Science, Social Studies

May 23, 2014

Memorial Day weekend is here! We have an afternoon of meetings, so we thought we'd work on the blog over lunch.

As usual, we integrated social studies with reading this week. We partner read, If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern, and took notes on how colonial times were different from the present. We then shared our findings, and each student chose their favorite comparison and made a horn book with their information. As a treat, Kim brought in a giant sugar cookie in the shape of a horn book to share with the students because we learned that when students were finished with Dame School, the teacher brought in a gingerbread cookie in the shape of a horn book to celebrate.

Kim also found a colonial times website, where the children could play games to learn more information about that time period.

In science, Anne has had the students observing seeds and the life cycle of a plant. We have been recording our observations of our seeds as they have moved from the dormant stage to germination. To solidify these two new vocabulary words, the students completed a Connect Two page to explain how the two words are connected.

We also integrated reading in our science. We read the book, Seeds Get Around by Nancy White. This was a shared reading, where we first predicted which words matched the pictures from the text. This was more challenging than we thought it would be. Then we read and discussed the text, during which time the students took notes on their thoughts. Afterwards, students had to rearrange and sequence the pictures and words correctly.

It is a really busy time of year, as you well know. We may or may not be blogging for the next two weeks because we need to wrap up the year and do report cards. Happy Memorial Day!

Kim and Anne

Biographies and OK writing

Friday, May 16, 2014

Well right now we are trying to blog while 35 students are in our rooms for recess because once again, the weather is freezing cold and rainy. Please forgive us if there are typos, it is kind of a mad house in here.  This weather makes it difficult to believe that summer is coming and the school year is almost over.

Last week on the blog we mentioned that we would share our biography reading and our I'm Ok writing. We'll start with the biography reading. We started working on the biography reading because it went along with one of the stories in our reading series called, A Weed Is a Flower. The kids were fascinated reading about George Washington Carver's life. Once again we split into two groups, one more guided and one more independent. Both groups started with a timeline, where they had to predict the sequence of events that happened in Carver's life. One group had five events to sequence, while the other had several more. That group had to sequence their events in small, cooperative groups rather than as whole group. After reading, discussing, and taking notes from the story, both groups revisited their timelines and adjusted them as needed.

We used two other sources to add information to our notes about George Washington Carver to help us write our own thumbnail sketch biography. Since this was our first time writing a biography, we used a frame to help us. One group had a simple frame, while the other group's frame required more details of his life. Next week, we plan on continuing this genre with biographies about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We especially wanted to read about Lincoln because of the connections the students can make between Lincoln and Carver, and we wanted to read about Washington because this reading goes along with our social studies unit.

This was our first time using the OK book  by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld as a mentor text for our writing. After reading the book, each student a descriptive paragraph about something that they are OK at. It not only reinforced descriptive writing, but also first person point of view writing. We combined each student's writing into a class big book, and together we wrote the lead and ending.

Have a great weekend. Here's hoping it warms up soon!

Kim and Anne

Guided Reading Project, Area and Perimeter

Friday, May 9th

This week we found ourselves finishing up on some fun projects that we couldn't get to last week because of MAP testing. For the past several weeks, our guided reading groups were reading nonfiction texts of their choice about bats or squid. During the reading they recorded their important facts, responses to the facts, and questions. As a final project (our kids love projects!) the students chose the most unique facts that they found, recorded them on a notecard, and then wrote an opinion statement about the fact.

For the final few weeks of school, we are basing our guided reading groups on the students' interests. Everyone got to pick the chapter book or nonfiction text that they wanted to read. They are reading in partners or independently, and then using Edmodo to share their thoughts and insights with their peers. We are also responding to them, and periodically ask questions for them to answer. We check in with groups to make sure the comprehension is there. They love the choice and independence of this, and cheer when we say it is guided reading time. They also like the fact that we are once again mixing classes.

Two measurement concepts that we have been working on are area and perimeter. We found two fun art projects for the kids to do. The first one came from Amy Lemons. It is called perimeter ice cream cones. We used the idea, but made our own shapes to meet the needs of our two differentiated math groups.

If you would like a copy of the patterns we used, let us know in the comments section, and provide your email so we can send them to you. Sorry, we haven't mastered Google Docs yet!


The other project we have found all over Pinterest, so we don't know who to give credit to. The students made area people. One group used square inch graph paper and was guided through the process. The other group used centimeter square paper and worked independently to create their own, unique area person.

Happy Mother's Day! Next week we want to share our biography project and a writing project we used  the book, I'm OK.

Kim and Anne

MAP Practice

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Happy May Day!  We know we've been MIA for the last couple weeks.  We've been busy gearing up for the MAP test.  They are finally over today and things will swing back to normal next Monday.

We are so proud of how well our students performed in both math and reading on this test.  We all cheered and celebrated for each other as we made our goals.  To help our students prepare for the tests, we used some fun interactive sites.  You will find them below.  Our students found the activities so fun they did them at home, and we are sure they will continue to use them throughout the rest of this year.

There are activities on this site for all RIT bands.

Math Practice Using RIT Scores

This is a great site because it has both math and reading practice.

Prepdog

We are excited to get back on schedule next week and to share the fun things we are doing as the school year winds down.

Kim and Anne