Reindeer

Yesterday and today we learned how to describe characters in Olive, the Other Reindeer and how to describe the setting in The Wild Christmas Reindeer. We used the story about Olive to describe our own pet reindeer and we created one for our writing. We practiced estimating, tallying and graphing red and green candy during Math and we learned about volunteering and goods and services in Social Studies.

Homework- Read your just right book and complete the math home link. Don't forget your gift exchange present!

Dear Santa

Today we learned more about the parts of a letter and persuasive writing. We read the book, Dear Santa- The Letters from James B. Dobbins. In the book, James is trying to explain to Santa that all of the things that he has done wrong were just accidents. He is trying to persuade Santa into getting him the gifts he would like for Christmas. We wrote our own persuasive letters to Santa. We told him all of the good things we have done this year. We also did math explorations today. We practiced measuring, using Base-10 blocks and finding paths.

Homework- Read the poem, 'Homemade Gingerbread' and have your lucky listener sign the sheet.
Don't forget to bring in your exchange gift by Wednesday.

Compare and Contrast

Today we finished our Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We worked on writing words with -nk. In math, we learned more about the patterns on the number grid as we filled in our own number grid. We discovered different strategies to do that. Then we completed parts of the number grid that were missing numbers. Finally, in Social Studies we learned about the laws and leaders of a community.

Homework- Read your just right book and practice reading and writing your sight words.

Addition Top-it

Today we learned how to use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast two things. We discovered that this will help us to remember, connect and comprehend what we are reading. We learned how to make number sentences true in math and we reviewed greater than and less than models. We learned how to play Addition Top-it as well.

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

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Today we practiced retelling How the Grinch Stole Christmas by following the yellow brick road. We worked in groups to tell the parts of a retelling (characters, setting, etc.) and then laid our road out and practiced retelling the story. We learned all about our new glued sound using the letters -nk and we wrote animal riddles using inside and outside character traits.

Homework- Read your decodable reader and add it to your book box. Study your new spelling words.

The Grinch

Today we started a book study with, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. We used clues from the book to make a character sketch. We discussed The Grinch's traits and we talked about why an author would want us to know so much about a character. We also discussed the four main directions and made a map of Whoville to practice using the directions: north, south, east and west. Finally, in math we used a real world example with Base-10 blocks... pennies and dimes. The dimes represent the longs and the pennies represent the cubes. We practiced making exchanges with our pennies and dimes. No one wants to have 100 pennies in their pocket! :))

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

Lessons

Today we learned that author's sneak lessons into their books when we aren't expecting them :). They try to teach us how to be kind, follow rules, be a good friend and so much more. Some stories, like fables, tell us the moral. Some authors don't tell us, we have to use clues to figure out the lesson. We practiced finding the lessons of several stories today. We did a free write while some students finished their movie writing and we learned about the value of a digit in math. The digit's value is determined by the place it is in. We were very busy!

Homework- Read your just right book. Practice your sight words. Here are a few links to help you-http://www.starfall.com/n/matching/sight-words/load.htm
http://www.abcya.com/dolch_sight_word_bingo.htm

Noodles

Today we learned about character traits. Before we read our book,  I Love Christmas! with Noodles the dog, we discussed outside character traits. Those are the words that can describe a character's appearance. Then when we read the book we described the inside traits which can be determined through a character's feelings, actions or words. We found out that in our book, Noodle's inside traits actually changed. We determined that characters can change in the books we read. Then we used our writing time to retell the story. In math we learned about place value.

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

Popcorn!!

Today we learned what makes popcorn pop. We discovered that everything on Earth is matter. We learned about solids, liquids and gases. We learned that popcorn is a solid but has a little bit of water inside. Ask your son/daughter what happens to the water and how it affects the popcorn kernel. Today we also made a mouse craft to go with our movie writing. In technology, we learned how to login to our Google account and how to open a new document. We will continue to work on this next week.

Homework- Read your decodable reader and place it in your book box. Study your spelling words.

Needs and Wants

Today we learned about needs and wants. We sorted items from our story, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies and learned that needs are things that you must have to survive. Then we worked in groups to determine what item we would buy if we could only afford one thing. We explained why we would pick that item. We talked about economic decisions. We also continued writing our movie description paper. I was so proud of the students... they did such a nice job on using a web to make a paragraph.

Homework- Read the poem of the week and have your lucky listener sign the sheet.