Last week was busy, busy, busy!
For writing, we completed our last lab report.  We have now moved on to a different type of informational writing.  Each student picked a topic that he/she knew a lot about.  Our job now is to write an informational book to teach others what we know about that topic.  Our books will include many of the nonfiction text features that we have been learning about in shared reading.  This week we have been using our plan sheet to write down 5 facts for each of our chapters. After break we will move into research!

In math we are working on mental addition.  We know how to mentally add tens (landmark numbers) to any number.  We know that only the tens spot changes.  We can also picture a hundreds chart in our minds and think about going down a column as we add a ten.  We have also learned how to break apart numbers.  Example: 45+22
45 +20=65 and 2 more is 67
Our last strategy we have been focusing on is adding the tens, adding the ones, adding the sums.
Example:
40+20=60
5+2=7
60+7=67
This is getting us ready for the algorithm method.

Please look for a note coming home tonight about all of our holiday activities that will be happening at the end of this week and next week.

Writing- Today we did our 3rd lab report.  We soaked an egg in vinegar for 2 hours to see what would the happen.  We wrote our results on Twitter together as a class, as well as recorded them in our notebooks. Next week we will continue to do lab reports, and then we will head into writing informational books about a topic we know a lot about.  You can help with this!  Brainstorm some things over break that you know a lot about... dogs, basketball, dance, etc.  They will have to include 5 chapters for their books as well as all of the nonfiction features we have been discussing in shared reading.  This project will not include research, but the next writing projects will!

Reading- So far we have discussed photographs, captions, and table of contents.  Next week we will learn about headings, bold print words, and  the glossary.

Math- Today we learned about plane shapes that we can use to make other plane shapes.  Example: 2 triangles can make a square.  We used our pattern blocks today to fill in shapes. We were supposed to use our Osmos today but our app was having difficulties:O(  Next week it will be up and running again so groups will get to use the tangrams for that.

I had many parents ask why the homework section was not filled out last Friday.  There was a sub that day, so I didn't want the sub to have to figure out what is deserving of a / and -.

There was not a Friday folder this week due to the short week.  There were several scholastic book forms that went home, though.  There was also a coupon from Scholastic.  If you buy $10 worth of books, you can get a free book up to a $5 value.

Also if you have any classroom pictures that you don't mind sending my way or emailing to me, I would really appreciate it.  As part of a classroom community building activity, we are going to make a classroom scrapbook.  I have taken lots of pictures, but the more the better!

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING BREAK!!!!!!
I am very thankful for my entire class of awesome learners :O)

Math- Today we learned about 3D shapes/solid figures.  We took a look at the faces of 3D shapes and learned about the plane shapes that each flat surface would make! Tomorrow we will be learning about faces, edges, and vertices!

Science- We are continuing to learn about our organs. Our first organ we are learning about is the brain!

Writing- We finished our first lab report using the scientific method!  Tomorrow we will begin lab report 2: What happens when you place a solid (mentos) into a liquid (soda)?

Today we had our pjs and movie day!  It was a lot of fun.

This week....
Shared Reading- We are talking about nonfiction features.  Today we learned about photographs.  We read part of a book called Animal Look Alikes.  We realized just how important photographs are to helping us learn new information.  Tomorrow we are going to learn about captions.

Writing- We started nonfiction writing this week.  We are beginning this unit with several science experiments involving matter.  We know that matter is all around us.  It can be in the form of a solid, liquid, or gas.  Our first experiment had two parts.  We mixed a liquid (water) with a solid (baking soda).  We also mixed another liquid (vinegar) with a solid (baking soda).  We are using the scientific method to write out our lab reports.  So far we have written out our question, hypothesis, materials, and procedures.  Tomorrow we will record our results and come up with a conclusion.  We are trying to figure out if we saw chemical changes or physical changes.

Math- We took a Geometry pre-test!  Tomorrow we will begin learning about 3-D shapes.

We have been talking a lot about reading strategies this week. When we come to a tricky word, we can use...
Chunky Monkey - look for parts that we know
              examples:
              flower (fl is a blend   ow is a chunk   er is a chunk)
              thermometer (th is a digraph   er is a chunk  mom is a no excuse word  et is a chunk   er is a chunk)
We have been going over "funky chunky" every other day to know our chunks.  See if your child can recite any of their "funky chunky" to you.  On days that we do not go over funky chunky, we go over the blends and digraphs chart.  Although many of us know our blends and digraphs, we do not always use them in our writing. We are trying to become more aware of that!

Skippy frog - read the sentence and skip over the tricky word.  Read to the period and then GO BACK.  Plug in what makes sense AND looks right.
             example: If we didn't know the word barn in the following sentence, we could use the other words                as clues and think about what would make sense.  The barn had cows and sheep.  We may think of              the words farm and barn, but only barn would make sense AND look right.

Flippy dolphin - Flip the vowel sound.  We know the vowels a,e,i,o,and u have 2 sounds: short and long.  If we try one sound and it doesn't sound right, we could try the other vowel sound.  (example: dino or acorn)

This week we started counting money for math.  If you have any real life experiences with shopping with cash (I know in this day and age many people don't use actual cash anymore) please have your child help you count all the coins and figure out the change!

We also worked on our writing assessments.  I am so excited to get scores on all of these and share them at conferences!  Next week we will be talking about what America means to us in preparation for a Veterans Day Assembly coming up soon. Try to help your child come up with ideas that he or she can write about.  We will be reading some books and watching some videos about our country next week to help us come up with some ideas.  A lucky writer will be reading their paper in front of the whole school!

Writing: This week in writing we continued to look at our leads in our personal narratives.  We learned how to come up with a question lead that "hooks our readers."  We also looked at several examples of a 1,2,3, and 4 writing sample.  Next week we will take out writing assessment, and we are aiming for a 3 (proficient). This means we have a good lead, lots of details, transition words, lots of sentences that make our readers have a movie in their head, correct spelling, and punctuation.

Reading: Reading groups have been going well!  We have all been working on fiction stories.  Many groups are working on inferring and predictions, as well as answering specific questions about their reading.  We have also been working on reading strategies.  This week we focused on "chunky monkey."  This means we find parts (chunks) of a word that we know.  We can also use this strategy to help with spelling!  Ask your child if they can remember any of the "funky chunky" word parts we have been working on.

Math: We finished up our unit this week on place value and we took our test today.  Any time we take a unit test and your child scores below an 80%, there will be a packet of review work that comes home to complete at their (your) leisure.  That does not mean that we will not continue to work on these skills at school, but it is just some extra practice to do at home.  This packet will come home on Monday.  Our next unit is on counting money.  Please practice this skill at home!

We also finished up our unit on Geography.  Next week we will be starting our health unit on organs!

Other news:

*ST math code was sent today

*Scholastic book orders were sent today through email!

*Next week someone in our class will be receiving the "citizen of the month" award.  Students vote on who this should be, and it is kept a surprise to that student until the actual assembly.  

*We will also have our Halloween party next week on Friday at 2pm!

Today we learned how to use our Osmos!!  We used a spelling one for the Daily 5, and a tangram and numbers one for math groups.  It was a lot of fun!

Save the date!  October 18th we will be having a "brown sack lunch" day with parents.  From 11:45-12:15 parents will be invited to come join their child to eat in the classroom.  Parents may bring in a special lunch for their child.  More information will come home next week!

This week has gone by so fast!
We got to vote for a mascot this week!!  We voted for a bird and a mammal.  The owls won for birds, and the wolves won for mammals  Our next voting session will be in November.  This week we also had picture day and fire prevention week (we got to see a skit on fire prevention today!).

Math- Math groups are off to a good start! This week we finished our unit on equal groups.  We learned how to make arrays and do repeated addition. Our next unit is on place value.  We will be learning about tens and ones. We also took our STAR math this week.

Reading-This week we practiced the expectations for reading groups, as well as received our reading journals.  This is where we will answer questions about what we read. We also wrote down genres of books that we would like to read during group time.
For shared reading we are working on asking questions as we read.  We know that good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading.  See if your child can tell you the 5 w's!  We also took our STAR reading test this week.  These scores will be shared at parent teacher conferences.

Writing- We continued to work on using a plan sheet to guide our writing, while focusing on good details.  Next week we will dive deeper into good leads that "hook a reader."

Writing- Last week we received a plan sheet to help organize our thoughts and ideas for narrative writing.  The plan sheet has a space for an opening, first, next, then, after, and last.  It also includes a spot for 2-3 details and an ending.  Last Friday we got to make dirt cake in our classroom, and we then used the plan sheet together to make a story. This week we are continuing to use our plan sheet, as well as making sure our details are good.  We talk a lot about "putting a movie in our readers' minds."  We do this by using a lot of good details that "show rather than tell."  Yesterday we read a book called, Come On, Rain by Karen Hesse and found lots of great "showing details."  For example, rather than simply saying that the mom was hot, the author said that sweat was trickling down her back and wetting her shirt.  That is a lot more fun to read, and definitely puts a movie in our minds!

Math-We have been reviewing addition and subtraction strategies this week.  We have been talking about finding the quickest way to solve problems.  For addition we should have our doubles up to 10+10 memorized.  This can help us when we see a near double (example: I know 5+6=11 because 5+5=10 and it’s just one more).  We have also used counting up as a strategy (holding the larger number in our head), and making a ten (example: 9+6 is the same as 10+5).  For subtraction we have worked on using addition to help subtract, using a number line, doubles, counting backwards, and counting up. Many students are still drawing and crossing off, and we are trying to use quicker strategies! 

Today we started a new unit on repeated addition.  We will be making arrays this week with our repeated addition.  This gets us ready for multiplication next year!  We have also been working on Math Stations, and the students are doing great with them!  These include: Math by Yourself, Games, and ST Math.  Next week we will add in "Meet with Mrs. Smith" so we can do some more math based on abilities!

Reading-The Daily 5 is off to a great start.  Our stations include: Read to self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Listen to Books, and Word Work.  Next week we will begin "Meet with Mrs. Smith."  This is when I will be meeting with reading groups.  I am so excited to get these started!  For shared reading we started working on predictions today.  We know we make predictions not only in reading, but in our everyday lives as well!  We make predictions in reading based on our schema, patterns, author's words, pictures, and the cover page. We read a book today called, The Spiffiest Giant in Town and made predictions about what was going to happen to some of the characters. 

Social Studies- We have been working on our Geography Unit.  We have read books about maps, made a map of our room, and used a map key and compass rose!