Literacy - We continued our class read aloud book, The Tiger Rising. Students have been making predictions and connections to the story as we discuss the various literary elements. We are almost through with beginning of the year reading assessments, and will do a full-class novel study beginning next week. After walking through a novel study together, students will break into reading groups for their own book discussions.
Writing - We continue to work on spelling. Check the take home folder for this weeks quiz! I've seen big improvements in quiz results already. We continued our Writer's workshop by pulling out new words from a bin and trying to use them in our writing pieces. We also tried a short descriptive writing piece about a mystery classmate. Students read their descriptions in front of the class and the audience had to guess who the subject was based on the description. We worked on strategies to self-edit and proofread our writing before showing Mr. Clermont a finished product. Math - We continued doing our daily math fact fluency drills. We introduced our student reference books and finished off exercises in rounding/estimating/place value. We finished beginning of the year math assessments, and I am happy to see how bright many of my students are in math! Have a struggling child? Try using academic websites at home to practice fact fluency. I've had students in previous years make tremendous progress after steady practicing of their math facts! Science - We continued our first chapter, Living Things and Energy, and moved onto the food chain. We had many conversations about how important decomposers are in the food chain, and watched some time-lapse photography of decomposition in action. Students were amazed by the speed and growth of bacteria and fungus. Did you know there's a fungus that takes over an ant's brain? Talk to you child about the food chain! We viewed relevant clips of the program "Planet Earth" that details the life cycle of plants and animals. MicroSociety - We participated in our first vote at MACS and decided on Class Representatives and Senators. We talked about the Peace Keepers role at MACS, and had a Q&A discussion with students from last year who were part of the Peace Keepers. We talked about managerial openings in several agencies including the bank, warehouse, post office, peace keepers, and a new position called Kinder Micro Mentor. An older student will pair with some new Kindergarten students during MicroSociety time to help them get acclimated with our school. ** We had a great third week of school. We continue to use the "beat the teacher" board to regulate classroom behavior. Students have earned 14 extra minutes the first week, and 16 extra minutes the second week. Can they keep it up? We work so well as a group!
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April 2018
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