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!
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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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