Wow - another week gone by! I can't believe we are halfway through October already! These kids will be third graders before we know it!
It was another "short week" - which meant it was another busy week for us in Room 13. Keep reading to learn about what students have been up to!
Since this was the first nonfiction story that we have read from this reading program, we spent a lot of time talking about the different features offered by a nonfiction text. Some of these features include:
Real/authentic photographs
Factual information
Captions and Headings
Glossary
Index
This week, we have been working really hard to identify the main idea and supporting details of a text. This is a difficult, but important, skill – one that students will need to utilize throughout their academic career. It takes a great deal of practice and I really encourage you to reinforce it at home. You can do this by reading a book together and then coming up with a good sentence that tells what the WHOLE story is about. Then, work to identify 3 details that support/give information about the main idea. (Students sometimes get confused with facts/details that are interesting and facts/details that are important/supportive).
As a special treat, a few firefighters from the Hopkinton Fire Department came to visit us at Elmwood on Friday!! Students were able to ask some of their "burning questions!" Did your child have a good time? Did s/he learn anything new??
Some of this week's reading centers included:
Phonics Center - This center focused on Word Families (words that all share the same rime/ending.) Words in the –ame Word Family, for example, include name, game, shame, etc. The ability to identify Word Families helps students read and spell more difficult words. In this center, students worked to create Word Families with the following rimes: -ame -ate -ack -ash -ake. They then used tangible cubes to create real words and recorded their ideas.
Grammar Center - This week, students were reminded that every complete sentence must have a subject (who or what the sentence is about). In this center, students cut out 2 pictures from a magazine of a person or animal. They then wrote a complete sentence about each picture and circled the subject.
Spelling - Students wrote down their spelling words, cut them apart, and glued them in alphabetical order. Tricky!
Writing Center - Students looked through photographs from the 2007 wildfires in California and wrote one statement, one question, and one exclamation about the fires.
Graphic Organizer - After reading a story in their small reading group, students created a web identifying the main idea and details.
SPELLING
This week, most students were reintroduced to “SNEAKY E” (aka: King Ed, Magic E, or Silent E). Students’ spelling lists had a few short a review words (with the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern) as well as some words with the a_e pattern. This pattern creates a “long a” sound (aayy). The _ (underscore) represents a consonant. Words that follow this pattern include:
It was another "short week" - which meant it was another busy week for us in Room 13. Keep reading to learn about what students have been up to!
READING
This was an exciting week in reading because we read our first Time For Kids article! This week, the selection was titled “Fighting the Fire.” From this selection, students learned all about forest fires and the many different roles that firefighters have. They were even introduced to an old friend, Smokey the Bear! (He was actually a “new friend” to most of them!!) Ask your child to tell you a few interesting facts that they learned about fires this week!
Since this was the first nonfiction story that we have read from this reading program, we spent a lot of time talking about the different features offered by a nonfiction text. Some of these features include:
Real/authentic photographs
Factual information
Captions and Headings
Glossary
Index
This week, we have been working really hard to identify the main idea and supporting details of a text. This is a difficult, but important, skill – one that students will need to utilize throughout their academic career. It takes a great deal of practice and I really encourage you to reinforce it at home. You can do this by reading a book together and then coming up with a good sentence that tells what the WHOLE story is about. Then, work to identify 3 details that support/give information about the main idea. (Students sometimes get confused with facts/details that are interesting and facts/details that are important/supportive).
As a special treat, a few firefighters from the Hopkinton Fire Department came to visit us at Elmwood on Friday!! Students were able to ask some of their "burning questions!" Did your child have a good time? Did s/he learn anything new??
Some of this week's reading centers included:
Phonics Center - This center focused on Word Families (words that all share the same rime/ending.) Words in the –ame Word Family, for example, include name, game, shame, etc. The ability to identify Word Families helps students read and spell more difficult words. In this center, students worked to create Word Families with the following rimes: -ame -ate -ack -ash -ake. They then used tangible cubes to create real words and recorded their ideas.
Grammar Center - This week, students were reminded that every complete sentence must have a subject (who or what the sentence is about). In this center, students cut out 2 pictures from a magazine of a person or animal. They then wrote a complete sentence about each picture and circled the subject.
Spelling - Students wrote down their spelling words, cut them apart, and glued them in alphabetical order. Tricky!
Writing Center - Students looked through photographs from the 2007 wildfires in California and wrote one statement, one question, and one exclamation about the fires.
Graphic Organizer - After reading a story in their small reading group, students created a web identifying the main idea and details.
SPELLING
This week, most students were reintroduced to “SNEAKY E” (aka: King Ed, Magic E, or Silent E). Students’ spelling lists had a few short a review words (with the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern) as well as some words with the a_e pattern. This pattern creates a “long a” sound (aayy). The _ (underscore) represents a consonant. Words that follow this pattern include:
game slate
made place
grape lane
The e in these words is silent, but it causes the a to “say its name” (aaayyy). Students should be aware that this is just one way to spell the long a sound.
Suggestion: Point out words that follow this pattern as you go about your daily lives. They are more common than you think – and students will enjoy “hunting” for these words. (This activity will reinforce and strengthen students’ ability to identify and recognize spelling/word patterns!)
MATH
MATH
We have really been focusing on the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction in math this week. This is a
FACT FAMILIES clearly demonstrate the relationship between addition and subtraction. As a refresher: Fact Families are 3 numbers that are all “related” to each other.
For example:
2, 3, 5 are a fact family
With these numbers we can create the following 4 number models:
2 + 3 = 5 5 – 2 = 3
3 + 2 = 5 5 – 3 = 2
Students often have trouble with the subtraction models, trying to subtract the two smaller numbers and getting a different answ er (example: 3 – 2 = 1). The key to Fact Families is that you always use the same 3 numbers. If a child can recognize this, then math facts will become much easier.As a spin-off, we integrated a little bit of art into math this week (yay!) and children created fact family houses. Take a look:
SCIENCE
This week, students learned more about solids and liquids. They should now understand that solids are a type of matter that have their own shape. That’s not to say that solids can’t change their shape, but it is important for students to understand that they HAVE their own shape. Solids can be hard (desk) or soft (pillow), natural (wood) or people-made (plastic).
This week, students learned more about solids and liquids. They should now understand that solids are a type of matter that have their own shape. That’s not to say that solids can’t change their shape, but it is important for students to understand that they HAVE their own shape. Solids can be hard (desk) or soft (pillow), natural (wood) or people-made (plastic).
Liquids are another type of matter. Liquids take the shape of whatever container they are in. They do NOT have their own shape. Liquids can be thin or thick, heavy or gooey. Ask your child about the fun experiment we did with different containers!
MYSTERY READER
Our Mystery Reader today was Rachel's mom, Mrs. Halberstadt. She read 3 great stories including: We're Off to Find the Witch's House by Mr. Krieb, A Silly Snowy Day by Michael Coleman and Gwyneth Williamson, and If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond. The children were very interested and engaged and were, as always, a wonderful audience!
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