Here's what we've been working on in the classroom :
Reading : After the students learned about the difference between 'real reading' and 'fake reading' (see my last blog post if you don't know what I'm talking about), we moved on to learning about ways that the students can do deeper level thinking about books. So far, we've talked about using your schema. In the classroom, we say that schema is 'what you know' about something. Before reading, it's always a good idea to activate your schema, or prior knowledge, about the topic of what you're going to read. Doing this will set you up for having a much deeper understanding about what you're going to read. It also allows for your mind to take in, and learn, new information much more readily.
Then, we used our schema about our life experiences to make connections with the texts we're reading. In the classroom, we call these text-to-self connections. A text-to-self connection is when a text reminds you about something that has happened to you. Meaningful text-to-self connections will help you have a much deeper understanding about the text you are reading. For example, if I am reading a book about a character getting his/her name made fun of in school, it could remind me of when my classmates made fun of my name when I was growing up. When it happened to me, I was very hurt and didn't want to come to school, so it could help me understand how the character in the book felt. When you're reading with your child at home, ask if he/she has any text-to-self connections.
Writing : The students have continued working on their how to writing pieces. They've been learning about the importance of breaking the steps down, using sequencing words, and adding details to help teach the reader how to do something. They also added warnings to their pieces. Ask your child about what 'how to' pieces he/she is writing about!
Math : Last week, we focused on place value. So far we've only talked about ones and tens. We'll add the hundreds place in a little later this year. Later in the week, the student applied their understanding of tens and ones to dimes and pennies.
Social Studies : We took a deeper look at maps last week and how places are represented on maps.
Science : We continued discussing plants' parts (and their functions) this week by talking about flowers and fruits. We used our knowledge of plants' flowers and fruits to understand the life cycle of a tomato plant.
I finally remembered to take some pictures this week! Here are some students playing Penny-Dime Exchange :