Happy Friday
End of the Quarter- The 18th of January marked the end of second quarter. Can you believe it? Report cards were sent home Thursday, January 24. We will meet in February for conferences again, but if you have any questions or concerns in the meantime please don't hesitate to ask. A few that have come up already are about science. We did not formally assess students in the area of science this quarter. They still got science concepts covered in other parts of the school day. That is why there is no formal grade for science this quarter.
Language Arts-
Small Group- We have been focusing on fables, myths, folktales and fairytales. Students should know what each is and the special characteristics of each. We have learned that fables are brief stories that usually have animals in them that act like humans. We learn life lessons or a moral from a fable. A myth is a story that usually contains Gods and Goddesses or other super natural beings in it. They explain why something in the world happens like why we have 4 seasons. A fairytale is a fable or a folktale. It has princesses, princes, fairies, enchanted objects, truth, kindness always wins, and there is a 'Happily Ever After'. A folktale is a story with no known author. It is passed down from generation to generation usually by word of mouth. The story may change a bit over time. We are working on an iPad activity to tell the difference between these stories. I will have some student guest bloggers share next week on the project and what we did with it.
Our big QR activity was for students to scan a code and watch a movie of a story that I found. I was confused because the title of the story said it was both a fairytale and a fable. I wanted them to listen to the story, put the events of the story in order and then tell me based off of what we learned what they think it is: a fairytale or a fable.
Writing- We have been doing so much writing! We got our first letter from our 3rd grade pen pals in Oceanside California. We have been working on writing them back and sending them some of our weather. :) We have also been working on author's purpose and author's perspective. Since we have talked about how to write from a different point of view students wrote their own stories form the point of view of something else. We used 'Diary of a Fly" as an example. They are turning out great. I will share a few book covers today and then next week let some of them share their entire story with you on the blog. They are awesome!
End of the Quarter- The 18th of January marked the end of second quarter. Can you believe it? Report cards were sent home Thursday, January 24. We will meet in February for conferences again, but if you have any questions or concerns in the meantime please don't hesitate to ask. A few that have come up already are about science. We did not formally assess students in the area of science this quarter. They still got science concepts covered in other parts of the school day. That is why there is no formal grade for science this quarter.
Language Arts-
Small Group- We have been focusing on fables, myths, folktales and fairytales. Students should know what each is and the special characteristics of each. We have learned that fables are brief stories that usually have animals in them that act like humans. We learn life lessons or a moral from a fable. A myth is a story that usually contains Gods and Goddesses or other super natural beings in it. They explain why something in the world happens like why we have 4 seasons. A fairytale is a fable or a folktale. It has princesses, princes, fairies, enchanted objects, truth, kindness always wins, and there is a 'Happily Ever After'. A folktale is a story with no known author. It is passed down from generation to generation usually by word of mouth. The story may change a bit over time. We are working on an iPad activity to tell the difference between these stories. I will have some student guest bloggers share next week on the project and what we did with it.
Our big QR activity was for students to scan a code and watch a movie of a story that I found. I was confused because the title of the story said it was both a fairytale and a fable. I wanted them to listen to the story, put the events of the story in order and then tell me based off of what we learned what they think it is: a fairytale or a fable.
Writing- We have been doing so much writing! We got our first letter from our 3rd grade pen pals in Oceanside California. We have been working on writing them back and sending them some of our weather. :) We have also been working on author's purpose and author's perspective. Since we have talked about how to write from a different point of view students wrote their own stories form the point of view of something else. We used 'Diary of a Fly" as an example. They are turning out great. I will share a few book covers today and then next week let some of them share their entire story with you on the blog. They are awesome!
AR- With the quarter ending last week students got new AR goals this week. I am NOT sending home current AR reports, because it was a short week for testing. I will send them home next week. This week I am sending home a final list of how Q2 ended for your student and the AR program. It lists all of the books that were quizzed on and all of the scores. I highlighted any 70% and lower score on the sheets. I have also printed out the new AR levels and ranges for Q3 for you to take a look at. I added the Q2 information to the sheet so you can compare averages and ranges from then. If you have any questions please let me know. Next week we will be back to normal as far as weekly AR reports are concerned.
Spelling- This week we tested on unit 9 in our Sitton Spelling. Our focus this unit was on homophones (one/won). We had some fun playing with different homophone pairs.
Math- This week in math we have been doing a mixture of things. Students have gotten some practice again on telling time and counting money. We are also working on multiplying 2 and 3 digit numbers by a 1 digit number. We have also started an introduction to our unit on fractions. Students are learning relationships between shapes so we can find equivalent or equal shapes within them. Students should be at level 5 on flashcards right now. They should be practicing each night. We are going for automaticity so students should know the whole fact on their card in 4 seconds.
Science/Social Studies- We have spent time this week discussing the United States and its 5 regions. We will begin with the North East region and move our way around the country. Students have had the opportunity to read various books and articles about the region and find some interesting facts. We have also talked about how that part of our country was discovered first and what made people decide to move on to find more of it. If any of you have traveled to the NE and have pictures or artifacts to share feel free to send them in with your child. We are looking for as much firsthand information as possible. There will be a special 'share' day with all of the regions.
I'll leave you with some great pictures of us having some fun with the iPads!!! Man, was it quiet in the room. :)
~Ana
Spelling- This week we tested on unit 9 in our Sitton Spelling. Our focus this unit was on homophones (one/won). We had some fun playing with different homophone pairs.
Math- This week in math we have been doing a mixture of things. Students have gotten some practice again on telling time and counting money. We are also working on multiplying 2 and 3 digit numbers by a 1 digit number. We have also started an introduction to our unit on fractions. Students are learning relationships between shapes so we can find equivalent or equal shapes within them. Students should be at level 5 on flashcards right now. They should be practicing each night. We are going for automaticity so students should know the whole fact on their card in 4 seconds.
Science/Social Studies- We have spent time this week discussing the United States and its 5 regions. We will begin with the North East region and move our way around the country. Students have had the opportunity to read various books and articles about the region and find some interesting facts. We have also talked about how that part of our country was discovered first and what made people decide to move on to find more of it. If any of you have traveled to the NE and have pictures or artifacts to share feel free to send them in with your child. We are looking for as much firsthand information as possible. There will be a special 'share' day with all of the regions.
I'll leave you with some great pictures of us having some fun with the iPads!!! Man, was it quiet in the room. :)
~Ana
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