Classroom Update and Happy Winter Break!

Happy Holidays!

We sang carols with the 1st and 3rd graders this week! We had a blast!

Holiday Pals
We had a successful Holiday Pal gift swap! It was so nice to see the students doing extra nice things for their friends and take the extra effort to make something by hand!

Reader's Workshop

Students are working on visualizing a story in their mind during reading to improve their comprehension. I read The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey to the class without showing them the pictures. Instead, I had students close their eyes and make a movie of the story in their mind. I modeled phrases, like “I am picturing the little boy getting his jacket and tennis shoes on while his dog is eagerly waiting to start their paper route” or “I see the empty red bag flapping in the wind as the boy races home after he delivered all the newspapers.” I asked them questions like, “what do you think the little boy looks like?” and “what does the dog look like in your mind?” After we read, students drew two mental pictures that they formed in their heads from the story.

Writer's Workshop

We are focusing on reindeer in fiction and non-fiction writing. We read the non-fiction book Watching Reindeer in Europe and noted that reindeer live in cold places. In computer lab last week, students researched reindeer facts. We checked out Santa's reindeer LIVE from the North Pole! You can watch them here: Reindeer in the North Pole Live Feed. If you watch at 11AM, 6PM, and 9PM you can see them being fed by an elf!

Students brainstormed their own reindeer story that is modeled after Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Students had to change the name and nose color of the reindeer in their story and tell how their reindeer helps out at the North Pole.

Math Workshop

This week, students explored with shapes and symmetry. Students completed a Geome-TREE (geometric tree) puzzle out of triangles, squares and rectangles. They had to keep rotating the shapes until they formed a tree.

Student made a Symme-TREE (symmetric tree), making sure that the ornaments on both sides of the tree match.

Everything we have been doing this week is an introduction to geometry and shapes for Unit 5, which we will officially start after break.

Science

We continued the air portion of the Weather, Air, and Wind unit this week. We experimented with air and water. Students learned how air can move water in an experiment using two syringes, two flexible tubes, a short straw, a long straw, a rubber stopper, a vial, and water. They figured out how pushing and pulling on the grey plunger in the syringe can force the air and water to move. Students even got a little wet when the air forced the water out of an open syringe!

 Breaking News: If you haven't heard already, we are getting a NEW STUDENT on the Monday after break! 25 students, wow!

Have a safe and merry winter break! Enjoy the extra time with your family! Can't wait to see those smiling faces and energetic minds after break! :) Miss Eckardt

Holiday Party

Students enjoyed treats with their table buddies. They made a snowman out of a sock and beans. Then, they had a snowball (cotton ball) relay race! We had a great afternoon! Even Buddy the Elf (aka Mr. Jansen) stopped by!

 

A special thank you to Mrs. Potts, Mrs. Carlier, Mrs. Hermonat, Mrs. Sidduqui, Mrs. Ahn, and Mrs. Dattathreya for a great party! J

Classroom Update

A Pinch of Grinch!

Scholastic Books!

The Scholastic Book order is IN! If you placed a Scholastic order, your books are in a manila envelope in your child’s cubby to go home today (Friday). I was able to order 10 new books for Mrs. Wood’s classroom library with her bonus points and reward coupons. Typing in her classroom code (JK3MD) during orders helps build Mrs. Wood’s classroom library so that students have more/new choices when shopping for books!

Spelling
This week we started Unit 7 of Word Study. Students met the H Brothers: Sheldon, Charlie, Thad, and Whit. Students will sort th, ch, sh, and wh words until the Unit 7 spelling test on Wednesday, December 19th.

 

Reader's Workshop

Students are working on improving their comprehension by connecting to a story. We have been working on text to text connections, where students listen to or read a story and it reminds them of another story they have read before. I have been modeling phases like, “When I read ____ it reminded me of the book____” or “when I read that page it made me think of the book____” When students connect one story to another story that they know, it helps them to better understand what is happening in both stories. Students have been using sticky notes during independent reading time with books from their book boxes. They write their text-to-text connections down on the sticky note, if they have one, and stick it inside their book. We share the sticky notes to see what kind of connection students have between stories.

Students retold the stories Ruby the Copycat and Jamaica Tag-Along. Students noticed a connection between Ruby and Jamaica. They noticed that Ruby and Jamaica were a lot alike, because they both like to copy someone else. In both stories the person who is being copied gets annoyed and speaks up to both Ruby and Jamaica.

Writer's Workshop

For Grinch week, we read “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Students brainstormed ideas on how they could cheer up the Grinch. I gave them the writing prompt: To Make the Grinch Grin, I would… Students brainstormed what they would do and wrote a rough draft. We revised their writing and students turned it into their best work.

Math Workshop

We spent some more time on ballpark estimates to solve mutli-digit addition problems. Students remembered to round the numbers to the nearest tens before adding, and then they compared the estimate to the real answer to see how close they were. We reviewed Unit 4 on Wednesday and took the test on Thursday. We reviewed how to read story problems. Students circled or underlined the important information first before trying to solve. Student made a Grinch story problem book to practice their story problem reading skills. 
 

Science

We continued the air portion of the Weather, Air, and Wind unit this week. Students experimented with parachutes to find out how air affects a parachute. They assembled parachutes with a napkin, a paper clip, four pieces of string, and four sticky dots. Students learned that air gets trapped underneath the parachute in order to slowly drop down to the ground.

Students experimented with syringes and flexible tubes. They tested their own ideas on how to make the plunger move inside the barrel. Students decided that air has to move from one barrel to another barrel through the flexible tube when two syringes are connected. They decided that air is everywhere and has to move, it doesn't just disappear. 

 

Holiday Secret Pals

Tis the season for giving and caring!  Today students picked the name of a classmate who will be their secret pal for the next week and a half.  To be a secret pal all you have to do is show you care by doing three nice things (more if you like!) for that person before next Friday, December 21^st.

The three nice things must be “acts of kindness.”  The best gifts come from the heart, not Walmart!  Think of all the examples we talked about in class, inviting them to eat lunch with you or play at recess, taking down their chair, getting their boots or lunchbox, giving them a really great compliment.  You could also draw a picture, make a card or do a simple paper craft as one of your acts of kindness.

On December 21^st, you will give your secret pal a card and a small gift that you make yourself.  When you give your person their card and gift they will know their pal was you!  You will make the card and small gift at home.  As we discussed, the homemade gift should be made out of items you already have at home.  Do not buy anything!!!  Ideas we talked about for gifts include ornaments, bookmarks, decorations, jewelry or even anything from craft kits you may already have at home and haven’t used.  I have lots of craft materials and paper here, so ask me if you need anything!  If I have it you can use it!

Now, you want your identity to stay “secret” to your pal, so the smartest thing you can do is to do anonymous nice things for a few different people to make sure no one figures out exactly who their pal is too easily.

Have fun being nice!  Always remember, treat others the way you would like to be treated!

Parents: If your child forgets who their secret pal is, I have a master list just in case!

Classroom Update

Reading Workshop
Students are working on improving their comprehension by connecting to a story. We have been working on text to self connections, where students listen to or read a story and have a personal connection to the story. I have been modeling phases like, “When I read that it reminded me of…” or “when I read that page it made me think of…” When students have a personal connection to a story, it helps them to better understand what is happening in the story. Students have been using sticky notes during independent reading time with books from their book boxes. They write their text-to-self connections down on the sticky note, if they have one, and stick it inside their book.

Writing Workshop

This week, students have been working on acrostic poems about snow. We brainstormed “s” words, “n” words, “o” words, and “w” words about snow and winter. Some great examples the students came up with are: sleigh bells, nighttime, open, and wonderland. Students wrote their snow words on snowflakes.

Math Workshop

We are continuing Unit 4 in our Everyday Math Unit. This week, we worked on temperature, shopping at the grocery store, making ballpark estimates and measurement. Students became more familiar with tape measures. They learned how to properly read them, making sure where to start at 0. Students learned to read inches and centimeters on a tape measure, noting that inches are bigger than centimeters. Students used tape measure to measure objects around the classroom.

 

We worked with ballpark estimates to solve addition problems. Students learned to round the numbers to the nearest tens before adding, and then we compared the estimate to the real answer to see how close we were! The rule for ballpark estimates is: 4 and below = round down to the nearest ten, 5 and above = round up to the nearest ten

Science
We started the air portion of the Weather, Air, and Wind unit this week. Students brainstormed what they already know about air. They asked questions, like “how does air move?” We will be doing air experiments to help students have a better understanding of what air is and how it moves. Students used a balloon, a straw, a feather, a Styrofoam ball, a paper, and a cotton ball to experiment with how air moves things.

Students used a vial, paper towel, and a Styrofoam ball in water to see if they could figure out how air could keep the paper towel dry inside the vial.

 

Social Studies

This week we reviewed maps and took the Unit 3 "How to read Maps" test. Students did very well on the test! The next unit of study for social studies is about Geography. Students will read physical maps and learn about different kinds of landforms.

Next week is going to be Grinch Week, so don't get grouchy over the weekend! : )