October News

 

 

Language Arts

 

The students have learned that characters in a story have various character traits in addition to feelings. They were able to distinguish between a character's feelings and traits.

 

As students listened to read-alouds, they were able to determine a character trait which a character displayed and provided evidence from the story to support that trait.

 

                                        

 

 

                                                       

Following this, students discussed how the character changed from the beginning to the end of the story. Then students applied this new found knowledge to stories they were reading in their small guided reading groups.

 

Once students had developed a firm understanding of these principles, students then discussed point of view in a story. They learned the difference between first and third person point of view.

After reading The Pain and The Great One, they were able to write a journal entry from each character's point of view.

 

 

 

Using the knowledge from the character unit, students wrote personal narratives incorporating these concepts into a writing piece. Below are a few samples of student's work.

 

                                  The Soccer Game

                                     By: Aashritha 

“You are goalie!” said my coach pointing to me. I knew I was in big trouble. I have never been goalie before! Before the game, I was nervous. So nervous that I was already sweating! My teeth were chattering. My legs were trembling. The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of the net. I was very unhappy about my position. Reason number one: it is the hardest position. Reason number two: I was a bad goalie. I felt like jumping in the air and flying off to Pluto until the Fall Soccer season was O-V-E-R. OVER!!!!! I guess I should have been paying attention to the game rather than daydreaming because then- THUD! The ball found my head, as usual! I could feel myself falling. It felt like slow motion. The last thing I saw was the ball racing toward me. Finally, I hit the ground. I laid there for a while. When I woke up, I heard my parents, my team, and my coach cheering for me. I did feel like I accomplished something, but I still didn’t know why they were cheering for me. “We won!” yelled one of my teammates. That’s when I realized: I did  accomplish something! I helped my team win! I felt warm on the inside but cold on the outside. I felt cold because it was a cold day! My coach, team, and parents were happy that we won the game. “You did a good job!” said my coach. I helped my team win by blocking the ball. I didn’t think I could do it but I did. I learned that you can do anything if you put your mind to it!

 

Personal Narrative

By Ethan

I was at an indoor archery place. My grandfather was taking me for a lesson. I was scared to go in. My grandfather said, “It was ok.” I was still scared. I thought to myself, “What if the instructor was mean?” I didn’t want to go but I did. The instructor was nice. He was easy to understand. I went to practice archery a lot. I felt comfortable because it was fun. I wanted to go every day but my grandfather said, “I wouldn’t be able to go every day.” He said, “You might be able to go Friday but not every day.” Then I stopped going. My dad said I couldn’t go for a while. I felt bored because archery was exciting. I said, “Dad, can you take me to archery?” He said, “Maybe.” Later that night my mom, dad and I went out to eat. I totally forgot I asked my dad to take me to archery. After we went to eat I thought we were going home. My mom and dad surprised me by taking me to the archery place. As we arrived I said, “Where are we?” They did not answer. Then I yelled, “Yah! Thank you so much.” My dad and I practiced shooting. I felt happy. My mom was bored sitting there. I felt bad for her. I asked, “Do you want to shoot?” She said, “No.” “Are you sure?” I asked, “It’s a lot of fun.” She said, “I am sure.” She did not want to. My dad was really good at archery. I decided to do archery because my dad did archery as a kid. Since it was only my third time I think I did good at it. As I continued to shoot my arm got tired. I started not to do good. The bow was heavy. My arm wasn’t as good because it was getting hard to hold the bow. We got there are 8 p.m. and now it was 9 p.m. We had been there a long time. I said to my dad, “My arm is getting tired.” Dad asked, “Do you want to go?” I said, “I did not want to go.” I am thrilled that my dad took me to the archery place. We did not go home. I said to my mom, “We can go home if you want to.” She said, “We can stay.” I shot some more. I was so excited because I hit the bullseye on the target. I was proud of myself. I forgot my arm was tired. My dad shot an arrow right next to mine. I said, “You almost split my arrow.” My dad answered, “Yes, I almost did.” Inside myself I said, “I did good when I shot.” I felt so proud of myself. I thought that was the best shot I ever did. My dad said, “What a good shot you made!” After we were done with that we went home. My mom and dad were proud of me for doing so good at archery. I was happy because I got to do something that my dad was good at and spent time with him.

 

Mathematics

Students have just completed their first unit in math. They practice adding and subtracting of three digits. They discussed strategies for solving word problems with three digits.  They learned to identify the important numbers and words in a problem as well as look at the question posed in the problem to determine what operation to use when solving the problem.  Strategies students used for addition involved number strings, breaking the number down into smaller parts and using a number line. For subtraction students used number lines as a way to solve problems.

 

                        

 

Below is partial sums:                         

                          

Number Line

                        

Social Studies

After their field trip to Wood Memorial Library, students are undertaking their study of Wampanoag Native Americans. They have formed families and will determine their role in the family. Once they have established this, they will apply what they have read about the Wampanoag way of life to a writing piece. They will choose a Native American name and tell about their character trait. They will relate information about their family and how they survived.