Just wanted to update on what we are learning about this week in school! In Math we are working hard at learning fact families as well as odd/even numbers. The students are really getting the hang of fact families and understanding the relationship between three numbers in a family. We are working with many manipulatives such as dominoes and also fact triangles. You may see fact triangles come home soon! You can ask your child to explain how to use them. Next week we learn about adding three numbers. Exciting!
In Reading Workshop we continue to study characters. This week we are working on learning how to be a detective to gather clues about the characters we read about and think "What kind of a person is my character?" We are learning what "traits" are and how to come up with traits to describe a character. You can reinforce this at home by discussing characters that your child is reading about. Next week we will talk about how characters' feelings can change throughout a story. The kids are absolutely loving the Poppleton book series that we are reading. Poppleton is a funny character and the children love seeing what he is up to in each short story we read. These books would make great Christmas presents for your child!
In Writing Workshop we have started a new unit called "Authors as Mentors". The students are learning how we can look at real authors as mentors to help us learn new techniques to improve our own writing. We have started a "craft" chart and are reading books by Angela Johnson. So far we have learned that authors might use ellipses or effects in their writing. Students are encouraged to try these crafts in their own writing after we learn about them! Students are encouraged to jot down any "tiny moment" that happens outside of school in their "tiny topics notebook". These are great for the children to refer to when they are stuck on ideas. Tiny moments happen all throughout a day and it would be great if students say "Hey! That would make a great small moment story!" and then jot that topic down in their book. Please keep these notebooks in their binders as we may refer to them during Writing Workshop.
We are also learning facts about reindeer in the wild and creating a reindeer fact book.
We will begin a unit "Holidays Around the World" next week and study various countries and how they celebrate!
Here are some pictures from our fun hour with Ms. Chickie from Clay Chick!
Challenge!
Please email me your child's answers! 2/3 correct earn a little prize. :)
1. How many facts are in a fact family?
2. What do reindeer eat?
3. What are ellipses and why would an author use this craft in their writing?
