Here's what we've been working on in the classroom :
Reading : We've started talking about retelling. This is the beginning of our work on reading comprehension that will carry us through for the rest of the year. While we focused a lot on reading strategies at the beginning of the year (and will continue to do so), being able to understand what you read is the true heart of reading.
Last week, we went over what retelling is and some of the important things that you should include in a retell, like the characters and the setting. We'll continue working on it this week.
Writing : The students published their small moment writing pieces last Monday and we moved right on to our next unit, which is 'how to' writing. In this unit, the students will write nonfiction pieces that are aimed at teaching others how to do something. So far, we've learned a little bit about the genre, created lists of possible writing topics (or areas where we are experts), chosen a topic to write about, and created the materials page for a piece.
Math : We started our measurement unit in math last week. So far, we have practiced measuring using nonstandard units of length.
Science : Last week, we went over solar and lunar eclipses. I don't expect the students to have complete mastery of eclipses, but they were very interested in how everything can line up just right so that the moon blocks out the sun during the day, for a solar eclipse.
Technology : Last week was National Coding Week, so in addition to our regular weekly technology lesson, I introduced the students to coding! The students had a lot of fun learning the basics of computer science.
Here are some pictures of 1-Bu last week (in reverse chronological order, for some reason) :