Reader’s and Writer’s
Workshop
We have been reading many mentor texts teaching us about
small moments and students have thought hard about important moments they want
to write about.
We have been focusing on ideas and organization for Writer’s
Workshop. Ideas are strong when they are
clear and focused, and move from the general to the specific. Students have planned their small moments and
have been exposed to two different types of graphic organizers. Students are working at their own pace to
transfer their ideas into a fluid story that contains a “bold beginning” that
hooks the reader, a “mighty middle” rich with details, and an “excellent
ending” that ties everything up. While
students are eager to have a final product, we are really focusing on the
process of brainstorming, planning, editing and revising. Students have been
collaborating with their peers and teachers on this writing process.
I find it important for students to understand writing as
not just something that is done in school, but also a mean of communication and
expression. Students were very excited
to be given their own personal journals that they will be given the opportunity
to write in from time to time.
During literacy work stations, students have been introduced
to a Reading is Thinking Journal. It is
crucial for beginning readers to understand that reading is far more than just
reading the words on the page. Reading
is thinking: asking questions, making connections, having feelings about what
we read, understanding the words, and making movies in our minds. Think about all of the things that adults do
as they read and talk to your child about what you do as a reader. Students
have been practicing recording their thinking as they read independently.
Math
The skills in the new math topic are a continuum of basic
fact strategies learned in the previous topic.
In the primary grades, there is an emphasis on mastering the basic
addition facts. For children who cannot
quickly memorize all of the facts, these strategies are put in place to help
them.
Children did a great job learning and practicing
doubles. We connected this strategy to
many real life and tangible situations such as 5 fingers on each hand (5+5=10)
and 6 eggs in each row of a carton (6+6=12).
The doubles-plus-1 and doubles-plus-2 strategy ultimately
involves the associative property of addition.
A doubles-plus-1 (or 2) fact includes one addend that is 1 (or 2) more
than the other addend. Students are
applying the strategies learned in the previous weeks for addition problems
with greater sums. While this has been a
challenging concept for students to grasp, providing students with visual
representations such as connecting cubes and acting the strategy/problem out as
a class has been helpful.
The making 10 strategy allows children to create a
“friendlier” problem. For example, when
adding 9+5 the child can reason, “I can take 1 from the 5 and put it with the 9
to make 10. Then I can easily add 10 and
4 to get 14.” The associative property
of addition also underlies this strategy.
What is ahead?
Students will soon be exposed to two-question word problems
and adding 3 numbers.
The need to learn and understand new symbolic and verbal
math language is in conjunction with the memorization of the facts.
Important math
vocabulary
addition
addend
sum
part
whole
Extra Math Practice at Home:
** Practing the
doubles strategy**
(I highly encourage
children to practice doubles)
Practicing word
problems with greater sums: (remind
your child to use strategies such as drawing a picture or using manipulatives
to solve problems)
Practing addition
problems using number sense: (remind
children that true means correct.)
Fundations
We have continued to focus on reading and spelling words
with 2 and 3 letter blends . In the
coming weeks students will continue to improve on these skills along with
learning digraph blends.
Examples:
2 letter blend- best
3 letter blend- splash
digraph blend- crunch
A visit from the fire department to teach us about fire safety!
Mystery Reader’s
Author’s Chair
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