March News

In Language Arts students are reading nonfiction texts and discussing how to make inferences.  They have learned there is a formula they use in order to do this.

BK (background knowledge) + TC (text clues) = Inference

First students used this new information to make inferences about vocabulary in a nonfiction article. Then they used it when looking at headings and subheadings. Students learned the importance of being good reading detectives by making sure they had enough background knowledge before they could make an inference. Below is a youtube lesson on inferencing.

Students are also returning to the concepts of main idea and supporting details from an earlier unit in the year. When students read articles they are keeping in mind what the big idea is of a paragraph and of an article.  Also they are looking for clues from the important details in an article to determine the main idea.

                                    

In math students have just completed a unit on multiplication entitled Muffles Truffles.  Here is a short video describing the scenario that students started with before they undertook this unit.

Students will use doubling, halving, the commutative property of multiplication and the distributive property of multiplication throughout this unit. The problems become more complex as the unit evolves. Ask your child what they learned from this unit of study?

In social studies the students are learning about North American explorers.  At this point they have studied the Vikings.

                                  

                    

After students studied the Vikings they wrote an opinion essay entitled, Would you want to be a Viking? They used various sources to support their opinion. Below is a sample of a student's work.

                                                      Would you Want to be a Viking?

By Kyden

I would want to be a Viking. There were brave. The Vikings sailed across the sea and they did not know what was out in the unexplored places. They also fought in wars and could have died. Vikings hunted very large animals. Large Animals are deadly.

Another reason I would want to be a Viking is they were good sailors. The Vikings used birds to find land. If birds were flying a certain direction that means land is near. Vikings used the sun and stars to find their way around. Vikings also found Greenland, Iceland and Vinland. These lands were not discovered yet.

Another reason is Vikings were good with cooperation. Vikings worked together to build ships. If they did not work together the ships would be all messed up. When Vikings fought in wars they had to work together. If they didn’t, they would all be dead. Vikings hunted together. If they split up they would not catch an animals and have food. Then they would starve. That is why I would want to be a Viking.

                          

 

 

                      

 

 

 

                                

 

 

Presently, the class is immersed in a unit on Folktales. This unit involves, first of all, understanding the genre characteristics.

 

                                  

                           

 

As students are engaged in reading these stories, they will practice summarizing. The following graphic organizer has been introduced as one way to aid students with this skill.

 

SOMEONE (who is the main character?)

 

WANTED (what did the character want?)

 

BUT (what was the problem?)

 

SO (how did the character try to solve the problem?)

 

THEN (what was the resolution to the problem?)

 

 

Next students will explore the meaning of theme as they read.

 

                                             

 

The following are common themes students will explore in the stories they read:

 

          

 

 

 

After reading many books, students will undertake a writing project involving a lesson they learned. Below is a sample of student writing:

 

 

It was a sunny day and Mom and Dad were getting packed up for the fair. My brothers and my sister were excited about going to the fair. I was outside and helped my parents put snacks and drinks in the car.

When we got to the fair,Dad said stay with us. I said, “ Yes.’’ I smelled popcorn. I saw the water slides and a huge Ferris wheel. As I was walking around I went on one of the water slides. As I slid down the slide it was steep and I felt nervous because it looked so big from the top. Once I was at the bottom I was happy I did it. Then I asked for some popcorn. My dad bought a whole bag for us to share. It tasted buttery and salty at the same time. We ate it all in a few minutes. When the day was almost over I wanted to go on the carousel so badly. The carousel is my favorite ride because there are different animals to ride on. My favorite is the bear.

When my mother was looking I stole a ticket from Mom and Dad and ran to the carousel. I felt nervous because I was being sneaky and took something from my mom. I chose to ride the bear. As I rode the carousel I started to feel kind of sick because the carousel kept spinning and I felt dizzy. I got off and my family was gone. I felt scared because I didn’t know where they were.

 My mom was about to go looking for me,since she noticed I was missing. My mom said,” I know where he is! His favorite ride is the carousel I bet he’s there.”’My mom was worried until she spotted me on the bench next to the carousel. She ran super fast toward me.

 We were both happy and relieved to have found each other. I learned never to leave my parents when we were out and it is wrong to take something that doesn’t belong to you.

           

                       

                                  

 

 

Students are studying fractions. First they are learning how a whole can be divided into various fractional parts. Then students will look at a number line as another method of understanding fractions.  They will compare these two concepts.

 

      

 

 

                            

 

Then students will study fractions with a numerator greater than 1.

 

 

Next, students will use pattern blocks to find the fractional part of a set.

 

 

 

                       



 

 

 

 

                       

     

 

 

Students have been studying the moon. They have learned there are 8 phases in a lunar month. A lunar month is 29.5 days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for the latest learning taking place in Room 17!    

 

                                     

 

                                     

                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Phases of the Moon

More science games on Moon at NeoK12  

November News

 

 

Language Arts

 

Students have been engaged in a unit which centers on nonfiction. First students learned about the various nonfiction features. They distinguished between visual and text features in nonfiction pieces.  The students discussed the importance of these features when reading informational text and how it helps them understand what they are reading. 

 

 

 

Some examples of visual features are the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some examples of text features are shown below:

 

 

 

 

Once students developed a firm understanding of these nonfiction features, students have started to discuss how to find the main idea in a paragraph. They have learned main idea can be explicit and implicit and they must use all the details in a paragraph to determine the main idea.

 

                                        

 

Mathematics

 

In math students have just completed the Grocery Stamp unit which introduces multiplication as repeated addition. Students used groupings of stamps to determine the total. They could skip count, used repeated addition or use multiplication to find their answer.

 

                                 

 

Below are samples of strategies that students used.

 

 

                            

 

In addition to this, students used an open number line to determine the products of numbers on the number line by using doubling and tripling.

 

                                       

 

Social Studies

 

In social studies, students have learned a plethora of information about the Wampanoag Native Americans. Students have engaged in role playing which has enlightened them to understand the way of living of these people. They wrote stories about their Native American characters depicting their character's traits, their family, and their job in the family. The class also participated in discussing the pros and cons of Squanto helping the Pilgrims. They weighed their reasons and determined they should help the Pilgrims.

 

                                                    

        Stay tuned for more learning!!!!

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.