The Last Two Weeks

It's been a busy two weeks here in our classroom.  Here's what we've been up to:

Last Monday, Alden and his family taught our class about the process involved in making maple syrup.  They shared lots of pictures to show where they make maple syrup and how they do it, and every child got his/her own bottle of homemade maple syrup!  The children were very excited about this yummy treat.  Thank you, Robbins' Family!

The recent focus of our Reading Workshop lessons has been characters and setting.  We have learned:

• what a character is.
• to look at the cover and pictures before reading to get-to-know the characters and what they might do in the story.
• to think about what a character might be saying throughout the book, and to talk like the character, using a voice to match the emotion they'd be feeling.
• characters' feelings often change throughout the story.  Readers pay attention to how the character is feeling throughout the story and recognize if feelings change.
• readers connect their thinking across all pages of a book and think about what the whole story tells us about a character.
• that the setting in a story is where and when the story takes place.  The setting can change throughout the story.

During Writing Workshop, we have been immersed in poetry writing.  The children have been so excited about this unit, and the poems they've written have amazed me!  Most of our mini-lessons have been focused around listening to poems and talking about characteristics of each poem.  We have learned about:

• shape poems. 

"I like loaders.  Voom, voom, goes your engine.  Round go the wheels.  Zoom, zoom.  Voom, voom."

• adding sound words to our poems.
• similes.
• personification. 
• acrostic poems.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• writing our own songs by using a familiar tune/song and changing the lyrics to be our own.

We also spent a writing block outside writing nature poems.

During Math we:

• learned about the dime.  We learned that ten pennies are equivalent to one dime and two nickels are equivalent to one dime.
• played coin exchange games.
• counted by 2's and discussed patterns we notice when counting by 2's.  
• learned what "half" means and practiced dividing groups and shapes in half.
• played the Teen Frame Game, focusing on the fact that teen numbers are 10 + something more.  
• 10 + 3 = 13
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
•  played Read my Mind, a game in which students ask yes or no questions to narrow down a group of attribute blocks to one mystery block.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• played Monster Squeeze, a game to practice comparing numbers.

• practiced addition and subtraction.

I hope your children have a wonderful, much deserved April break!
Katie