A Recap Of What's Been Happening in the Classroom

The class has come A LONG WAY since first learning how to add multidigit numbers!

A Look Back At Our Week

In Social Studies we listened to the story Mapping Penny's World and learned more about map skills.

Quick Recap from Last Week

In social studies we have been working on mapping skills.

Story Elements & Retelling Rope

In Reader's Workshop, we have been reviewing how to identify story elements in books and learning how to retell a story.

          

Halloween Party!

Our Halloween Party was filled with a read aloud, putting on costumes, walking in the parade, decorating a picture frame, playing bingo, and having a dance party.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

Finishing Up Narrative Writing

This week we have been wrapping up our narrative writing unit.  We spent some time at the end of last week trying out different types of endings.

Fire Safety Fun

On Thursday the Neshanic Volunteer Fire Company came to teach us about fire safety and let us have some fun with the hose!

What We've Been Up Too...

I modeled how to retell a story using the big book Robot-Cat.

Daily 5

Here is what we have been up to during Reader's Workshop...

Math Workshop

Math Workshop is a way to differentiate math instruction through developmental grouping. 

Metacognition!

This year students will be learning many comprehension strategies to help them understand and think more deeply about what they are reading.  First teaching students to be metacognitive about their reading, sets the foundation for the rest of the year. Students learned that real reading means you are reading the text AND thinking!

T.G.I.F.

Fridays are my favorite school day of the week.  I try to plan events that the kids know will happen just about every Friday to give them something to look forward to all week. 

Creating a Classroom Community

  In our classroom we are working hard at creating a safe and welcoming community.  Each morning we begin our day with a Morning Meeting.  We gather in a circle at the carpet and review our class rules while going through the hand motions for each rule ;). Next we go around the circle greeting our neighbor while making eye contact and asking how they're doing this morning.  After that students close their eyes and reflect upon one thing they did well yesterday and one thing they could do better today.  Those that want to share their reflections raise their hand and the "talking ball" gets bounced their way.  To end our meeting some students share how they're feeling, we might sing a song or complete an activity, and finally go over what we will be learning for the day!

Generating Writing Ideas

To kick off Writer's Workshop we discussed how sometimes as writers it can be difficult to come up with an idea to write about.  To help solve this problem the class has been busy creating a heart map.  They were to fill out the blank heart with all things that are important to them (people, places, things).  This will be kept in students' writing binders as a resource during our writing block.