Weekly News 1-29-21

 Weekly News 1-29-21

Important Notes:

*We will be making our valentines at school - no need to buy or make anything at home.

*Next week we start a new specials schedule and will have one special every day for a whole week.  PE is up first so send sneakers every day next week.  Students will now be able to exchange library books every Tuesday.  

Our Work this Week:

*In spelling we have focused on short vowel words that writers use often.  Many of these are high frequency words that we want students to be spelling correctly any time they are writing.  We did extra visual practice this week to master them and continued to do dictation to practice them in context.

*During math we worked in unit 3 on addition and subtraction strategies.  We really focused on fact families and being able to write two addition and two subtraction facts from one fact family. We did lots of problem solving and also worked on knowing when it’s more efficient to count up to subtract and when it’s better to count back.  Every day  we are working to master basic math facts and students also have “Extra Math” folders to use for enrichment when they finish their regular work.

*In reading workshop we learned how to use reader’s notebooks and the kids did really well!  We explored nonfiction texts and students organized t-charts in their notebooks to tell what they knew about a topic before reading and what they learned after reading.  Each day their organization and independence grew.  We also learned to draw a detailed and labeled diagram about a nonfiction book we read.  Students practiced reading a book in RAZ Kids and recorded their thinking in their notebooks.  (This will be a helpful learning tool if we need to work from home at any point). 

*Writing workshop this week had us writing away in our “All About” books.  Students have organized their topics and are elaborating on each section with details and pictures.  Many have started a second book and are enjoying the change in writing genre.  

*Science this week has been focused several plant experiments - seeing how seeds grow in a particular direction, how sunlight impacts plant growth and also how seeds reach for sunlight.  We are using a grow light to support our “grassheads” experiment.  Ask your kiddo about their grasshead design!

Reader's notebook sample - a sea cucumber diagram!

Meerkat Reader's Notebook sample

Independent reading response using a book on RAZ KIDS!

V

Turtles response

Checking out our dark and sunlight radish progress

Mrs. Plummer lent us a cover to give our sunlight radishes warmth in the window - sprouts the next day!

These are the plants that have been in Mrs. Pols's desk covered in tin foil - in the dark.  They sprouted first!

This reader's notebook response goes with our weekly Scholastic News.

In Art with Mrs. Devin we did Valentine's cocoa mugs for our families.

We began working on our valentines for classmates.

Students got to pick the valentines they wanted from a selection.  They started cutting them out and coloring today!

Lots of snowman building going on at recess!

Playing SALUTE in distanced groups of 3

Salute is a math game to practice missing addend math problems.

We have worked hard on fact families!

Ms. Luchies sharing Caldecott books with us!

Reading a nonfiction book on RAZ and recording thinking in her notebook

Mrs. Pols bought grow lights for our plant projects!

Making our "grassheads" in science

Planting radish seeds in a cd case with a wet paper towel to track the direction a seed will grow in