On Friday we celebrated Read Across America Day. A reader from Intel came into our class and read a couple of Dr. Seuss books. We also got a visit from the Cat in the Hat himself!
Regions
This week students utilized power point presentations on the chrome books to help them learn the vocabulary needed to support their upcoming research about the regions of the United States. Next week they will read about the Southeast region and begin working towards a project in which they will present information about the Southeast region to the rest of their classmates utilizing an online presentation program called Prezi. This unit will also support the non-fiction reading unit we are starting in reader's workshop.
Non-Fiction
We started a new unit in Reader's Workshop this week! Students are stepping out of fiction and freshening things up by diving into non-fiction. There was quite a buzz in the classroom this week as students discovered new information about topics they were interested in that they couldn't wait to share with their classmates. Next week we will learn main ideas, supporting details and text structures.
Students are still allowed to read whatever genre they want while they are reading at home. As long as they are reading 20 minutes every night, I am happy and they will continue to grow as readers! Please let me know if I can support you in any way as you support your child at home.
Painting a Picture (with our words)
Before vacation we had brainstormed lists of adjectives based on the five senses. We call these adjectives sensory details. To help us practice using sensory details, each small group got a calendar picture. As a group they needed to describe their picture with such specific details that the rest of the class could actually pick out their picture from a larger group of pictures.
Math Workshop
We started our fraction unit last week. We spent a lot of time decomposing fractions into smaller parts. Ask your child what it means to decompose a fraction! We also started to think about how repeated addition with fractions can also be written as a multiplication sentence.
By the end of the week the kids prepared for an upcoming relay race. They needed to work in teams of 3-4 and decide how they were going to break apart a mile race into smaller parts. Each "runner" would need to run at least 1/10 of a mile. It was great to see their problem solving skills put into action. After deciding on their race strategy, they needed to determine how to break apart the mile course on a map into tenths. Hopefully if the weather cooperates this week, we will be able to get outside and actually hold our relay race!
Have a great week!
Jen and Jaime
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