12/7/09
Reading
We have shared some great fables this week including "The Moon in the Well," "Turtle's Race with Bear," "The Foolish Donkey," and "Senora Hen" and as well as our on-going chapter book Socks. We are thinking about what qualities make us great readers, and this week, we have focused on stories with lessons to teach us. We also summarized what we read and discussed organization in stories with beginning, middle, and end. In our Words Their Way block of the day, students have been learning about long and short a vowel sounds and spelling patterns. Guided Reading groups read with us every day and the students enjoy the small group setting.
Writing
We have been practicing Response to Literature by writing letters to characters and writing letters to each other. This week, students wrote a letter after reading Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day to be used as a post-assessment.
Math
Students are learning about 3-D shapes and angles and worked on 2-digit subtraction with regrouping. We are also learning how to tell time to the quarter hour as well as to 5 minutes. We are counting money and making change. We continue to practice Rocket Math skills on a regular basis and write in our Math Journals daily. We complete a problem solving activity daily involving having students think about the process of problem solving and explaining answers in words, pictures, and numbers. It is challenging, but the students do really well with the process!
Science
We completed our study of energy and are focused on a unit on motion and force.
Social Studies
We are investigating early Georgia with the Creek and Cherokee Native American tribes and important people in Georgia's history like James Oglethorpe, Mary Musgrove, and Tomochichi.
Health
We continue to remind students of healthy hand washing practices on a daily basis!
"Wash your hands before you munch...you don't want to invite a germ to lunch!"
If you need anything or have any questions, please just let me know!
"All children need a laptop. Not a computer, but a human laptop. Moms, dads, grannies and grandpas, aunts and uncles---someone to hold them, read to them, teach them. Loved ones who will embrace them and pass on the experience, rituals, and knowledge of a hundred previous generations. Loved ones who will pass to the next generation their expectations of them, their hopes, and their dreams." ---General Colin Powell