This week we had Keep Austin Beautiful (KAB) talk to us about the importance of keeping our watershed clean. Students were able to look at how different pollutants affect a mock community. We learned that it's important to not let pollutants seep into the ground because they can affect our water quality. This lesson is a precursor for our field trip to nearby Bear Lake in May. Language Arts: Students prepared for the reading Staar by practicing reading comprehension passages. They also are reading independently for up to 45 minutes at a time. I conferenced with students about their reading and looked at reading logs. It's amazing to me how many books they are reading, and how many genres they've read! Many students are finding that they love historical fiction or fantasy - genres that they never thought they would like!
We are also learning about root words and affixes. Every day we learned new prefixes and suffixes in a game called "I Have, Who Has". The goal is that by learning the meaning to these affixes, students will be able to determine the meaning of words that have these same prefixes/suffixes when they come across them in their reading. Social Studies: In preparation for our field trip to the Texas State Cemetery, students have chosen one person who is buried in the cemetery and are creating a brochure about this person. When we visit the cemetery on April 20, students will have an opportunity to visit the grave site of their person and talk with other students about the life of their person. Students will bring their brochures to the cemetery for this activity. We will be reading about Texas becoming a state in our next Social Studies Weekly.
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Welcome back from spring break! During Morning Meeting on Monday, we learned about all the fun activities and trips that we had the opportunity to do over the break. Students really get into sharing with each other. We laugh at the funny happenings and empathize with kids when they go through a difficult experience. Writing: We've been reviewing for the Writing Staar this week. The essays that students are writing are sophisticated and well thought-out. Students have learned to look at an idea or topic from different perspectives. Their writing has voice and uses different literary devices. We refer to ourselves as "writers" and treat each other with respect when it comes to sharing our writing pieces. I am very proud of the kids' writing! Reading: We focused on nonfiction text structures this week. Students analyzed several articles and determined how the author organized the information - in sequence, by description, cause/effect, problem/solution, or compare/contrast. We discovered that some articles were written using a combination of these structures. Students understand that authors purposely choose a structure in order to more effectively convey information. We also tried our hand at writing a piece using a specific text structure. Social Studies: Students continue to learn about the Texas Revolution through various center activities. They all turned in their "Faces of the Alamo" booklets; yay! Special Activity: Friday afternoon found us all outside watching the 5th grade Gift of Time kickball players vs. Coach Grumbles and some teachers! Sunny weather prevailed, and a good time was had by all. We will miss Coach Grumbles, that's for sure. The last 2 weeks have been busy ones! We visited Powertown, an Austin Energy presentation on how we get our electricity. We participated in Multi-Cultural Fest by decorating our classroom door with all things China! Students continued to read independently and work on reading skills through centers. We studied realistic fiction, made plot graphs, and did some buddy reading. Students finished A Special Place essays and worked on various grammar skills. We started explorer comic books last week...the artwork they are putting into these booklets is amazing, not to mention the detailed factual information. I can't wait to share them with everyone when we're done. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving break and I look forward to the next few weeks of learning before winter break!
The week started out a little crazy, with Halloween on Monday! Everyone shared what they were going to be for Halloween during Morning Meeting. We greeted each other in Italian this week - "Buongiorno!" We made appreciation cards for our staff person, Coach Spelman. Thanks to our room parents and Casey Gelfer for coordinating our class appreciation of Coach! Reading: On Monday, we listened to a recording of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and discussed the characters at length. What a great story! Students continued their reading of Chris Van Allsburg books, as well as their own independent books. They worked at centers all week, building on reading comprehension skills, thinking about theme and how characters change in a fiction story. Writing: We used a piece of our Halloween candy to do a sensory writing piece. Students expanded their kernel essay about a "special place". They wrote Harris Burdick mystery stories after a read-aloud of the book. We are working on parts of speech and subject/verb agreement. Social Studies: Groups finished their Native American tribe menus and then visited each other's restaurants and ordered from the different menus. Next week we start learning about the European explorers who came to Texas. To enhance our knowledge of Native American tribes in Texas, we had a special presentation by Ryan and Kaitlyn's dad, Mr. Jayson. He brought a few of the Tonkawa (a central Texas tribe) arrowheads and other items they have collected in this area. He shared how the Indians used each item in their everyday life. He also shared a piece of petrified dinosaur poop that they found! We had a fun week! It was hectic and kids were excited about Halloween, but we got a lot done. Writing: We made Preposition Planes that kids flew on the playground and then wrote a prepositional phrase on the plane about where it landed. Our poems are hanging on the long bulletin board in the hallway - come see! We worked on a revision strategy called "explode the moment" where the writer uses the senses (what you feel, what you see, what you do, what you hear, what you smell) to create a vivid image in the reader's mind about a specific scene. Reading: We started an author study of Chris Van Allsburg's books! He has a very specific style in both literary and visual terms. Students heard a daily read-aloud and then discussed characters, theme, and plot twists. We also continued our daily independent reading, which the class really loves. I encourage you to help your child in keeping up with his/her reading log. We had a surprise visit from Cooper's grandmother who read this book to the class - with lots of extra info on the side! She was wonderful in her sharing of Sam Houston's life. She obviously has a passion for Texas history and we hope she will visit us again! Social Studies: As a project based learning activity, student groups created a menu for a Native American tribe in a specific Texas region. Students were only allowed to use the natural resources from their designated region. After researching, they came up with some very creative menus! The tribes we studied were Karankawa, Lipan Apache, Jumano, and Caddo. And, of course, on Friday we participated in the Vocabulary Parade! Everyone had a grand time, the weather was great, and it was inspiring to see so many parents out there cheering everyone on! Thank you for helping your child design a costume to wear! |
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