Week 20 (January 19 - 23)

Week 20 (January 19 – 23)

“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” 

~Denis Waitley

As the year progresses I am giving students more and more independence and responsibility! Many of you have noticed that there have been slight changes in the homework, especially the reading log. Students have also taken on their new jobs within the classroom. We are still working on getting them out of the habit of doing their old job and into the habit of remembering to do their new job. I’ve noticed that the kids take so much more pride and interest in things that are their own.

We listen to lots of music in our classroom throughout the day. I chose songs that I liked and that would sent a positive message to the kids...like Man in the mirror, Don't Stop Believin', and Don't worry be Happy. Well I figured it was only fair to allow the student to pick some song that they loved for our classroom as well. Here are some of the songs they came up with.

Another responsibility I had the students take on was setting 1 goal for themselves. This goal could be academic, behavioral, personal, etc. Our goals are posted on our window to help remind us and to keep us motivated!

Math

We are still working on addition with regrouping. The kids are continuing to make progress and they are becoming very fluent with it. I’m thrilled that they are showing growth with this concept, but I’m extremely happy that their confidence level has risen. They went from being shaky and unsure of themselves with addition to tackling a problem with certainty. We will continue to work on addition with regrouping the next few weeks and in the process we will be increasing value of the numbers that we are adding.

ELA

One thing everyone in our class (including me) loves most is writing and reading! We’ve been working so hard to turn our ordinary stories into WOW stories. We’ve talked about using description words and “fun” words (as the kids describe them) to grow our writing. As it turns out these were basically adjectives, adverbs, and onomatopoeia! So we are taking a closer look at what these things actually are! We are also reading The One and Only Ivan as a read aloud! The kids are absolutely in love with the book. It’s about a silverback, an elephant, and a dog that are caged in at a mall for human entertainment. The story has focused on animal rights, family, friends, and death so far. We still have a ways to go in the story, but the connections and thoughts that the kids have pertaining to the book are amazing!

The One and Only Ivan read aloud

Our adjectives window (the view is much more clear from the classroom)!

Writing time in our classroom!

Our published pieces have received a lot of good reviews from our fellow Wildcats! We would love for you to come take a read!

Social Studies

When we returned to school on Tuesday, the school watched a video entitled “My Friend Martin”! The video was an animation based on the life and works of Martin Luther King Jr. The kids were able to see Martin as a child, teenager, and an adult. They were also able to get a glimpse of what things could be like had Martin not did what he did for our country. The video touched a lot of the kids; we even had a few cry! The Kids had so many questions around why there weren’t equal rights for everyone and why people hated others because of the color of their skin. I hope that as a family you all can continue our discussion.

Viewing the "My Friend Martin" video!

                                               

We just recently started working on comparing and contrasting. This has been especially helpful

in our culture unit. We read Three American Heroes and with it we compared Cesar Chavez, Jane Adams, and Martin Luther King Jr. We also created a “What We Think We Know” chart on the many cultures of America. I was amazed and surprised by some of the things the kids thought they knew about these cultures. We will return to this chart at the end of our culture unit to see if what we thought we knew was correct and where some of our misconceptions may have come from.

What we think we know about African Americans, Asian Americans, Indian American, White Americans, Native Americans, and Spanish Americans!

Comparing and contrasting Jane Adams, Martin Luther King Jr., and Cesar Chavez. 

Week 19 (January 12-16)

Week 19 (January 12 – 16)

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.”

-Marcus Garvey

As the 3^rd nine weeks starts we will be springing into our next IB unit: How the World Works. I’m so excited about this unit because we will be discussing the various cultures that make our nation the melting pot that it is! So often we focus on “American Culture”, but so many of the students do not necessarily identify themselves with the “American culture”. With this unit we will be able to explore and learn about the African American, Asian American, Native American, Spanish American, and Indian American cultures that all make up the American culture. We will also be discussing folktales and fairy tales that complement these cultures. If your family has any stories, folktales, or cultural traditions that you would like to share with out class, we would love to have you as a guest speaker!

Social Studies

We introduced the concept of culture by looking at our own cultures and the way that we live. Here is glimpse of our "self culture" creations...

Math

Double-digit addition with regrouping is coming along slowly but we are making progress! I’m so proud of how dedicated and determined the kids have been to understanding and practicing the skill. It’s so easy to give up on something that proves to be challenging, but they have stayed persistent. We will continue to work on mastering the skill until each kid feels confident in his or her ability to do so.

We've added some new math games to our iPads!!!

ELA

It’s always a pleasure to sit with the kids individually and listen to them read! I’m amazed at how much they have grown as readers and how much they have grown to love reading! It makes my heart swell! Reading is essential to life, but the please of reading enhances life so much more! We’ve also been having fun with homophones and homonyms. They have been finding the two in all forms of print and adding them to our window!

I hope that you all had a wonderful, long weekend and are ready for some fun learning this week!

Week 18 (January 5-9)

Week 18 (January 5 – 9)

It was such a wonderful week back! The students came back energized and ready to learn!! As I’m sure your child has told you, we have a new student in our classroom. His name is Stephon and he just recently moved to South Carolina from New York! He came in and joined our family with no hesitation. He blends right in and the students welcome him with open arms.

This week we focused mostly on reviewing concepts that we were working on before the Winter break. Such as place value, measurement, forces in motion, matter, and as always we are working on reading and writing!

As a class we love dancing! Brain break is one of our favorite activities  Look at the kids getting down! 

Math

Place value and measurement seem to be second nature for the students. They are mastering it and they also love practicing it. I wasn’t surprised when they came back from break still mastering the skills. 

We also began looking at 2 digit addition. I let them explain what their process of thinking was to solving two digit addition both vertically and horizontally.

Social Studies

As we wrap up our review on forces in motion and matter, we will be moving on to a new unit in social studies. This unit will focus on culture. It’s one of my favorite units to cover because students have the opportunity to look at their own culture, their family’s culture, and then also an opportunity to look at other cultures. This is a great chance to break stereotypes and expose students to something different! I’m so excited.

ELA

The students’ first published books came out amazing. They worked so hard on them and the stories and illustrations are great! If you get a chance please come visit our board and take a read!

We’ve been working on lots of collaborating in our classroom through editing and revising, and also buddy reading. There is so much for the kids to learn from one another and I’ve watched them grow with the help of their classmates. They love working with their friends, but I’m encouraging them to branch out and work with some others in the classroom as well.

Reading is still our favorite time of the day!!

 Our homophone and homonymn window!

 Buddy reading: Three American Heroes  

We are looking forward to another great week! Remember, our door is always open and all visitors are welcome in our classroom!! =)