Officer Paul stopped by for a visit last Tuesday. The students always love when he comes to visit. Last Wednesday, we went went to an Otto the Auto Assembly that was put on by AAA to teach the students about pedestrian safety. The students had a lot of fun with the little Otto the Auto car.
Here's what we were working on in the classroom last week:
Reading : After the students learned about the difference between 'real reading' and 'fake reading' two weeks ago (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.
Writing : The students have been doing a fabulous job writing their how to books. Last week, we spoke about ways to make the steps of a how to more clear to the reader. Telling the reader the quantity of each material that he/she will need, using sequencing words, and warning the reader about pitfalls he/she may encounter are all ways to do this.
Math : Last week, we focused on using great than, less than, and equal to signs and measuring paths.
Social Studies : The students learned all about Martin Luther King Jr. last week. We had some great discussions in the classroom about things that Dr. King was fighting for.
Here are a few pictures from last week: