Life in China Video

During LMC over the last three weeks the children have been hard at work researching life in China. The children worked in groups of three to research one topic about life in China. During the first week, the children read books and recorded information on their topic on sticky notes. The second week, they took their favorite fact and turned it into a complete sentence about life in China. They also compared the fact they learned about life in China to their life in the U.S. Last Friday, the children shared their fact on camera. The video clips were compiled to create a video titled, Life in China. We hope you enjoy the video!

  

News You Can Use!

Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with variant vowel (au, aw). We read all about Chinese New Year this week. The children worked with classifying and categorizing. As we read different books and excerpts on Chinese New Year the children classified the different information into four categories: Traditions, Food, Celebrations, and Facts. They recorded their information on a graphic organizer. 

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children learned that the words I and me are pronouns. They learned that you use I in the subject of a sentence and me in the predicate of a sentence. 

Writing:

This week, the children continued their Expository Writing unit. They took their facts from their graphic organizer and published one page for each fact heading. They compiled their fact pages into a nonfiction book on their animal. The children added detailed illustrations, a colorful cover, and an All About The Author page. They worked really hard on their writing and can’t wait to share their nonfiction books with the class next week.

Math 

In Math, the children reviewed telling and recording time to the nearest five minutes. They also worked with money and adding and subtracting a variety of 2-digit numbers. The children took turns telling, writing, and solving number stories. They used a variety of strategies to solve the different number stories. On Thursday, the children reviewed the characteristics of polygons. They created different polygons using straws and twist-ties. The children also reviewed the names of 3-Dimensional Shapes. 

Social Studies

This week, the children continued learning all about China. We learned about the different foods that are eaten all across China. The children also learned about Chinese New Year. They researched the holiday during reading time using several non-fiction books and excerpts. The children created their own dragons out of paper to represent the dragons used during the Dragon Dance. We will complete them next week and then the children will bring them home to enjoy. We ended the week by comparing Chinese New Year to our New Year in America. 

Poet Bill Buczinsky Visit

On Monday, the children enjoyed a visit from poet Bill Buczinsky. The children were awestruck by Mr. Buczinsky’s poems, magic tricks, and his engagement of them in his presentation. He had the children chanting, rhyming, and moving the whole time. Mr. Buczinsky empowered the children to discover their own poetic voices. The children were very excited when Mr. Buczinsky chose 3 children and myself to jump over as he acted out a poem. I have to admit I was a little nervous, but he cleared the four of us with no problem. What a wonderful presentation!

Have a great rest of the weekend! 

Happy Memorial Day!

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Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with variant vowel (oo as in soon). We read all about the Great Wall this week. The children started the week with a Picture Aloud. I showed them two different photos of the the Great Wall of China and they had to turn and talk to a partner about what they thought the pictures were of. Then, they created a list of words that they thought described the Great Wall. 

Throughout the week, we read non-fiction excerpts on the Great Wall of China. On Thursday, the children did a Close Reading exercise with an excerpt from the book titled, Letters Home From China. The children had to reread the excerpt and answers questions about the Great Wall of China. They showed where they found their answers in the text by highlighting the key words or phrases. 

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children learned about pronouns. They learned that a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.

Writing:

This week, the children continued our Expository Writing unit. Together as a class we researched about Wolves using a nonfiction article and a nonfiction text. The children recorded important word and phrases on their graphic organizer. Then, on Thursday the children chose the animal that they would like to research. Using Pebblego and Facts4me, the children researched their animal on Thursday and Friday and recorded their facts on a graphic organizer. They will turn their facts into a book next week. 

 

Guided Reading Groups

This week, we will continue our short break from guided reading groups. I will meet with the rest of the children one on one for the last round of running records for the year. We will start guided reading groups as soon as I have had a chance to meet with each of the children individually. I am proud of their hard work and growth over the year. It is wonderful to see what great readers they have become!

Math 

In Math, the children took their Unit 9 test on Monday. The children did a nice job, I am proud of how hard they worked. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the children took their End of the Year test. I will send these home towards the end of the year. The children did a great job!

On Thursday, we started Unit 10. We will review the concepts we have learned throughout the year. We began the unit by working with graphing information. The children worked with their end of the year height to create a class graph. Using the data, the children found the typical height and the typical growth of the children in our class.   

Social Studies

This week, the children continued learning all about China. We focused on China’s geography. The children were surprised to learn that 1.3 billion people live in China. We briefly touched on China’s government and learned all about the Great Wall of China. The children were excited to visit the Great Wall through a virtual tour online. On Friday, the children worked with Chinese language and practiced writing Chinese Characters. They are compiling a list of their favorite characters to turn into a Chinese Language mini flip book. They will bring their book home when it is completed.

The children also practiced their Chinese Character writing by making paper lanterns to hang up and decorate our classroom. I was impressed with home nicely they used their paintbrush to paint each Chinese Character. 

 

 

**Completed Lantern picture coming soon!**  

Chinese Characters

On Wednesday, Ryan’s mom, Mrs. Shao came in and read a story to the children in Chinese. After she was finished, she translated the story into English for the children. She also taught the children how to write the sentence, I love Dad and Mom in Chinese Characters. The children loved learning the characters and were very careful to write them the correct way. Mrs. Shao taught the children if you write the characters in the wrong direction the characters mean something else entirely. Thank you for coming in Mrs. Shao, we had a great time learning Chinese with you!

 

Happy Birthday

On Monday, we celebrated Danny’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Danny!

Have a great rest of the weekend! 

News You Can Use!

Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with variant vowel (oo) as in book. The children read stories about China. They worked with using illustrations, and rereading for comprehension. The children talked about how the illustrations helped them to better understand information about the characters and plot. This week, we also did a close reading activity where we focused on the rich vocabulary in the text, Tikki Tikki Tembo. The children did a fantastic job of choosing the rich vocabulary words to record on their vocabulary organizer. Then they filled in the meaning of the word and the strategy for how they found the meaning of the word. Below is a photo of the vocabulary organizer we used. 

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children learned that a sentence is made up of parts. They learned that the predicate of a sentence is the action part of the sentence. The predicate tells what the subject does or is. 

Writing

This week, the children started their last writing unit of the year, Expository Writing. The children worked with identifying fiction and nonfiction elements of a story. We read the story, Little Red Riding Hood, and a nonfiction text titled, Wolves. The children talked about what made, Little Red Riding Hood, fiction and what made, Wolves, a nonfiction text. Then, the children created their own fiction and nonfiction sentence about the same animal. They drew an illustration to support each sentence. They shared their writing with one another. 

Next week, the children will choose an animal of their choice to write their expository piece on. They will turn all of their animal research into a book at the end of the unit.

Math 

In Math, the children worked with fractional parts. They had to divide shapes into fractional parts and identify equivalent names for the fractional parts. The children also worked with comparing fractional parts and identifying the numerator and the denominator. Later in the week, they used manipulatives to model equivalent fractions, they used <,>, and = signs to to describe the relationships between fractions. 

On Thursday, the children were excited when our room once again turned into the set of a game show as we played Math Review Mimio Vote Unit 9. The children reviewed all the concepts they worked with during Unit 9 using their own clicker to answer questions. The children will have their Unit 9 assessment on Monday. 

Social Studies

This week, the children enjoyed exploring different topics during our unit on China. The children listened to excerpts from books and video clips to learn about education in China. The children recorded similarities and differences that they noticed between their school and the schools in China. They were very interested to learn that many Chinese children start the day by exercising.

The children also learned about homes in China. They looked at several photos, a video segment, and listened to book excerpts on homes in China. Ask your child to describe some of the different homes they learned about. 

On Friday, after listening to, The Seven Chinese Brothers, the children learned how to count from 1-10 in Chinese. They also created their own mini Chinese Number book. The children practiced writing the Chinese Characters for numbers 1-10. 

Teacher Appreciation Week

Thank you to all of you for making this week so special! I feel lucky to work with your children and you everyday. Thank you for all the yummy treats and thoughtful gestures this week! They were appreciated!

Happy Mother’s Day!

 Have a great rest of the weekend!

News You Can Use!

Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with diphthongs (ou, ow). The children read stories about bugs. They worked with using illustrations while reading texts. The children learned that authors and illustrators often use illustrations to support story elements such as characters and plot. We talked about how good readers use illustrations to better understand information about the characters and plot. 

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children learned that a sentence is made up of parts. They learned that the subject of a sentence is the part that tells whom or what the sentence is about.

Math 

In Math, the children worked with number-grid puzzles. They practiced counting, adding, and subtracting with 10s and 1s using number-grid patterns. The children enjoyed working with a partner to solve different number-grid puzzles.

On Tuesday, the children worked with adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. They had to tell, write, and solve number stories using 2-digit numbers. The children chose different strategies to to solve the different addition and subtraction problems. They explained the strategies they used to solve the problems.

On Thursday, the children moved through 3 explorations. They measured their height to the nearest inch, created mirror images of a pattern-block design across a line of symmetry, and played the Number-Grid game. 

Science

This week, the scientists wrapped up their Weather Unit. They enjoyed an in class field trip from Hightouch Hightech. Scientist, Ms. Nicole, came in and presented, Weather or Not. The scientists engaged in different weather experiments. They took an up close and hands-on look at a real tornado. Watched as clouds were made indoors. They discovered all the amazing properties of air and air pressure. The scientists were very excited to touch lightning! Their favorite experiment was making the conditions change so they could lift ice cubes with a string. Enjoy the slide show below of all our wonderful weather experiment photos.

Social Studies

This week, the children were introduced to our final social studies unit on China. Over the next month, the children will learn how our lives in America are similar and different to children's lives in China. 

The children listened to the Chinese folktale, Ping-Li’s Kite. Then, they created symmetrical kites to hang from our ceiling. The children also generated a list of questions that they would like to research as we are learning about China.

Art Appreciation

On Friday, Mrs. Bartels came in and presented another Art Appreciation presentation to the children. This week, the children learned about artist Rene Magritte. They looked at two of his paintings, The Empire of Lights and Castle in The Pyrenees. The children learned that Rene Magritte was a surrealist painter. They discussed what made his paintings surreal and the similarities and differences between his paintings. Then, the children attempted to create their own surrealist work of art. Thank you Mrs. Bartels, we enjoyed your visit!

Have a great rest of the weekend!