Week of January 30th

This Week...

Writer's Workshop:
The kids will begin researching their animals this week and we will write Chapter 1 of our animal report. Chapter 1 will be an introduction to the animal, including where it lives and what it looks like.
Monday- The students will go through their research and write down facts on a circle map.
Tuesday- The students will organize their information on a tree map.
Wednesday- The students will write their rough draft by using their tree map.
Thursday/Friday- The students will edit and begin their final drafts of Chapter 1.

Project Group:
Each class is learning about a different habitat this week, taught by one of our teacher candidates.

Reading:

Mrs. Johns' Reading:
Miss Miller will be teaching reading for the next four weeks. This week the kids will be investigating the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts.

Book of the week: A Place for Butterflies
Words of the week: rain, big, people, because, night

Ms. Aguilar's Reading:
*Ms. Abeyta will be taking over reading these next two weeks.

Story of the Week: Rainforest Babies by
Genre: Non-fiction
Comprehension Skill: reread and retell

Word Wall Words: bird, third, burn, turn, herd, learn

Reading Learning Stations (Students have a literacy menu they will need to complete by the end of the two week cycle. The will do two stations on Tues/Thurs.):

1. Buddy Reading: Students will read a book with a buddy in their group. Then they will make a flip book.
2. Research Station: Students will read an animal book and tell about the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
3.Computer Station: Students will read a book at their level on raz-kids.com. Then they will take a short quiz online to check their comprehension.
4. Word Work: On the smartboard students will practice writing their word wall words.
5. Writing: Students will write a creative story from their Squiggle book.
6. Reader's Theater: Students will read a Little Bear story to practice fluency and retell the story by acting it out

Mrs. Sullivan's Reading:
Word family - long u words: use, due, Sue, dude, rude, under, hundred
High frequency words: our (which students often confuse with are), use, off, and the compound words playground, outside, sometimes.
Dictation sentences: Our class can go outside to the playground. Sometimes we use our banana bucks to buy __________. (students fill in the blank) Where did I put the baseball?

We are starting a new two week unit on reading nonfiction books. We have centers that work on reading fluency, nonfiction vocabulary, using a website to find research and information, filling out a fact sheet on an animal, recording the main idea and supporting details of a nonfiction book. We are also making a construction paper display board on one animal to share with you at the summative.

Math:
Mrs. Johns' Math: Ms. Boswell will be teaching Math for the next four weeks. This week the kids will be exploring measurement tools, as well as how and when to use them. They will use inches, centimeters, feet, and meters.

Ms. Aguilar's Math: In math this week Ms. Abeyta will be taking over. She will introduce and teach about non standard units.
Monday: The King and his Apprentice-students will use starbursts to measure the Kings foot.
Tuesday: My Feet- students will measure their feet using nonstandard tools like tiles.
Wednesday: Measurement centers
Thursday: measurement centers continued
Friday: My Body- students will measure the King's body with tiles.

Mrs. Sullivan's Math: In math this week Miss Zuccaro is teaching a geometry unit. Students will learn the names of shapes and how to sort them according to their attributes. They will use pattern blocks to explore and make their own creations. We will also continue to work on addition and subtraction. Last week the class did a great job creating their own "reasonable" word problems. Ask your child to create a word problem for you to solve.