Friday, September 12, 2014

Highlights of the Week 9.12.14

Hello families!

We've had another full and fun week in first and second grade. We began a yearlong study of sunlight. We read What Is the Sun? to get our minds thinking. This week we gathered information for Summer--only a few days left! We tracked the location of the sun in the morning and afternoon, observed the amount of sunlight outside our window in the afternoon, and graphed the number of daylight hours. We also planted pumpkin seeds so we'll have some baby plants to study in a few weeks.

Our literacy routines are also expanding. This week we've focused on successful Partner Reading--what that looks like, sounds like, and feels like. We increased our quiet Read to Self time to 20 minutes. Some reading groups have begun as well. We're working on keeping a quiet working volume so readers can focus no matter where or with whom they're reading.

This week we read another CARES related book, Big Al. We also read a bunch of "Small Moment" stories: The Paperboy, Kitten's First Full Moon, and The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash. These books have helped us think about our own small moments that we're beginning to stretch out into stories. Writer's Workshop is in full effect! Everyone was excited to receive their own writing journals and begin to write their stories in detail.

Both first and second graders have been using Cuisenaire rods in math, creating concrete examples to understand the math concept and skills we're practicing. In second grade math, we're working on solidifying N+10 and N+9 addition and subtraction fact families. We've begun to dissect numbers and think about place value (i.e. 4,569=4,000+500+60+9). We're also invested in finding ways to show our thinking when solving story problems. 

Friday was our first time meeting our 6th grade buddies for the year. Everyone had fun partner reading--both reading to their 6th grader and being read to!

**Please remember sneakers each Monday and Friday for P.E.!!!

Important Dates:
Tuesday September 23 -- Open House, K-2 6:00-7:00 pm, 3-6 6:30-7:30 pm
Friday September 26 -- All School Hike (rain date Tuesday September 30)
 

No comments:

Post a Comment