We had a short, but busy week in 3A. The students are working hard and are starting to settle into our classroom routines. Please be sure to sign your child's agenda and encourage them to read for at least 20 minutes every day. I really appreciate the encouragement and support that you provide your child at home.
Safety on Board
During Reader's Workshop this week the students learned how to chose "just right" or a "good fit" books. Reading good fit books is essential if students are to progress as readers.
A just right book is one that students can confidently read and understand with minimal assistance. These are books that make students stretch—but just a little bit—so that they have the opportunity to apply reading strategies learned in class. Teaching students to chose a good fit book gives them a tool they can take with them each time they go to the library, bookstore, or our classroom library.
I used the story "Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians" by Jackie Hopkins as a mentor text to teach this strategy. Most students have prior knowledge of the story "Goldilocks and the Three
Bears" that helped them better understand and make sense of how to choose a "good fit" book. The story is about a little girl takes a shortcut through the forest on her way home from school and finds a house made of books belonging to the three "Libearians," (Papa bear, Mama bear and baby bear). In the house, she finds books that are too hard, too easy and just right. Goldie Socks also uses the "5 finger rule" strategy to find good books for herself. Following are the guidelines for using this strategy.
Following is a snapshot of our week in 3A:
On Tuesday our class participated in the Safety on Board program. The students had a great time playing a Jeopardy game to test their Bus Safety Knowledge!
Motivational Magic
Reading Workshop
We also had the opportunity to board a school bus to practice our safety skills.
Motivational Magic
On Friday the students at RBES enjoyed a "Motivational Magic" show performed by Steve Harmer. Mr. Harmer uses magic and humour to present the "7 Factors to making and keeping FRIENDS" to students. Everyone had a great time and we learned a lot about being a good friend.
During Reader's Workshop this week the students learned how to chose "just right" or a "good fit" books. Reading good fit books is essential if students are to progress as readers.
A just right book is one that students can confidently read and understand with minimal assistance. These are books that make students stretch—but just a little bit—so that they have the opportunity to apply reading strategies learned in class. Teaching students to chose a good fit book gives them a tool they can take with them each time they go to the library, bookstore, or our classroom library.
Bears" that helped them better understand and make sense of how to choose a "good fit" book. The story is about a little girl takes a shortcut through the forest on her way home from school and finds a house made of books belonging to the three "Libearians," (Papa bear, Mama bear and baby bear). In the house, she finds books that are too hard, too easy and just right. Goldie Socks also uses the "5 finger rule" strategy to find good books for herself. Following are the guidelines for using this strategy.
Please ask your child to demonstrate how to chose a "good fit" book by using the "5 finger rule" strategy.
I also read the story "Thank you, Mr. Falker" to the students. The author, Patricia Polacco, writes from her own experience about having trouble learning to read and the humiliation of being bullied. By introducing this theme in the second week of school, we began to set a positive expectation for success in reading.
Writing Workshop
Every Monday we will begin our Writing Workshop by responding to a journal prompt. With journal writing prompts, students are provided a variety of questions and sentence starters to begin their journal entry. For many students this takes away the pressure of having to choose a writing topic and allows them to just freely write. This gives me a great deal of information about the students' development as writers, the stages of spelling they are in and allows me to pinpoint weaker areas students may need mini-lessons on.
This week's prompt was "What are some of your favourite things about school?"
The students also wrote the good copies and illustrated their
"Favourite Summer Memory" to put in their memory binder.
Making Words - Until our spelling program is underway I will have the students participating in hands-on activities to build their phonemic awareness and spelling skills. This week I introduced "Making Words" in which the students select letters to build short and long words. They were given 8 letters and worked to build words according to clues given to then. Some of the students were even able to come up with the "secret" word that used all 8 letters! It was "TEAMWORK!"
In math we continued our patterning unit by finding differences between numbers by counting backwards and by counting up. The students used number lines and hundreds charts to help with counting backwards. We also worked on finding a number that is less than another number by a given difference and extending number patterns made by subtracting a constant difference.
We began our first unit in science on Rocks and Minerals. The students also started putting together their Rocks and Minerals Lapbook. A lapbook is simply a file folder that contains a variety of mini-books, foldables, and other material that cover detailed information about the lapbook's topic. It's a fun and engaging way display and interact with information, rather than using the traditional "worksheet."
This week we focused on learning about the three different types of rocks - igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. The students also learned that the four layers of the earth are the crust, mantle, inner core and the outer core.
The focus of PE this month is LOCOMOTION. Some games that the students enjoyed included Fruit Salad and Rock, Paper, Scissor and Pacman.
Math
In math we continued our patterning unit by finding differences between numbers by counting backwards and by counting up. The students used number lines and hundreds charts to help with counting backwards. We also worked on finding a number that is less than another number by a given difference and extending number patterns made by subtracting a constant difference.
In addition to working through our Patterning Unit in Math, we are also focusing on mastery of basic facts. The ability to recall math facts fluently, and with automaticity, provides a foundation for math success. Learning specific strategies helps students commit these math facts to memory, resulting in the ability to perform critical mental math tasks.
The students were taught a domino game this week to practice their math fact strategies.
The students were taught a domino game this week to practice their math fact strategies.
Chromebooks
This week the students were assigned their computers. A label with your child's username and password was placed in the front of their agendas on Monday.
The students are using a program called Typing Club to teach them basic keyboarding skills. They will learn the very basics of the home row to eventually learning the whole keyboard in a fun and interactive way.
ScienceThe students are using a program called Typing Club to teach them basic keyboarding skills. They will learn the very basics of the home row to eventually learning the whole keyboard in a fun and interactive way.
This week we focused on learning about the three different types of rocks - igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. The students also learned that the four layers of the earth are the crust, mantle, inner core and the outer core.
Each day we set aside 5-10 minutes for our "rock talk." The students love bringing in their special rocks from home and sharing them with the class.
PE
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