It was so nice to meet with so many of you for your child's conference last week. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me at any point in the school year if you are wondering how your child is doing. We certainly don't have to wait for the next set of conferences in March to talk!
Here's what we've been working on in the classroom :
Reading : Last week's focus was all about 'just right books.' Ask your child what a 'just right book' is! In school, we spoke about how a just right book is one that's not too easy, not too hard, but just right. It will require some work to figure out the words and/or understand the book, but you're able to do the work without getting too tired or frustrated. We spoke about the importance of the students reading just right books for the majority of their reading time, because it's the best way to become a stronger reader.
The week before that, we finished talking about some of the animal decoding strategies. Skippy Frog suggests that the reader skips over the word that he/she doesn't know, reads to the end of the sentence, and then tries to go back and put in a word that makes sense and looks right. Tryin' Lion reminds you to always check if the word you came up with makes sense. Helpful Kangaroo says that if you've tried lots of decoding strategies on your own, but you still can't get it, that you can ask someone else for help.
Writing : The students have been doing a great job adding details to their writing pieces during our Small Moments Writing Unit. This unit has focused on writing about small moments in time so that the students learn about how to include details in their writing pieces. The students learned about adding details like names, numbers, colors, the setting, the size of something, and characters' feelings. We also worked on different ways to have strong endings to your writing pieces.
Math : In math, we took a deeper look at number lines and number grids. The students practiced skip counting on them and learned how to use them as a tool to help them solve various kinds of addition and subtraction problems. The students have also learned all about frames and arrows problems.
Computers : We've done a couple more weeks of word processing work in computers. The students have learned all about how to bold, italicize, and underline text. They've also learned how to align text to the left, right, or center of the page and how to use bullets to make a list. Finally, the students learned about how to insert images into their documents. They've been doing a great job!
Social Studies : We finished up our communities unit a couple of weeks ago by talking about community helpers, wants vs. needs, and the difference between equality and fairness. After that, we learned a little bit about the historical significance of Thanksgiving.
Here are some pictures of 1-Bu over the past couple of weeks: