News for November 15

News for November 15

During this four-day week the students worked very hard to finish their animal research posters and their handmade pillows in time to show their parents during the parent-teacher interviews.

In math, the children reviewed how to write, show and tell time using digital and analog clocks to the hour and the half-hour. These skills are not easy. Students are required to write the digital time given the analog time and to draw an analog clock given the digital time.

In science, the students finished their research sheet facts (graphic organizers) and completed their posters by using their facts to write complete sentences and add the animal drawings they made. The children also learned about collective nouns, or the names given to groups of different animals, like a pride of lions or a shiver of sharks. These posters are now displayed in the hall outside of our classroom.

Each child finished making his/her pillow by using a sewing machine to sew around the perimeter of the fabric, turning it inside out, filling the pillow with polyester stuffing and using a needle and thread to sew the "stuffing hole" closed. Did you know that your clothes are sewed inside out to keep the seams hidden  inside the clothing?

The class is now using ordinal numbers (first, second, third...) to help them write a non-fiction story about how to make a pillow, and to write what they did, how they did it and in the order that they did it. (This is referred to as procedural writing.)

In guided reading, the groups used what they learned last week about how text features (such as bold faced words) help the reader to understand the book. This week, the students concentrated on non-fiction texts. The class learned facts about penguins, elephants and animals with claws.

The students completed a reading response to the read aloud book, Lyle the Crocodile and also wrote their opinions of the story.

Books read aloud this week:

The Story of Snow - The Science of Winter's Wonder by Mark Cassino
Lyle the Crocodile (finished) by Bernard Waber
A Shiver of Sharks - A Compilation of Aquatic Collective Nouns by Patrick George
A Filth of Starlings - A Compilation of Bird Collective Nouns by Patrick George
A Crackle of Crickets - A Compilation of Insect Collective Nouns by Patrick George
A Drove of Bullocks - A Compilation of Animal Collective Nouns by Patrick George