What's New in the Crew? October 28, 2013

It's so great to be back together after our two week break.  We were so happy to see each other and we were ready to learn!

This past week we worked on many things.  Soon we will be sharing our learning with you at Student-led Conferences! There are many things to share and celebrate!

Here is a peek into our classroom...

Reading Workshop
1. Each child has been taught multiple reading tools to use while reading.
    Look for explanations of these on my blog posts.  We can also model these    
    for you during conferences.
2. I've re-assessed the crew and they will be in new independent reading books    
    this week. 
3. The next focus for us will be readers as thinkers. 
    We'll continue our work on retelling, predicting, and making connections.
4. Read aloud time has become such fun for us!  I just finished two books     
    about Chinese twin girls named Ling and Ting.  Next I'm starting a series
    of chapter books about a boy named Andy Shane and the very bossy
    girl in his class, Delores Starbuckle!  I will model the thinking strategies
    while reading these to the crew.
Phonics
Our work continues on looking at how we can take words apart by changing the beginning or ending of words. We are  at making sure we look to the end of words as we read with a focus on ed and it's different sounds. The crew is growing in their ability to spell sight words and we keep adding new words.
You can see our lists of words when you come in for conferences!
Math
1.  Getting around the number line and number grid.  Being confident and 
strategic with these tools is the foundation of addition, subtraction, and using larger numbers.
2.  "The friendly" ten.  Using something called a "ten frame" helps us to picture  tens in our head.  Another tool to help in addition, subtraction, and larger numbers.
3. New problems on Math Exchange day challenge our thinking and help us grow as mathematicians.  I'll share these at conferences too!
Expedition: China
1.  We have learned a lot about the life of a child in China and we've compared this to our lives here in America.
2.  We are working on our 21st Century skills this week as we read different articles about the lives of Chinese children in small groups. Each small group will collaborate together on a learning poster and then present them to the crew.
This can be challenging for 1st graders!  But great for their future professions:).
3.  Lots more to come:  Villages compared to city life, food/chopsticks, culture, and homes, to name just a few. 
Writing Workshop
1.  Our new genre is Question and Answer books  Each child will write at least one of these books about something they are "experts" in.  
2.  Together we wrote these Learning Targets for this unit of study:

• Rereading our writing to make sure it looks right, sounds right, and makes sense.
• Using the pattern of question and answer.
• Adding details to each page. 
• Putting periods at the end of our sentences.
• Writing neatly so people (including ourselves) can read our writing!

And of course we are counting the days till Halloween!

Please join us for the parade first thing Thursday morning.

Let me know your thoughts.  I like to hear from you.

Mary Beth

    

Book Walking

Reading Tool #1

Book Walk

Before reading a new book, looking through the pictures carefully for “clues” (details in the pictures), gives the reader many of the actual words or ideas from the story. 

These clues may be facial expressions on the characters that give a reader an idea of how the character is feeling or what they may be thinking. 

 The picture details often shows the reader something that may help them read a difficult word in the text, like the words “squealed” or “whistle” or “hurray”.  

If we teach our children to learn how to LOOK CAREFULLY FOR DETAILS before they read a book, along with reading the title and thinking about what the story could be about, children find reading easier and much more enjoyable!

When they come to a tricky word, they can check the word and the picture,  think what makes sense, and low and behold, the tricky word pops right out of their mouth!

Give this a try at home and see if it doesn’t make reading easier for your child! We’ve been working on this tool at school but your child will need to be reminded to do this without my prompting!

Ms. Mary Beth

Camp Elim part 2!

Camp Elim Fall 2013

Peace among the Storm

My Dear Crew,

After 12 hours of sleep I'm back and as I write to you I find myself amazed by your children.

They were such troopers.  At a very young age they showed all of the character traits that we find so important in life.  Perseverance, beneficience, empathy, stewardship, and of course integrity!  My favorite part of camp is stepping back and watching them bond with one another.  So very beautiful!  So much love shown to each other.  

Thank you for hanging in there yesterday as you waited for information from the school.  My first job in situations like this is to care for your child's heart, mind, and well-being.  I did my best to stay calm so they did not feel the stress I felt inside.  Ms. Dana and I both love your children very much.  They are written on our hearts.  

I plan to put up a slide show of pics on my blog this weekend.  I left my camera chord at school, so thanks for being patient with me until I'm able to retrieve that.  I hope your child built memories for a life time at camp this week. Here are a few pics I had on my camera.

The yert...a new addition to Camp Elim.
Inside we did an activity that led the children to use their  senses.
Ask them about it!

Peaceful times at camp.

Expedition: We Are Family

Our 1st Expedition: Families

It has happened at the end of week four.  We became a family unit.

Like magic, it happens. Nothing is more dear to my heart than to see this unfold every year. It's truly amazing and it changes everything for the rest of the year. Read the questions below and I'll explain my reasons for the project above.

We began looking at the first two questions and as we did the children began learning about their crew mates families and with great joy they found that many of them looked like their own.  We had some very heart-felt conversations about our families and we have learned what a family means.  Ask your child what we have decided a family is.  And as we realized we are different at home but the same family at school, it became apparent to me that this crew needed to feel like they had a day-tiime family that they belonged to. So...we drew ourselves and placed them around the heart.
We ARE a family that can take risks together.  It's the love that makes it so.

Math Assessments

I try very hard to make assessments a positive experience for my children.  I tell them that when they show me what they know it is to make sure that I have taught them what they need to know. If they don't know something it is MY job to make things more clear for them.

We made it through our 1st math assessment today!  WOOT-WOOT!  
The assessment will come home for you to review.  You may keep this copy.  Please feel free to go over it with your child and work on things that may still be tricky for them.

I will not put a grade on this, but you will see the items that are incorrect circled.
Of course I will be reviewing the material with your child until they are solid with the skills.
I really want the children to be explorers of math and to feel like mathematicians vs. children who just know rote math. 

A few notes:
1.  Part A of the test is to be mastered at this time.  Part B of the test is material we have just been exposed to and will be worked on more in following units.  This is not expected to be mastered.  
2.  The Open Response is a fun higher level thinking problem.  The children are encouraged to use any of our math tools to work on this section or any of the assessment sections. 
(number lines, pennies, white boards and markers,  and other math manipulatives)

After we worked on this problem for the assessment, we went over different ways some of us figured it out.  Many of them really enjoyed the challenge of such a problem.  All of the EDM assessments will have an Open Response problem for them to tackle.


Let me know if you have thoughts or questions!
Mary Beth