main idea with supporting details with the text Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! We talked about the title and how it can often give us a clue about what the main idea might be about. The main topic was turtles and the main idea was that turtles face many dangers within their habitat. Students found many details to support the main idea. Some included if the egg nest is found, the eggs can become food for raccoons; cars can drive over the egg nests; when they become hatchlings, they can become food for cats, herons, and raccoons; when trying to get to the ocean, hatchlings can sometimes get confused on which light to crawl towards and might crawl toward street lights or homes instead of the moonlight above the horizon; once in the ocean many other dangers present themselves like becoming food for other ocean predators, fishing nets, and garbage that looks like jellyfish!
Grammar lessons included more review on the prefixes re, un, and dis and the suffixes ly and ful. Students learned about abbreviations, or a way to shorten nouns, such as Mistress (Mrs. or Ms.), Mister, Doctor. Students also learned about the differences between common nouns, proper nouns, and collective nouns. Students practiced sorting various nouns using a tree map. They also learned that proper nouns need to begin with a capital. Using A Cache of Jewels by Ruth Heller, students learned many new collective nouns and realized they already new some themselves! Some of our favorites were a gam of whales, a pride or lions, a batch of bread, a bouquet of flowers, a parcel of penguins, a forest of trees, a kindle of kittens and of course a school of fish. Lastly, students learned how to properly use commas in a series of items. For example: For lunch I ate a sandwich, chips, juice and an apple.
Students have learned that they must become an expert on a topic, pulling information from many sources, before they can write an informational writing piece about the topic. As a class, we have been reading a lot about the ocean, specifically, the coral reef. Students have added a lot of new information to their schemas. Until they are ready to begin their writing, students are studying how different authors use a variety of writing techniques and text features that helps to organize information.
Students took an informational writing pre test using one source called A Tree Full of Life by Susan Evento. The children learned a lot about the Eucalyptus Tree, then students wrote about how this tree is food and shelter for many animals.

In math...

Students learned how a hundreds chart can be a useful tool when adding. They practiced moving their fingers down to add ten and to the right to add ones.
Students practiced their skip counting fluency using a number line. They practiced adding 10 to any given number, not starting at 0. For example 52 + 10 or 27 + 10. They also practiced skip counting by 5s. They noticed patterns as the skip counting continues.
Students used the number line to add numbers. They learned to start at the larger number, then decompose the other addend to more friendly jumps. For the example 57 + 12 students should start at 57 then decompose 12 into 10 and 2. Then do a jump of 10 first, then a jump of 2. We call this strategy the "Jumps-of-Ten."
Students learned that numbers can be decomposed in other ways to stop at 10s on the number line. For the example 58 + 9, students learned to think 58 + 2 + 7. They would jump from 58 to 60, then 60 to 67 on the number line. We call this strategy "Make-ten."
After practicing jumps of 10 all week, students learned they can be even more efficient by combining the 10s. For the example 43 + 25, they learned they can start at 43, make one jump of 20 to 63, then a jump of 5 to 68.

SCIENCE

We have begun our PLTW unit on form and function. Students are learning the form and function of things found in nature and how man-made objects can be made modeling after the form and function of things found in nature. As they are engaged in this unit students have already begun exploring plant life cycles and seed dispersement. They will be helping to design and build a product that will help the characters in this Unit's fictional story to disperse seeds over a large field.

REMINDERS AND ANNOUCEMENTS

Our Turkey Trot event will be held on Tuesday, November 21st. Your child must be wear shoes to participate. Also, please have your child bring a water bottle labeled with his or her name.

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Happy Halloween!

11/4/2017

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Students had another exciting week with our Halloween Parade and dance-off finale to the Kidzbop Shuffle. Don't forget to check out our photo gallery! We also did some art in class. To create the texture of the lines and ridges of a pumpkin, students used glue to draw pumpkins on white paper. We let that set and dry, then student explored with watercolor as they painted over it.

Here is a summary of what happened in our classroom:

In Langauge Arts...

Continuing our unit from last week, I modeled for students how to use their double-bubble maps and respond to the following constructive response: How is The Boy Who Cried Wolf and Wolf, Wolf! by John Rocco the same and different? Using Q.A.D.E. we went through the process together as a class. As we did this, it was pointed out how in a compare and contrast response, it's almost like you're responding twice, once to point out similarities and again to point out differences. In addition, text evidence needs to be provided. For example, if you mention the setting is different or the endings are different, details and evidence are needed to support.
After taking the children through that process, students did some practice on their own! They used the folktale The Three Little Pigs from Europe and the folktale The Three Geese from Italy to compare and contrast. We talked about comparing key details. Key details may be basic story elements such as characters, setting, and problem & solution or key details may also be more complex events that deal with the development of the story. Something insignificant to the development of the story, would not be considered a key detail.
During RTI, each group got to practice more comparing and contrasting of stories. Using the leveled readers and paired text, students practiced making double-bubble thinking maps. We then had extensive discussions about how the stories were similar and different.
Students learned about the following suffixes: ly- means "in a way that is" and -ful means "full of." We practiced using these suffixes to create new words and talked about how words change when adding them.
We have been reading the classic Bunnicula by James Howe. We’ve gotten to the best part- the war is on! Chester and Harold have decided that Bunnicula is a threat and to "fight" back, and the kids are loving the heightened conflict between Chester, Harold, and Bunnicula. It gives us the perfect opportunity to discuss rising conflict and resolution.

In math...

Students created yard "sticks" out of paper. They used 1 inch cubes to measure 36 inches and taped them together in one long strip. But they did so alternating colors every 12 inches. The reason for this scaffold was for students to more easily see the relationship between inches and feet. For example if they measure something at 26 inches with their yard sticks it would be more clear that it could also be written as 2 ft and 2 inches.
Students learned the relationship between feet and inches. They then measured various objects in the classroom that fell between two whole numbers of feet. Most of the items they measured were a little more than 1 foot. They learned ways to record this, such as 1 ft and 4 in.
Students than practiced measuring larger things such as the distance between one door to another, the width of the classroom, or the length of the whiteboard. Students learned the appropriate unit of measure to use when measuring larger objects, would be yards.
Students decided which unit of measure was most appropriate when measuring various objects of all different sizes (inches, feet, yards).

REMINDERS AND ANNOUCEMENTS

Our Turkey Trot event will be held on November 21st. Thank you for all your generous donations. Our school uses the funds for many technology implementations. Our students definitely deserve it!
CANDY CANDY OH MY! I know with Halloween just ended, you have a lot of candy around the house. Please reframe from sending candy with your child as a snack. Let's encourage healthy choices! We also want students to maintain their focus during instructional hours and candy will not help.

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Happy Gobble Gobble Day!

Two very busy, busy weeks

Happy Halloween!

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