Welcome To Mrs. Johnson's Classroom Website: News You Can Use!

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!