I decided to switch things up a bit this week in the classroom. After Friday’s behavior issues, I wanted to put the class in a better position to succeed. I moved the classroom around and switched the positions of the desks. The kids seemed to respond well to this, so I was pleased. We also had two substitutes on Monday and Friday. This Monday I was in a building data team meeting pouring over results from the NWEA. Friday, I was assessing kids for our upcoming report card. Being out of the classroom is always tough for me, but I was pleased with how the class performed. Let us see what else we were up to this week…onto the highlights!!!!
Math:
In math this week we looked more at the frames-and-arrows routine. We reviewed the material from last week and added more to it. The class used the arrow routine to find the rule and to solve addition and subtraction equations. Tuesday saw us learning how to program our calculators to do skip counting. This worked very well for students to check their work on the frames-and-arrows routine. Wednesday and Thursday was our end of unit assessment for unit three. I will be using the data from this assessment to help with our upcoming report cards. On Friday we spent some time catching up and playing math games. The kids had a lot of fun with that!
Writing:
We continued our push for the 5 w’s in writing this week. We also reexamined our readable and unreadable material. For homework today I want you and your child to come up with a story you could tell across a three page story. On the first page I want to see the 5 W’s: who, what, where, why, and when. This should lead to the second page where additional details are given about the what from page 1. Finally, on page three the story arc should be wrapped up. This is a tight, well-constructed three-page story with a beginning, middle and end. This is our push in writing. Please practice it with your child this weekend.
Phonics:
Consonant clusters were another focus in phonics this week. The kids transitioned from writing simple consonant cluster words, to writing sentences including the consonant cluster word. We also practiced our spelling words quite a bit. The final topic we looked at in phonics this week was the onset and rime of a word. The onset is that beginning sounds and the rime is the part of a syllable which consists of its vowel and any consonant sounds that come after it. The kids were able to play a fun Go Fish game using this concept.
Science:
In science this week we examined water and how it can change forms. As you recall we touched on this a few weeks ago when we talked about water freezing. This week saw us examine how water can change form into a gas through a process called evaporation. This led us to talk about humidly and do an experiment about condensation. The kids had a lot of fun.
If you would like to start volunteering for our center times we would love to have you. I do literacy-based learning centers in the mornings on most days. Here are the approximate times.
- Monday: 9:40-10:30
- Tuesday: 9:40-10:30
- Wednesday 9:40-10:45
- Thursday: 10:00-10:50
- Friday: 9:40-10:30
If you see something that jumps out at you please drop me a line and we will set something up. Everyone is always welcome in my classroom. I look forward to hearing from you and until next week…all told.
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