Week 5 (September 15 - 19)

Week 5 (September 15 -19)

We’ve had yet another great week. This week we’ve been focusing on the mechanics of our math and ELA workshop! The kids have really been getting into the groove of things and are taking full responsibility during workshop time. As always, we are also continuing to work on our classroom community and procedures.

Math

 Addition, addition, and more addition!!! That’s been on our menu for this week. We’ve been exploring the different strategies for solving math problems and also working on word problems. Word problems have proven to be the most difficult for us, but will continue to work on them this coming week and as move to subtraction problems. The Cubix blocks have been very helpful and the kids love using them.

ELA

This week we have been focusing on homophones for phonics. The students have a really good understanding of homophones and have really enjoyed trying to figure out as many as they can. In writing we have been looking at the 5 parts to a friendly letter. We launched this conversation with “The Day the Crayons Quit”! We all loved this book. The students’ favorite crayon was the “naked” peach crayon.

Currently we are working on writing a friendly letter to our “secret pal” in the class. Students will be presenting these letters this week. As soon as I know the day and time I will email and let everyone know, in case you would like to join our celebration.

I’ve updated our library checkout system because it was just getting too complicated and too much work for the students. The new system is much easier and the students seem to enjoy it more.

Our word wall is now up and running and it has been so very useful for the students and is easily accessible.

Social Studies

The students finished up their “My Community” booklets and they are displayed on our bulletin board. I’m sure most of you noticed at open house. They really took pride in those booklets and they turned out wonderful. We are continuing to discuss rural, urban, and suburban areas; however we are deepening our conversation and attempting to understand what the lifestyle might be in these specific areas and why what causes these lifestyles.

We are looking forward to another great week and as always if you have any questions, comments, or concerns please let me know!!