We started our formal guided reading groups this week. We call them "Book Clubs". This is a time when students meet with peers and receive reading instruction on books that are just right for them in terms of complexity, vocabulary and decoding skills. The children participate in various reading tasks related to comprehension, reading accuracy and fluency. In our Book Clubs, the children complete different projects. Sometimes, they will show their understanding of a book through a variety of reading response projects. Sometimes, the children will work on word structure, syntax and vocabulary, and sometimes, we focus more on phrasing and fluency. Our groups switch periodically and we try to meet almost daily. Ask your child to tell you about our reaad-o-phones and brand new Literacy Folders. The Literacy Folders allow the students to actively engage in the reading process. They learn to interact with the text and often read with a pencil, taking notes on post-its, index cards, or inside our Literacy Books.
This week, the students on Harmony completed their first engineering workshops. Engineering is a big part of our new Common Core Standards in Science. In engineering, the students learn problem-solving skills while participating in hands-on science experiments. Based upon the book "The Three Little Pigs", the students were challenged to build a house that would withstand the force of the wolf. In our case, the wolf was a hair-dryer. The students only received certain materials and they had to problem-solve together to build a structure together in a limited amount of time. In workshops, the students on Harmony are mixed with all the classrooms and the students rotate through our classrooms. This is a wonderful way for them to build relationships with everybody on our team while engaging in academic learning at the same time.
Here is a video/slideshow with pictures from these workshops.
We need paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, empty egg cartons, and cardboard (cut up into manageable sizes).
This week, the students also started blogging on our very own private KidBlog (this blog can only be seen by our class and a few invited guests such as Ms. Birdsall, our Technology Specialist at WSD and Linda Scott, our Computer Lab Specialist). We started our posts entitled "All About Me'. The students learned how to access KidBlog, how to sign in and how to create a new post. The also started writing their first posts today. At this point, we are not concerned about proper spelling (and the little red squiggly lines that appear under those misspelled words. We want to get used to writing directly onto the computer and getting our ideas down on paper. Next week, the students will learn how to insert their own pictures and add more words, while editing. In the weeks to come, we will learn about how to engage in conversations online; how to be safe, kind and responsible while commenting on a friend's post. I hope you will find the time at home to go onto KidBlog (located in the right sidebar of this blog). Our KidBlog is called McCormack 2014-2015. If your child wishes to access this from home, he/she will find his/her name in the scroll down menu and click on it. After that, the password needs to be typed in. I will email this to you. Your child probably remembers it. I am asking all parents to access the KidBlog before next Thursday when we go back to the computer lab and make a comment on your child's post from today. That way, all students will have a special message from you. Parents can sign in as "Parent" or "Guest". Please find one of these choices in the scroll down menu. I will email you your password as well. Thank you
Have a great day tomorrow and weekend. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Maria
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