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