Monday, January 29, 2018

Jan. 29th- Feb. 2

Writing
We are creating a criteria chart as a class of "What makes a GREAT SFML" Students so far have told me we need to have a story worth telling and clear structure. We will discuss how tension, well developed characters, and pacing adds to the story. Students will then get into groups to revise a story by adding craft elements.

Spelling- Test this Friday

Grammar- Students will be tested on prepositions on Friday. I gave the students a sheet to study to help them.

Reading
We worked on reading strategies as a class today over a non fiction passage. Students will complete a reading non fiction passage for a grade on Wednesday. Their reading PSA will be next week on Wednesday. I am continuing to meet with students one on one for an informal conference.

Social studies
We will discuss Harriet Tubman this week. 

Friday, January 19, 2018

January 22-26

Goodness, what a crazy month this had been!

It's all about catch up this week.

Reading
We are continuing with non-fiction! Last week we read an article about Polar Bears. The kids read it once and marked it up. We will now discuss the main idea and supporting details. Students will then answer some STAAR like questions using the article. We will do this together. I will take an observation grade on this. We are also reviewing our reading strategies. On Friday, we will do a practice passage together but this time over non-fiction.
I'll be holding one on one reading conferences this week and next. This grade will be based on the book they are reading during reader's workshop. I'm looking for fluency, accuracy, but most importantly, comprehension.


Writing
We are continuing to critique. Students have been reading base stories from my life. We've been discussing as a class what craft elements can be added to improve the story. I've been impressed in what they have to say. The kids will have a craft on Friday. They will need to know the definitions of each craft element. There will also be a reproduction activity with the quiz. (We have done this many times in the classroom). They will have a story out of order. They will need to put it back in order according to the story arc and then label the structure. I encourage you to ask your child to explain the different craft elements and how to do a reproduction activity. :)
They are continuing to work on their winter break stories. I hope to have them wrapped up by the end of the week.

MAP testing: Students will complete the language portion on Thursday. This will test be over conventions, grammar, spelling, etc.

Grammar- We are continuing with prepositional phrases. More than likely they will take the grammar quiz on Friday.

Social Studies
We will continue to study important people from our past. Students are taking notes in their social studies journal. I will send these home for you all to see once we are done.

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

January 3-12

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great holiday break and staying warm. Brr... talk about cold!

Here's what's going on for the next two weeks:

Reading
We are moving into the genre of Non-fiction. We will review text features and why they are important. Then we will move into main idea and supporting details. Students will be reading Scholastic News, Story Works, and Time for Kids to help them navigate this genre.
We are also starting the second round of MAP testing. Students will start testing next week. You should receive their report in the first week or two of February.

Writing
The students will be working on critiquing two stories for the next two weeks. We will discuss what went well with the story and how we can improve the story with craft elements. By the 19th of January, students will be tested over the craft elements. (Craft elements: inner thinking, dialogue, backstory, show/not tell, and descriptive details)

For writer's workshop, students will pick a small moment from their break to write about. This will be their first informal writing piece for the new year.

Grammar: Prepositions and prepositional phrases
Spelling: Continuing with homophones

Social studies
Our third nine weeks unit is focusing on influential people and how they impacted history or their community. We will focus on the following people: Kadir Nelson, Tommie DePaola, Phillis Wheatley, Hector Garcia, Harriet Tubman, Hellen Keller, etc. We will focus on one person a day, taking notes in their journal.