Please remember that parent/teacher conferences are this week. Report cards will be available to view on Genesis on Monday at 3pm and then conferences have been scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday. If you have not been able to access your conference time or you are unable to make your scheduled time, please let me know ASAP. Tuesday and Thursday are 12:45pm dismissal days in order to allow for parent/teacher conferences.
Here's what we were working on in the classroom last week :
Reading : We started our next reading unit, all about visualizing and inferring. We will work with poetry a lot this unit, as poets tend to use strong language that makes it easier to visualize and infer the author's meaning. Last week, we focused mainly on visualizing. We say that visualizing is when you use the words and your schema to create a picture in your mind. We also talked about imagining what the text sounds like, feels like, tastes like, and smells like.
Writing : The students have almost finished their autobiographies! Their autobiographies are organized into different sections, just like the nonfiction books that they have been reading. They have worked hard to make sure that their writing is organized and in an order that makes sense. You'll get a chance to see your child's autobiography at his/her conference this week.
Math : We talked all about fact families and shapes' attributes last week. We started off learning about how the numbers on a domino relate to one another and then we transferred that thinking to fact triangles. Reviewing fact triangles is a great way for your child to practice his/her addition and subtraction facts at home. Then, we went on to discuss different attributes that shapes have - name, size, number of sides, number of vertices, etc.
Technology : The students have learned so much about using technology to effectively share what they know and explore deeper meanings this year. Last week, the students inputted some data into a google spreadsheet and made bar graphs to make the data easier to see/understand. I'm so impressed with them!
Here are some pictures from last week :