Classroom Update

February flew by and now it is hard to believe that March is upon us and Spring will be arriving soon!

We have been so busy in our classroom with special activities and learning new things.  Here is a look at what we've been up to over the past couple of weeks:

In Reader's Workshop, we have been studying folktales.  We've read a number of different folktales and learned about the characteristics of a folktale.  We've also talked some about fables and fairy tales and done some comparing of the three different types of traditional literature.  I was very pleased with some of the conversations students were having as they worked on deciding whether a story was a folktale, fairy tale or fable based on it's characteristics.

In Writer's Workshop, students have been writing poems and more poems!  It has been a lot of fun and it seems like most students really enjoy writing within this genre.  Each day, we read a poem, discuss it and point out things we notice or observe in that particular poem.  Reading poetry is the best way to learn to write poetry.  Students have learned about using sound words, similes, strong endings and using more specific nouns.  Now, we are working on revising our poems and making them even better than they already are.  At the end of this week, students will be typing two of their poems!

As I am sure you know, we've been working really hard in math lately!  Students have been learning to do two and three digit subtraction.  It has been challenging for some students, but they are getting better each day.  Please let me know if you need more help or support with this.  Please remember that in this math curriculum, we call the traditional strategy of borrowing, "ungrouping."  It really is the same thing and likely the same way that you learned. 

We finished up our last Social Studies unit on community workers, goods and services, making decisions about money, and trade and transportation.  Now, we've begun another unity which begins with learning about landforms.  Students have learned about islands, peninsulas, lakes, rivers, oceans, mountians, plains and valleys.  They are completing their very own landform book to show what they have learned.

During our Grammar time, we've been pracitcing with adjectives and now will be learning about plural nouns. 

In addition to all of this, we have also had four Junior Achievement lessons taught by a volunteer from a law office in Prior Lake.  The students really enjoy this and have been learning a lot about how a community works.  They've experimented with unit production and assembly line production, learned about taxes, different workers in our community as well as decision making with pros and cons. 

Have a great week!