October Classroom Snapshot of Events

Here's what has been happening in our classroom:

Reading:
Throughout whole group CAFE strategy lessons, our class has been working with the comprehension strategies of  determining the author's purpose for writing (to persuade, inform, or entertain the reader); learning how to generate questions when we read; and learning how to summarize a passage.   Additionally, we have been learning how to be more accurate and fluent readers by reviewing the various strategies of  being a voracious reader; learning how to read appropriate level texts that are a good fit; and being able to cross-check what we read for understanding or to skip a word we don't know and come back to it or substitute another word that makes sense.    

Throughout our extended vocabulary time, the students have been working with homographs. These are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings. Additionally, the students have also been using the website called Dictionary.com to learn how to find the various definitions of words having multiple meanings.  

The students are beginning to settle into the routines and practices of literature circle groups.  I have placed your child in a group and provided them with an appropriate novel that I feel matches their reading strengths and capabilities. Our guided reading time involves assigning students chapters to read independently, having them complete a literature response activity about their book, and meeting with their group for a novel group discussion. Afterwards, they can complete one of their Weekly 5 assigned activities.  Throughout the year, your child may be moved to a different guided reading group depending on their needs. If your child has a difficult time finishing their guided reading assignment during the scheduled 60 minute literacy period, they may be asked to finish it that night for homework.

I will now begin to conference with your student individually while having them read to me orally and asking them comprehension questions along the way.   Through our conference together, we will establish a reading strategy goal that I believe that they need to work upon throughout their individual reading time, literature circle time, and Weekly 5 routine time.   Each week we will try to meet to see if their goal has been reached.   Once the goals have been mastered, a new goal will be established for your student to individual work upon.   All of the goals will be set in either the area of comprehension, accuracy, fluency, or extended vocabulary (CAFE).   

Grammar:

Over the past several weeks, the students have been working on determining the difference between finding the subject and predicate in a sentence. We also have been learning the proper way to combine two sentences that are alike by using a comma and the words "but" or "and" to make one compound sentence. Additionally, we have been working on learning how to capitalize proper nouns and the rules for making words plural.  

During literacy time, the students had fun practicing these skills with the following web pages. Feel free to lick on these links to view and play the web site games at home: Rags to Riches , Compound Sentences, Rats, and The Plural Girls.  

Spelling:

I appreciate all of the hard work that each student gives to spelling each evening. Please continue to make sure that they are sorting their words correctly into their various spelling categories. The goal of our spelling program is for the students to learn and retain the spelling rules and word patterns for future use in their writing. The nightly spelling sorts and activities will help your student to reach this goal.

Writing:

Throughout Writer's Express (WEX) time, our class continues to work hard learning about the important elements to include in a personal narrative. Together, our mini-lessons have been focusing on writing our paragraphs in a more logical and organized manner. In addition, we are continuing to make sure that our work focuses on a single moment in time. Our lessons have been stressing the importance of utilizing strong verbs, good sensory detail, and proper sentence mechanics in our writing.

During conference time, parents will be able to view all of our stories in our WEX binder. Parents will also get to read our first published personal narrative that are currently writing,  revising, conferencing, and editing over the next week in a program called Googledocs.  

Math:

Last week our class just finished up Unit 2 in math that involved adding and subtracting whole numbers. The students have been working hard learning about fact families, extensions of addition and subtraction facts, two and three digit addition and subtraction problems, "What's My Rule?" problems, parts-and-total number stories, and comparision number stories.   We just started Unit 3 last week that involves learning about both the U.S. Customary and metric forms of measurement.  

A BIG THANKS goes out to all of the parents that helped your child to start an Xtramath.org account.   Everyone did a great job with logging into the program and settling into the routine of practicing their math facts.   I appreciate all of the help and assistance with making sure your child completes at least three rounds of math practice a week.  

Social Studies:

Currently, the students have been put into research groups to work on our "Weekend in Chicago" podcasts.   Within their group, their job is to research and plan a weekend in the Windy City.    Through the research, the groups are taking notes on attractions and activities they want to visit,  restaurants they want to eat in, and finding a hotel they want to stay in. (Please click here to view the websites that the students are researching from.)  After they have researched and planned their weekend, their group will be creating a podcast to share with the rest of the class about their fun-filled weekend.   Once our podcasts are finished, we will post them on our webpage for all to view.   

A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of our parent classroom volunteers!

We would like to thank Mrs. Murray for sending out weekly email reminders to the volunteers for their upcoming duties. 

I would also like to thank Mrs. Barnett, Mrs. Ciccone, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Petrusonis, Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Silvestri for coming in this past month to make copies for our class.    

We were able to have our first Reader's Theater last week. This is where the students are put into a small group with a parent and are asked to read aloud from a short play script. We certainly appreciate Mr. Murray, Mrs. Osterlund, Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Hammond for coming in to assist and monitor each of our groups!  

Our class was also able to experience our first Art Appreciation this month.   We would like to thank Mrs. Petrusonis and Mrs. Saunders for conducting a wonderful art lesson with the artist Edward Munch.   

We also would personally like to thank Mrs. Silvestri and Mrs. Petrusonis for taking time out of our busy schedules to take inventory on our Science boxes that just arrived!