We had a terrific week together in our classroom with many new projects and learning activities to share with you all.
In writing, the students continued working on their story-ideas for writer's workshop. They learned about the differences between "Heart" and "Head" stories. In mini-lessons, we exploreed these ideas through discussions and read alouds. We read the book "The Flower Garden" by Eve Bunting as an example of a heart story. A heart story is about something or somebody you really love, like a family member, a pet or a special trip or activity. We read the story "How kittens grow", a non-fiction story which introduced the students to stories that tell us new information. Head stories are stories we can write about real things that we already know a lot about. We can write about how soccer is played, what equipment is needed in baseball, or how we make a picture. We can also write about how we take care of a pet, do the dishes or choose "just right" book. The students will continue writing these types of stories in our writer's workshop next week. This week, the students also learned how to write personal stories about things that has already happened to them. These stories can be about a trip to the beach, when the student learned to ride his/her boke, etc. These stories can also be about ordinary events, such as our first library class, school Swarm Party or a special math class. We call them "small moment" stories. We discovered that stories are all around waiting to be written!
In reading, the students continued practicing choosing "just right" books more independently and reading with more stamina. Your child should have brought home books from our Book Clubs last week. Please make sure these book bags and books come back on Thursdays as other children at our school read them too. Thank you!
We had our first Guest Reader this week as well and it was Mrs. D, our team para. Once in a while, we have a mystery person join our class to read a book to us. The students have to guess who this guest reader is. I will provide some clues and the students guess. It is wonderful to invite and share our joy of reading with other people at our school and in our community. If you are interested in becoming a mystery/guest reader in our classroom, please let me know so we can set up a time. Thank you.
Our school curriculum night was last night. I understand it is difficult for many parents to come at night, so I compiled all the papers we handed out and placed them inside your child's Thursday folder today. Many of the handouts are already familiar to you if you have explored our team web-site as I have linked most under "Family Resources" for your convenience. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Next week, the students will start podcasting. Thank you Milena Wright for wanting to take this project on along with me and the students. The students will learn how to use our MP3 players as they focus their reading on fluency and prosody. More information will follow next week. If you did not yet send in ear-buds, or head-phones, for your child to use in school, please do so as soon as possible. We need them for podcasting, but also individual head-phones are also more sanitary.
We had our first school-wide celebration for filling the buzzy jar in the office. The students decorated their buzzy hats in our classroom and we danced to our school song and the "Bee Dance" in the gym. Here are some pictures from this very special celebration.
Lastly, I wanted to remind you all that there is no school next Wednesday.
Have a great rest of the week and weekend,
Maria
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