April 24

We finished our unit on weather an seasons. The students wrote a 6 paragraph opinion essay on their favorite season. They did super job. We are so close to being finished with the DRA testing. Every student made progress. We took a  Pre Test on 3 digit addition. We still have a few that need some more work.  The students animal reports are due Friday May 1st. The requirements are on my blog sight and have been sent home 3 weeks in a row with homework. I hope you all have a great week.

April 17th

We had fun sharing our habitats with the 1st and 2nd graders. We have finally finished writing our "Twisted Fairy Tales" and will be putting them up in the hall. We are also making a class book for everyone to read. In math we finished our place value to the 1000's. We are still working on measurement and will start on 3 digit addition on Monday.  We also are going to start taking our last DRA in second grade next week.

April 3

ANIMAL REPORT REQUIREMENTS

Due May 1

COVER PAGE:

            TITLE

            PICTURE

            AUTHOR

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

            CHAPTER HEADINGS

            PAGE NUMBER

 4 CHAPTERS: (possible choices-you only need 4, you can choose different ones then suggested) NEED: INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH, 3 SUPPORTING IDEA PARAGRAPHS (WITH 3 DETILS EACH), CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH. This is how we learned it in school. I know that it is not always possible to do a 5-paragraph essay for each chapter. Try to do at least 1 chapter this way. The students will get full credit for each chapter if they have a topic and 3 supporting details.  

SUGGESTED TOPICS:

INTRODUCION

BABIES

ADULTS

FOOD

SHELTER

HABITAT

WHERE THEY LIVE

PROTECT THEMSELVES

LIFE CYCLE

INTERESTING FACTS

GLOSSARY

             3 WORDS AND DEFINITIONS these are your bolded words in the text of your             report

INDEX

             3 IMPORTANT WORDS AND PAGES YOU WILL FIND THEM

ILLUSTRATION (you can draw your own picture)

LABLES (1-2 words can be on a picture, illustration, map or diagram.)

DIAGRAM

PHOTOGRAPH (does not need to be colored)

CAPTION (At least 1 sentence. Can be on picture, illustration, map, or diagram.)

HEADER (title)

BOLD PRINT (In your text, a word in your glossary, you can highlight them if you are writing it out by hand.)

MAP

           

March 27

The students wrote their first non-fiction summary from their notes. They are to have a 5-paragraph essay with an introduction, 3 supporting details and a concluding statement.  I haven’t seen their final work as I get these packets ready earlier, but I think they are going to do a great job. They were able to do their worksheets fairly easy.

     We are in the middle of making our habitats. This usually takes us all week.

     We are also finishing our “Twisted Fairy Tales” for our writing project this month. 

     We will be finishing our TIME unit and start on number sense and place value to the 1000”s in math. Thanks for the cute door, notes, and gifts for teacher appreciation week.  I have an amazing class with amazing parents.

March 20

We had our feasts for Antarctica and Australia. We finished writing about them in our passports. We are in the middle of our Non Fiction and Fairy Tale units for reading and I am hoping that we are understanding quarter after and quarter till. It has been a great week. I am really proud of the students. They had a fun Friday with their Teddy Bears. 

March 13

Everyone has officially passed 2 digit subtraction and money with 90% or higher. We did our first Non Fiction Summary. I was impressed!!!  The students really thought about the answers and worked hard.. They were not perfect, but the students did better than I expected. You will see lots of marks on their papers as we talked about and ask questions to see how they could improve. You will see how I crossed off lots of words. I am trying to model how good writers and thinkers are. That it is OK to make a mistake and make changes. These summaries are not final publish work. We are PRACTICING and trying to become better. We are in the middle of our clock unit and the hardest part for the children is to do quarter after and quarter till. Any help at home with this would be great!
We are going to be making our HABITATS in Science and every student will need to bring a shoebox and at least 1 batch of salt dough.  Any extra silk or plastic flowers and greenery that is no longer needed at home would be appreciated.

Salt Dough

3 cups of flour

2 cups of salt

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 cup of water (put in a zip lock bag)

March 6th

We had a great week!  We are moving on to "Time" in math and we kicked it off by making giant clocks with "Fruit Loops" as our minutes. We divided the clock in hale and then into fourths. We labeled and colored each section. Then the students made their own small ones.  Time is a hard concept for the students to get. So we will be studying it for awhile.  We finished our Non- Fiction Text Features book and you will be getting them when we start our animal books. We are studying about HABITATS in science. Great week!!!  Great Students!!!