Wednesday, October 3, 2018

What We've Been Learning

What We’ve Been Learning… 


Reading:  Last week we learned how to give a strong retell about the book we were reading. The students learned it is important to start at the beginning and work their way to the end (or to the point in the story they have read to so far), only telling our listener the most important events and details in the story. It is also important to introduce any main characters. Then we thought back to all of the skills we have learned so far. These include: the skills needed to build a strong reading life (picking a spot, choosing just right books, etc.), making higher level “how” predictions, envisioning, stopping for comprehension checks, and retelling.  Moving forward we will be learning how work with reading partners and ways they can lift each other’s reading work.  Our next unit  will focus on comparing and contrasting different characters and themes across different series of books. 
Writing: The students have been hard at work researching Miwok information. The students chose a topic to find out more information about. They then took notes, turned their notes into an 8 sentence paragraph with details. We then edited and wrote final copies. These final copies were then used to create iMovies.


Math: We finished unit one in Everyday Math! The students did some review of the skills they have learned so far and we took our unit one assessment. We are continuing to practice facts using Reflexmath. On Monday I will be switching them all to multiplication and division facts on Reflexmath.  This week we began unit 2 in Everyday Math. The main focus of this unit is on number stories and arrays.
Social Studies: We have begun looking at texts to help us research the Coast Miwok. We have been working on using the text to find answers to questions. It is a hard skill to flip between the text and a recording sheet to find and record our answers! I’m impressed with the positive mindset and determination the students have had with it! 
Science:
We are currently learning about Balance and Forces using a new program that came out of Lawrence Hall of Sciences. In this program students learn that scientists and engineers have figured out a way to build a train that actually floats on air as it goes cruising down the track at high speeds. Using similar principles, engineers have created a hoverboard—a device-like a skateboard that floats above a track rather than rolling along the ground. In the Balancing Forces unit, students work to investigate and then explain how these inventions seem to defy logic. Over the course of the unit, through firsthand experiences, discourse, and reading and writing informational text, students will come to understand how forces can cause stability or change in an object’s motion. They will discover how magnetic force can be used to counterbalance the force of gravity. They will create physical models, diagram models, and write, and present scientific explanations detailing how the maglev (magnetic levitation) train appears to defy gravity by floating.
Other:The students have started practicing their typing using Keyboarding without Tears.

Poetry 

Poetry began this Tuesday. Mz.P will be our guest teacher and will visit us for 6 sessions during which we will be learning how to write many kinds of poems! Thank you, Kiddo!

Reminder

No school on Monday, October 8th!


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