Elections

Today we learned vocabulary words about elections. Then we read Duck for President to help us apply those words. We learned that being a farmer, Governor and President can be hard work... just ask Duck! We made connections to the story and learned about voting. We learned about fictional narratives today when we did some shared writing. We made up a story about Kylar and Corbin's Halloween adventure. We will practice writing stories this week.

Homework- Read Will We Win? and add it to your book box. Read your just right book. Study your new spelling words.

Making Connections

Today we practiced making connections in our reading. We found out it's easier to tell someone about a connection they made but it is more difficult to connect our reading to it. We practiced finding the place in the text that we made the connection. We read Playground Problems and discovered many connections to our own lives. The hard part was citing the evidence from the text that made us think of that connection. We will keep working on this. At home when your child makes a connection, have them cite the place in the text that reminded them of it. They should match. We started to explore number patterns using frames and arrows diagrams today in math. We had to identify the pattern in the numbers and then tell what numbers would come next. It was pretty fun to solve the mystery!

Homework- Read the 'The Spider' poem and have your lucky listener sign the new sheet in your notebook. Read your leveled text. Send both books back on Monday along with the report card envelope signed. Have a great weekend!

Bonus Letters

Today we learned some real and nonsense words with bonus letters. We read The Farmer in the Hat and looked for ways to make predictions using the pictures. We learned all about nouns and then sorted people, places and things. We also got to practice writing with details.

Homework- Read The Farmer in the Hat from your text. Bring it back tomorrow. Complete the home link.

Pumpkin Surprise!

Today we made predictions during a 'What is the box?' game. We started by making predictions about what was in the box and then we gradually added a clue and it changed our predictions. Once we had all three clues, we made a prediction that a pumpkin was in the box. We were right! That happens as we read too. We make predictions and then as we find clues in the story, we change our predictions. Where do we get the information to make predictions based on the clues? Our schema!! See? I told you it was important :)). Once we finished that, we then made a prediction about our Scholastic News. We predicted what you might make out of a pumpkin. Then we got these clues: This pumpkin is huge. This pumpkin can float. Let's carve this pumpkin and make it a ________. Can you make a prediction? We read about pumpkins used as boats and about a pumpkin's life cycle.

Homework- Read your just right book and the Decodable Reader Pug the Pup and add it to your book box. Practice your new spelling words.

Ira's Teddy Bear

Today we learned how to use the number line to add and subtract. This is another strategy we can add to our math tool belt. This strategy can help us solve number stories. We practiced making predictions in Ira Sleeps Over. We used another Kevin Henkes book called, Chester's Way to identify the techniques he uses in his stories to help the reader understand his lessons. Today we added: uses happy endings and uses rhyming words to our writer's craft list. Finally, we read with our 6th grade buddies.

Homework- Read the poem 'When Is It Night?' and have your lucky listener sign the sheet. Read your just right book. Enjoy your day off!!

A Big Fish for Max

Today we learned that even when we use clues in a story to help us make predictions, our predictions aren't always right. We guessed the covered word by making predictions and then checked to see if we were right by revealing the first letter of the words. We then made a prediction about whether Max would catch a big fish for dinner. The majority of us thought that he would catch a fish but he didn't! Ask your child to retell what happened after they read the story tonight. We continued to write like Kevin Henkes today and we learned all about what makes something a living thing in science. We sorted living and nonliving things and learned a new song.

Homework- Read A Big Fish for Max in the reading text and bring it back tomorrow. Complete the home link.

Making Predictions

Today we learned how to use pictures to help us solve number stories. That is another strategy that can help us organize our information. We practiced making predictions in Blue's Art Day and we figured out that Blue wanted to give his leaf art to his friend the turtle. We learned more about Kevin Henkes when we watched a video clip about how he gets ideas for books. We learned the process of making books as well.  Getting inspiration from the world around us will be our focus in writing.

Homework- Read your just right book and complete your math home link.

Kevin Henkes

Today we learned how to sort ck and wh digraphs. We read our new poem, 'When Is It Night?' We took a word test to check our word wall words. We took a quick quiz for comprehension and learned about our next comprehension strategy: making predictions. We read The Doorbell Rang and made predictions about the story and then checked to see if we were right. We started our first author study today. Kevin Henkes will be our feature author. We will use his books to learn what writers do to make their books better. We read Chrysanthemum and determined some of the things that Kevin Henkes does in his books. Some of the things we noticed about his craft are that he repeats phrases often and teaches his readers a lesson. We also learned about our next habit in the Leader in Me: Begin with the End in Mind. We will be setting goals and planning ways to reach those goals.

Homework- Read Going Fishing and add it to your book box. Read your just right book and bring the bag and book back tomorrow. Study your spelling words.

Future of Firefighters

Today we learned about adding doubles, skip counting and how to order items by length in our math explorations. We learned about uniforms for firefighters in our Scholastic News. We practiced reading and writing words with the short e sound in our Making Words lesson. Finally, we read with our third grade buddies.

Homework- Read the 'October Leaves' poem and have your lucky listener sign the sheet. Read your leveled reader. Return the book and poetry notebook on Monday. 

Sun Model

Today we learned how to use our part/part/total diagrams to make a number model. We practiced our digraph words and we rounded up the rhymes using a poem called, 'Carrots' by Shel Silverstein.  We used the poem to learn how to read and write words from the -ight word family. We continued to practice writing stories using our story hand. We activated our schema to read our just right books and we made a model of the sun. It was yummy!!

Homework- Read your just right book and bring the bag and book back each day. Practice your spelling words: are, on, was.

Animal Park

Today we learned all about animals. We guessed the covered word about an animal park. We then activated our schema and wrote about all the things we know about animals. We read Animal Park in our textbook. After that, we went back and used our thinking voice to ask and answer questions about the text. We learned about part/part/total diagrams in math. We use these to organize our numbers before we solve a number story. We finished our sun unit with a quick quiz today. The last thing we will do is make a sun model. We will do that tomorrow.

Homework- Read Animal Park in your textbook and bring the book back tomorrow. Read your just right book and return it. Complete Home Link 3.1.

Schema

Today we learned how to search for digraphs in a puzzle. We practiced writing our digraph words and we located the punctuation in our poem. We discovered that Dr. Xargle had no schema for babies. We had to use our thinking voice to figure out what he was talking about in our story, Dr. Xargle's Book of Earthlets. Schema is everything we already know. We have files in our brain that store this information and good readers get ready to read a book by activating their schema. We learned about writing narratives. We used our story hand to organize our thoughts. We know a story must have characters, a setting and events. The last part of a story is called the wrap-up. We reviewed number concepts in math by playing several games including Subtraction Bingo. Finally, we investigated how the sun affects other things on Earth. We tested water in the classroom and water in the sun to see what the temperature was and then analyzed our results. We found that the sun does affect everything it touches.

Homework-  Read your just right book. Bring the bag and book back tomorrow. 

Fire Safety

Today we learned all about fire safety. We got a tour of the fire engine and squad truck. We learned how to get out of our bedroom when there is a fire and we identified fire hazards in a house. We got a bracelet and a coloring packet. We learned a lot. Thank you to the Apple Creek Fire Department!


Homework- Read Can Do! and place it in your book box. Share your Unit 3 family letter for math and practice your new spelling words: are, on, was.

Digraphs

Today we learned how to sort th and sh digraph pictures. We continued to write our personal stories. We made a fruit 'reading' salad as we read Koala Lou. We used pineapple for our reading voice and oranges for our thinking voice. Reading is thinking!! We took a comprehension quick check and we took our Unit 2 math test. We had our first Leader in Me assembly today. We learned all about the 7 habits.

Homework- Read our 'Pumpkins' poem and have your lucky listener sign the sheet. Read your just right book and bring the bag and book back on Monday. Have great weekend!

Nonsense Words

Today we learned how to make and read real and nonsense words with digraphs. We played rounding up the rhymes and we started writing our personal narrative (story). We used a graphic organizer to plan our writing and now we are taking the plans and putting them into a paragraph. We did practice problems for our math test tomorrow and we read about how the sun can be used for solar power.

Homework- Read your just right book and return the bag and book tomorrow.

Get the Egg!

Today we learned that we can make words using digraphs. Digraphs are two letters that make one sound. We unscrambled mixed up digraph words and wrote them correctly. We made a reading fruit salad using our story- Get the Egg! We added 'pineapples' when we used our reading voice and we added 'orange slices' when we used our thinking voice. We need to think when we read so we can understand what we are reading. We worked with unknown number models today. We learned that each side of our model needs to be equal. For example how would we solve 9-___=2? We need to make sure that both sides of our model equals 2. Finally, we did an experiment with the sun as our heat source when we predicted how much time it would take to melt an ice cube.

Homework- Read Get the Egg! Complete the realism and fantasy sheet to go with the story. Bring the book and worksheet back tomorrow. Students may also read their just right books. Please send the books and bag back tomorrow. Complete Home Link 2.11. Return it as well. Thank you!!

Digraph Man!

I apologize for not posting yesterday! I had such a busy night with conferences that I forgot. I am getting old :)).

Today we learned that there is a super hero in letter world. His name is Digraph Man. Ask your child what Digraph Man does. Some examples of digraphs are: sh, th, wh, ch and ck. We started to write a narrative about something we love today. We used an organizer to help us plan our writing. We will continue doing the piece tomorrow. We learned how to make number models in math and that a + sign means to add and a - sign means to subtract or take away. The equal sign means that both sides of the equation are the same. We will work with these for many days! In science we reviewed that the sun provides light and heat for Earth. We did an investigation to find out what makes our mystery beads turn colors. We found out that the light from the sun does. Tomorrow we will investigate the heat from the sun.

Homework- Read your just right book and bring the book and bag back tomorrow. Complete home link 2.10 and return it.