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Literacy

This week, the children worked with short /i/ words. We focused on books about twisters. During the first reading of our realistic fiction book about twisters, the children worked on visualizing. They shared what they were picturing or imagining in their mind. When we reread the book, we worked with picking out feeling words. The children discussed how the feeling words helped them to better understand the text. With our nonfiction text, the children worked on identifying nonfiction text features and how they help us to gain more information on the topic.

The children also listened to the story, Stellaluna. After, they discussed what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Then, they wrote their own sequencing cards. One for the beginning, middle, and end of the story. They glued their cards to their very own Stellaluna bat. They look great hanging from our ceiling!

Grammar Packets:

The children continued to work with sentence structure in our grammar packets this week. They had to determine if the sentences were statements. The children learned that a statement is a sentence that tells something and it has to begin with a capital and end with a period. 

Writing

This week, we read the book, A Chair For My Mother. The children listened to the story and then met with a partner to discuss what they thought the two small moments were from the story. When we came back together as a group the children discussed how the author described her two small moments using lots of detail. 

Later in the week, the children brainstormed a list of small moments from their life. After choosing their favorite one, they zoomed in and began writing. The children will take this piece all the way through the writing process. They are currently working on their rough draft where they sketch pictures, label, and write their story. Next week, they will reread their story and work on adding detail. The children will also go back and stretch out words that they did not know how to spell. Ask your child what their small moment is, try and help them recall the event in great detail. This will help them zoom in even further and add important details to their writing next week. 

Math 

In Math, the children worked with exchanging pennies for nickels. To enhance this skill the children played, the Penny-Nickel Exchange game. They were introduced to change to more number stories and change to less number stories. The children also learned how to write addition and subtraction number models. 

On Thursday, the children reviewed all the concepts from Unit 2 using Mimio vote. They were very excited when our room once again turned into the set of, Math Review, Mimio Vote! The children became the contestants and played the game using their very own clickers. 

They took their Unit 2 math test today. I will send them home after the long weekend. 

Science

This week, the scientists continued their exploration of Weather. The scientists worked with understanding how water changes from a liquid to a solid and back again. They experimented with placing small objects into a glass of water and observing what happens when they freeze. They learned that freeze means to change from a liquid to a solid. 

On Tuesday, the scientists experimented with their frozen ice. They explored different ways of making their ice melt. The scientists came up with many different techniques: breathing on it, rubbing it, using salt, wrapping their hands around it, carving it into smaller pieces, and running it under warm water. They learned that the term melt means to change from a solid to a liquid. 

The scientists also worked with understanding how water changes from a liquid to vapor and back again. They explored the idea that water can be part of the air, an invisible gas called water vapor. They did three experiments where they watched liquid water disappear into the air as it evaporated. The scientists used the terms; evaporate, humidity, and water vapor to explain what they noticed about the disappearing water. 

Columbus Day

Today, we learned about Columbus Day in our classroom. The children watched a short video on BrainPopjr about Christopher Columbus and had a great discussion on who Christopher Columbus was. They also learned a Columbus Day song. Enjoy a video of the children singing the song below!

                 
Columbus Day Song from Melissa Johnson on Vimeo.

Star Student

Ben was our star student this week. Thanks Ben for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

Thank you to Ben’s Dad, he joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to three wonderful books, Tacky the Penguin, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and Pete the Cat Play Ball. 

Happy Birthday

Today, we celebrated James' birthday. Happy Birthday James! 

Notes:

• Remember there is no school on Monday or Tuesday of next week!
• Don’t forget to read and return your purple poetry folder on Wednesday! 
• We do not have library next week because Wednesday is a Monday schedule. Feel free to keep your library books for an extra week.
• There will be no new spelling words or spelling test next week due to the short week.
• Please send in your Pumpkin Carving slip and money by Friday, October 18th. Thanks!

Have a great long weekend!