Update 9-26

Today, we started fiction!  The kids had and will have lots of time to read their chapter books in class.  I also reminded them that they still need to read 20 minutes at home each night for homework.  :)  Reading Counts reports went home today, please contact me with questions.  Each child conferenced with me about it and we discussed how many points were left plus the book he/she is currently reading.  Those points are due by October 13.

The informational reading summatives went home today too.  We talked about those in class, I told the kids if they have questions to let me know.

The reading skills we are covering this week are making inferences with fiction, analyzing character traits, setting, plot, and theme.  We do a quick overview of what makes a fictional story to start our unit.

As to writing, the expert pieces will be finished this week!  Last week, we worked on elaborating and making sure we included enough details.  This week, we will fine tune those pieces looking at sentence structure, transition words, and our spelling/grammar.  We will also finish the illustrations for the book too.  Look for a form coming home soon to be signed if you are interested in purchasing a copy of our class book.  Even if you do not want one, I still need you to sign to give permission for your child's work to be published.

Enjoy the pictures of our infographics-they turned out awesome!  The kids learned the true meaning of teamwork and how each person works the whole time to create something wonderful.

Update 9-19

In reading, we continue to work on summarizing, making inferences and using evidence to support our thinking. Today, we broke into groups to read either about ants, wolves or sharks. We will be making infographics with these.

Our reading summative over information will happen at the end of this week. It covers the same skills we have been working on.  Next week, we move into a small fiction unit until the end of the quarter.  

For writing, we are working on elaborating and adding transition words to our expert pieces. We will start the illustrations at the end of the week too for these. 

Reading log due Friday and reading counts goals due by October 13.  Reading counts reports will be sent home this Friday, please ask you child to see it!

update 9-12

Our first weekly ten went over very well!  The students will receive those back tomorrow, please look for those in the take-home folders and keep them at home.

In reading, we continue to work on main idea.  Today, we watched a short video and started reading about The Hindenburg in our Storyworks magazines.  We will use these throughout the year in our class as it is a mixture of fiction and informational text.  Tomorrow, we will finish that article looking at the main ideas and details.

I gave a sample book talk today and received horrible reviews.  My promise was that tomorrow I will try again and put more effort into it.  ;)

In writing, we worked on writing leads today.  See some samples below.  Midweek we will be starting to type some drafts of an expert piece that will be used in a class book that we will be publishing.  For this, students will write one page all about a topic they know plus create a one-page illustration.  More information about this will be sent home soon if you are interested in purchasing a copy of the class work.

Reading Skill Review

We practiced in small groups using task cards and answer keys to practice main idea, summarizing, context clues, and text structure.

Update 9-7

Our Getting to Know You Days were a success!  The students seemed to have a great time and were sorted into "houses" based on Harry Potter.    They traveled to different teachers completing activities along with assessments.

This Friday in L.A., we have our first weekly ten.  A weekly ten is basically a reading quiz that has one article with questions equally ten points.  It is a review of the skills we have been learning in class.  These skills are:  main idea and supporting details, summarizing, inferring, context clues, and text structure.  We completed a practice weekly ten today which we will grade and discuss tomorrow (it doesn't count).

Reading logs are due each Friday. I do expect students to write complete, detailed sentences and to write neatly.  These are some examples of high-quality work as an example.

In writing, we are still working on writing expert pieces and topics we know a lot about.  We also have worked on creating subheadings that will fit under a topic.  We will continue to practice organizing our writing as the year continues.  See an example below.

Today, I met with all students that were here about Reading Counts.  Each child now has directions in their planner along with a hand-written goal for the first quarter.  Goals are flexible if need be.  All points for 1st quarter are earned until October 13.