Joyous Chinese Cultural School 2013

Ms. Mary Beth's Crew Fall Climbing 2013

Each of the children challenged themselves while climbing with Mr. Doug.  They were so proud and I was too!  Enjoy these photos.  Thanks again to all of you who helped belay the crew.

Reading...It's contagious

 I just love this photo...
The boys are so engaged in this animal book and they had a lively conversation about the alligators.  I had the pleasure of sitting back on Friday as the children dug into the crew library. What joy to watch them share books!

Three months into the year it is evident that the students now "feel like readers."  It is a gift that keeps on giving.  Now we are off and running.
Our work is to learn how and why people talk about books and we begin learning the "thinking tools" that good readers use.  I love this part of the year!

What's up this week?

• Belaying in PE. Thanks to all who are able to belay!
• Math test on Thursday.
• Library on Tuesday.  Remember to send in the books.

Have a wonderful week!

Mary Beth

Our Reading Tools

We have learned so much about reading!  We know that we have to have more than one reading tool in our tool belts...not every tool works every time.

Here are the tools we have learned to use.  Please ask me about any of them and encourage your child to use these tools while reading at home.

Looking at the pictures helps us think "what makes sense?"

This is a very powerful tool!  It should be tried every time we get to a tricky word.  It's always followed by "what makes sense?"

To use this tool we put our finger under the word and quickly try all of the sounds we know.
Then we think about "what makes sense".

We are working on this tool.  Word endings like ed, ing, and er are also part of using this tool.  It's always followed by "what makes sense?"

Not all of us are ready for this tool but some of us are.
It's always followed by "what makes sense?"

As you have noticed, this tool must go hand-in-hand with every tool.  The meaning of the story is what reading is all about!

Halloween!

Happy Halloween Crew!
We had such a great day together!  Here are just a few pictures.  I know our crew mom took more with her new camera so more to come!  

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