Here's what we were working on in the classroom last week:
Reading : This week, 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 : We've moved on to our next writing unit, which is an opinion unit. We started off by talking about the differences between facts and opinions. Then, we read a book about a boy and an ant. After that, the students wrote an opinion piece about whether or not they felt the boy should squish the ant. On Friday, the students started using graphic organizers in order to better organize their opinion pieces.
Math : Last week was all about place value. We started by learning about base-ten blocks and then transferred our understanding of tens and ones to counting dimes and pennies.
Enjoy your week!