Time certainly flies! It is hard to believe but it is October already and the weather is getting chillier every day. Please remember to send your child to school with warmer clothing as we have outdoor recess every day, unless it is raining. If your child wishes to keep a wind-breaker, or jacket inside his/her locker that is fine too. Extra clothing can also fit inside them, even though they are small. We usually put extra clothing on the top shelf. It comes in handy if a child falls or steps in a puddle or in wet grass at recess. Thank you.
In reading this week, the students continued working on different reading strategies and projects through our guided reading groups, or Book Clubs as we call them. Some children received new "just right" books this week, and some children continued working on the books we started last week. If your child did not receive a new book this week, it is because the book we are currently reading is long and requires deeper analysis and work. This week 1st and 2nd graders continued their work on making sure they are actively engaged in the reading process. We learned how good readers "stop and think" about their books to make sense of the texts. We practiced this by jotting down our questions, wonderings and interesting facts on post-it notes which we shared in circle and in our Book Clubs. We call this reading strategy "stop and jot." We learned that active readers collect facts and questions from their non-fiction books. For example, we read a book about animal cave homes and collected many questions and facts together as a class on our post-it notes. We also learned that active readers also "stop and jot" down questions and interesting facts from their fictional stories. We read a book about a bear family collecting food in the forest, and we jotted down facts about their character traits and the setting and asked questions about what the author wanted us to learn. The children did an amazing job and loved our post-it notes! Ask your child to share this new, effective strategy at home! I hope you have many, many post-it notes:)
We met with our reading buddies again. Thank you Ms. Davison's class for visiting our space again and reading with us.
In writing this wee, we continued our literacy skills in the computer lab by adding to our "All About Me" posts on our KidBlog. The children follow the writer's workshop model in blogging as well, starting with an idea and then creating a first draft. Instead of revising, we call it editing online and we meet with our computer buddies instead of our editing partners. We add words and pictuers to our writing, just like we do in traditional writing, however, our pictures are digital. Last week, if you recall, the students learned file structure and retrieved their own pictures on our school common drive for upload! It is amazing what they can do! I am so proud of them. Thank you for supporting these literacy skills at home. We loved reading your blog posts and comments. Some students even blog from home, sharing more about themselves and their lives outside of school. We love it!
This week, the students learned that when we comment on somebody's post, we use a similiar format to that of a letter. We start by addressing the person with a "dear...." or "hello". We include the person's name and give a compliment. The we ask a question, because blogging is all about communicating with each other and sharing ideas. We end our comments with a "from..." or "sincerely...". Please visit our blog to read our posts. We had over 30 comments posted today! WOW! The blog is linked here (and it is also on the right sidebar of this blog).
In writing this week, the students also continued working on their personal narratives, adding details to their words and pictures. We are currently exploring how to make our beginning, middle and end stories more interesting and we have read many, already published books together to learn how to make effective, and interesting, beginning, middles and endings to our own stories. We also share our own writing techniques and have created anchor charts to help us remember all of the wonderful ideas we have discovered so far. Please visit our classroom to see these. Here is a picture. We hope to publish these pieces by next week. the children will meet with their editing partners and then create a cover and title.
Thank you for suporting your child's learning at home. As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Have a great day tomorrow and weekend.
Regards,
Maria
No comments:
Post a Comment