What We've Been Up To

We have been very busy these past two weeks!  Here's a snapshot of what we've been up to:

During Reading Workshop we have been learning about nonfiction books.  The children are really enjoying this unit.  We've learned that:

• many nonfiction texts have pictures with captions.  The captions help us learn more about what the picture is showing us.
• many nonfiction books have a Table of Contents.
• we can often find bold words in a nonfiction text.  The bold words are usually the words we will find in the glossary.
• many pictures include labels to teach us about specific parts of the photograph.
• readers can study the photographs closely to learn more about the topic.
• when we read a new word about a topic, we can study the photograph to see if the picture helps us understand the meaning of the new word.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

During Writing Workshop we finished our How-To unit.  Children published one of their how-to books (in poster format) then shared them with the class on Thursday.  We started our new unit, All About Books, on Friday.  The children get to be authors of their very own nonfiction books!  We will be able to take what we've learned during reading workshop and apply it to our own writing.  This is an exciting unit as the children get to show the many different topics they know all about.

During Math we:

• spent a couple days on a lesson called "Tall Enough to Ride."  The children measured a partner to determine how many sticky notes tall they were.  On day 1, many children overlapped sticky notes or left large gaps between sticky notes, giving them inaccurate measurements.  After debriefing at the end of day 1, the children learned that the sticky notes needed to be lined up with no gaps or overlapping.  We repeated the lesson on day 2 and made more accurate measurements.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• spent several days solving addition and subtraction number stories.  Students are working on writing number models to represent a number story (subtraction number models tend to be a little tricky).
• played a game called "Disappearing Train" to practice subtracting. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• played "Hiding Bears" to practice naming combinations of 10.
• played "The Disappearing and Growing Train Game" to practice adding and subtracting and recognizing the addition and subtraction symbols.

We were lucky to welcome a new friend to our class last week.  The children have been very kind and helpful to their new classmate, inviting him to play and helping him learn the routines and expectations.  Welcome to our class, Nathan!  

It looks like more snow is on the way next week...fingers crossed that we don't have another snow day.

Have a great weekend!

Katie