Today's morning journal was, "If I were a snowflake I would...". On our morning math we practiced the value of numbers, adding three-digit numbers with re-grouping, polygons, and subtracting. Many of the students struggled with polygons, I will be formally teaching this later in the week.
We had double specials today! First, the students went to media and got to check out some new books. Don't forget to ask your children some of the strategy questions located in the FROG binder. Then, they went to PE and played a game that got them hot and sweaty.
After physical activity, we look at adding the suffixes -ful and -able to words. We discussed how it changes the words and gave examples of our new words in sentences. Our reading skills this week are predicting and making connections. When we make predictions while reading a story, we are making an educated guess from the clues in the text. As you continue reading, you need to either confirm or deny your prediction and then say why. There are three types of connections you can make to a story: 1. Text to Self 2. Text to World 3. Text to Text. Ask your child to try and make connections as they read a story to you at home. We read the first part of our story "Grandmother Spider Gets the Sun". This is a folktale and tells how many different animals got their characteristics and how we got day and night. We discussed how the Native Americans created these stories to explain different occurrences in the world.
During math I introduced Coordinate Grids. When looking at an ordered pair you always find the x-axis first and then the y-axis. I explained to the students that first they need to crawl and then they need to climb. An ordered pair looks like this: (x,y). The x-axis is on the bottom (horizontal) and the y-axis goes up and down (vertical). We practiced finding ordered pairs and labeling them on a coordinate grid. The homework that was sent home tonight has some great examples on it.
Tomorrow, we will work on moving through directions and going from one ordered pair to another on a coordinate grid. The test will be on Wednesday.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Oh no! The SMART Board!
The SMART Board finally gave out on us today. The bulb has been threatening to go out for a couple of weeks and it finally gave up. I have already put in an order for it to be fixed, so hopefully it won't be to long before it is up and running. It is back to the old school for my classroom and we will be using chart paper for our board.
This morning's journal was about your favorite sport on wheels. Are you a skateboarder, biker, roller skater, etc? We had some very challenging problems on our morning math, with two multi-step problems, place value, and a picto-graph problem. We will have our weekly morning math test tomorrow.
During math, we reviewed for our multiplication and division test. I gave the students examples that are just like the problems on the test to solve in their math journals. All of the students brought their math journals home as a study guide. We will take our test tomorrow. I will walk the students through un-packing the questions and they will solve them on their own.
During Imagine It, we reviewed for our test tomorrow and focused on drawing conclusions. We practiced taking clues from the text, putting it with our own knowledge, and then drawing a conclusion. All of the students took the AR test on Sun and everyone got either a 90 or 100. Almost everyone has made their goals. We have exactly two weeks from tomorrow to make AR goals.
During science, we were going to watch a video about light as an introduction to the sun, but as soon as I got it on DiscoveryEducation.com, the SMART board went black. Instead, I read a book about light and how it is made by electricity and the students wrote ten facts they learned from the story. Tomorrow, we will complete a lab with different kinds of light and compare how they are alike and different.
Thank goodness it will be Friday!
This morning's journal was about your favorite sport on wheels. Are you a skateboarder, biker, roller skater, etc? We had some very challenging problems on our morning math, with two multi-step problems, place value, and a picto-graph problem. We will have our weekly morning math test tomorrow.
During math, we reviewed for our multiplication and division test. I gave the students examples that are just like the problems on the test to solve in their math journals. All of the students brought their math journals home as a study guide. We will take our test tomorrow. I will walk the students through un-packing the questions and they will solve them on their own.
During Imagine It, we reviewed for our test tomorrow and focused on drawing conclusions. We practiced taking clues from the text, putting it with our own knowledge, and then drawing a conclusion. All of the students took the AR test on Sun and everyone got either a 90 or 100. Almost everyone has made their goals. We have exactly two weeks from tomorrow to make AR goals.
During science, we were going to watch a video about light as an introduction to the sun, but as soon as I got it on DiscoveryEducation.com, the SMART board went black. Instead, I read a book about light and how it is made by electricity and the students wrote ten facts they learned from the story. Tomorrow, we will complete a lab with different kinds of light and compare how they are alike and different.
Thank goodness it will be Friday!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Half-Way There!
Some of the students couldn't believe it was already Wednesday! They said the week had move by very quickly. This morning when they came into the room they wrote about different ways they can impact the environment in a positive way. On our morning math sheet, we looked at three-digit addition, patterns, and place value. We do not have specials on day 6 so today we took our bi-weekly reading formative test. The students did really well on this test and I was proud of them.
During math, we went over our math homework from last night and made sure everyone understood the concepts. We completed our daily SOLVE problem and talked about why we use multiplication instead of addition and how to determine if a problem is multiplication or addition. Ask your child to try and tell you the difference on a given problem! Our math test has been moved to Friday. I sent home a study guide today, but there will not be Order of Operations on the test.
During Imagine It we looked more in depth at adjusting our reading speed and why we would need to do this when reading an expository text. We also had a concept web contest! The students had to create a concept web about the sun and the student with the most correct concepts won a lunch with me in the teacher's lounge. During phonics we looked at putting -tion and -ment on the ends of words and how it changes the word. We created sentences using these words.
During AR, we read a book about Kwanzaa and discussed the different principles of Kwanzaa and how we can apply them to our own lives. All of the students took an AR test and everyone got a 90 or 100! Almost everyone in our class has made their AR goal!
During Science, we finished our KWHL charts for Sun, Moon, and Stars by filling in the Know and Want to Know sections. Tomorrow, we will look at how light is created in many different ways.
See you tomorrow.
During math, we went over our math homework from last night and made sure everyone understood the concepts. We completed our daily SOLVE problem and talked about why we use multiplication instead of addition and how to determine if a problem is multiplication or addition. Ask your child to try and tell you the difference on a given problem! Our math test has been moved to Friday. I sent home a study guide today, but there will not be Order of Operations on the test.
During Imagine It we looked more in depth at adjusting our reading speed and why we would need to do this when reading an expository text. We also had a concept web contest! The students had to create a concept web about the sun and the student with the most correct concepts won a lunch with me in the teacher's lounge. During phonics we looked at putting -tion and -ment on the ends of words and how it changes the word. We created sentences using these words.
During AR, we read a book about Kwanzaa and discussed the different principles of Kwanzaa and how we can apply them to our own lives. All of the students took an AR test and everyone got a 90 or 100! Almost everyone in our class has made their AR goal!
During Science, we finished our KWHL charts for Sun, Moon, and Stars by filling in the Know and Want to Know sections. Tomorrow, we will look at how light is created in many different ways.
See you tomorrow.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Brrr!!! It's cold out there!
This was the comment from every child as they entered the classroom today. I was glad to see almost everyone back today at school. We had a fun day as we entered the exciting world of sun, moon, and stars.
As the students entered they completed the morning journal of: If you have won an award, what was it and why did you win the award? If you haven't won an award, what award would you like to win and why? It was wonderful to read how many of our children have won awards. We completed day two on our morning math sheet. This covered finding the missing number in an addition equation, counting and subtracting money, place value blocks with regrouping, and adding.
During math, we learned how to solve a division problem using repeated subtraction. For example if you are dividing 12/3=, you would start with 12-3=9, 9-3=6, 6-3=3, 3-3=0. Count how many times you subtracted three and that is the answer. So 12/3=4. We also checked our answer by multiplying 4x3=12. The students practiced using this strategy at their seats and some of them got to go on the computer to work on their multiplication facts. Tomorrow we will play a multiplication and division review game for our test on Friday.
During Imagine It, we learned that when you put -ly on a word it becomes an adverb and when you put -y on the end of a noun it becomes an adjective. We previewed our story "Sun" and worked on adjusting our reading speed, clarifying, and asking good questions. The students are going to read the story "Sun" tonight for homework.
During Science, I read "Papa, please get the moon for me" by. Eric Carle. It was such a class favorite, that I ended up reading it twice. All of the students in the class took an AR test on the book, and everyone got 100!! The students created a KWHL chart for sun, moon, and stars. The K stands for Knowing, the W for Want to Know, the H for How you want to learn it, and the L for what you Learned. We will finish the KWHL chart tomorrow before beginning our study of light.
Thanks for another great day and stay warm!!
As the students entered they completed the morning journal of: If you have won an award, what was it and why did you win the award? If you haven't won an award, what award would you like to win and why? It was wonderful to read how many of our children have won awards. We completed day two on our morning math sheet. This covered finding the missing number in an addition equation, counting and subtracting money, place value blocks with regrouping, and adding.
During math, we learned how to solve a division problem using repeated subtraction. For example if you are dividing 12/3=, you would start with 12-3=9, 9-3=6, 6-3=3, 3-3=0. Count how many times you subtracted three and that is the answer. So 12/3=4. We also checked our answer by multiplying 4x3=12. The students practiced using this strategy at their seats and some of them got to go on the computer to work on their multiplication facts. Tomorrow we will play a multiplication and division review game for our test on Friday.
During Imagine It, we learned that when you put -ly on a word it becomes an adverb and when you put -y on the end of a noun it becomes an adjective. We previewed our story "Sun" and worked on adjusting our reading speed, clarifying, and asking good questions. The students are going to read the story "Sun" tonight for homework.
During Science, I read "Papa, please get the moon for me" by. Eric Carle. It was such a class favorite, that I ended up reading it twice. All of the students in the class took an AR test on the book, and everyone got 100!! The students created a KWHL chart for sun, moon, and stars. The K stands for Knowing, the W for Want to Know, the H for How you want to learn it, and the L for what you Learned. We will finish the KWHL chart tomorrow before beginning our study of light.
Thanks for another great day and stay warm!!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Where were you?!
That is the big question from our class today! We only had fourteen students at school today, but we had a blast with our learning. The students began the day writing a morning journal about, "What was the best thing you did over the holiday break?" (Please remember if your child is out, they are still responsible for the morning journals they missed.) We then completed morning math day one which reviewed over place value, value of numbers, adding and subtracting money, three digit addition, and patterns.
During math we completed a SOLVE problem which had us divide 54/6. We drew out six groups and then divided out the fifty-four things into the groups. We found out that there were nine in one group, so 54/6=9. We checked our answer by multiplying 9x6-54. We discuss every day that multiplication and division are the opposite of each other and they create a fact family. We then played multiplication BINGO, to practice our multiplication facts. We had two winners and they received a piece of candy and NO laps at recess.
During Imagine It, I introduced the Sun, Moon, and Stars unit and read the story Galileo's Journal. This is an historical fiction (ask your child about this genre) story and the students really enjoyed learning about the first telescope was invented. I always enjoy reading this story to the students, because they are so shocked that people did not understand how outer space worked. We practiced clarifying things we did not understand in the story. Ask your child to help you clarify something as you read with them tonight.
Today the students participated in a "Gallery Walk". They walked through the halls and wrote positive comments on other student's heritage projects. Everyone enjoyed seeing how all of the projects were created and so different! I will be recording the students doing their presentations over the next few days and then we will watch the video together as a class.
Tonight for homework they had one math sheet, that had a review of multiplication and division concepts. They need to read 30 minutes and study their multiplication flash cards.
See you tomorrow!
During math we completed a SOLVE problem which had us divide 54/6. We drew out six groups and then divided out the fifty-four things into the groups. We found out that there were nine in one group, so 54/6=9. We checked our answer by multiplying 9x6-54. We discuss every day that multiplication and division are the opposite of each other and they create a fact family. We then played multiplication BINGO, to practice our multiplication facts. We had two winners and they received a piece of candy and NO laps at recess.
During Imagine It, I introduced the Sun, Moon, and Stars unit and read the story Galileo's Journal. This is an historical fiction (ask your child about this genre) story and the students really enjoyed learning about the first telescope was invented. I always enjoy reading this story to the students, because they are so shocked that people did not understand how outer space worked. We practiced clarifying things we did not understand in the story. Ask your child to help you clarify something as you read with them tonight.
Today the students participated in a "Gallery Walk". They walked through the halls and wrote positive comments on other student's heritage projects. Everyone enjoyed seeing how all of the projects were created and so different! I will be recording the students doing their presentations over the next few days and then we will watch the video together as a class.
Tonight for homework they had one math sheet, that had a review of multiplication and division concepts. They need to read 30 minutes and study their multiplication flash cards.
See you tomorrow!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Wells Fargo Banks!!
Our community service project will be coming to an end on Monday. Please have your child bring in their banks with all of the change they have collected. The banks are theirs to keep at home and enjoy. This community service project is the culmination of our money unit in both Imagine It and SS. The students will be counting the money that has been collected on Monday and Tuesday. We will present the money to a representative from the women's shelter at the end of this week. He will come in and accept the money from our students and then he will discuss with them how the money will be used, his career as a newscaster, and his work with the non-profit organization. He will explain to them the type of education that is needed to get a job in his field.
We will write thank you notes to the parent and Wells Fargo that donated the banks to our students. This will allow the students to practice writing friendly letters.
Thank you for your support in this worthy cause.
We will write thank you notes to the parent and Wells Fargo that donated the banks to our students. This will allow the students to practice writing friendly letters.
Thank you for your support in this worthy cause.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Midterm Reports
Parents:
Midterm reports came home today. Please sign and return these by tomorrow and your child will have no laps. If you have any questions about these grades or want to meet with me, please call me 980-343-3920 or email me jennifer.patrick@cms.k12.nc.us.
The fundraiser for the local women's shelter will end this Monday. Please send in any change you have collected in your Wells Fargo banks by this Monday. We are having a representative from the shelter come and receive the money from the students and talk about his exciting career. (He was once a newscaster in Charlotte.)
The heritage projects are due next Friday, December 16. Please remember they are to research the country of their heritage. They will not research a state or the United States, unless they are Native American. If you have any questions, please contact me.
Thank you for your continued support.
Midterm reports came home today. Please sign and return these by tomorrow and your child will have no laps. If you have any questions about these grades or want to meet with me, please call me 980-343-3920 or email me jennifer.patrick@cms.k12.nc.us.
The fundraiser for the local women's shelter will end this Monday. Please send in any change you have collected in your Wells Fargo banks by this Monday. We are having a representative from the shelter come and receive the money from the students and talk about his exciting career. (He was once a newscaster in Charlotte.)
The heritage projects are due next Friday, December 16. Please remember they are to research the country of their heritage. They will not research a state or the United States, unless they are Native American. If you have any questions, please contact me.
Thank you for your continued support.
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