Friday, February 6th Newsletter

Reading Workshop

This week in reading workshop we explored biographies.  We learned how to read these books, why we read them, and how to talk about the new information we gather.  First, we explored how these nonfiction texts are enjoyed differently than the expository texts we read previously.  We learned that biographies are written in chronological order and therefore read from beginning to end.  We read several biographies together and noticed familiar text features and a new one, a timeline.  As we read and listened to various texts, we practiced three reading strategies.  First, we thought about what we already knew about the subject of the book.  Next, as we read we stopped and thought about obstacles, contributions, and accomplishments of the subject.  Last, we shared one interesting fact we learned.    

Writing Workshop

Our work in writing workshop complemented our exploration of biographies.  We were autobiographers.  Using a cloze, we wrote the first two parts of our autobiography; early life and who I am now.  The best part of the writing process was sharing our writing with one another and making connections among our places of birth, first words, and hobbies.

Math

This week in math we applied our understanding of place value to compare numbers and solve multistep number stories. Math tools such as our number grid, base ten blocks, and pennies and dimes helped us accurately read and compare number values.  A hit of the week were our number scrolls.  We will be independently completing scrolls to accurately record numbers up to 600.

Classroom News

This week we continued exploring economics in social studies.  We reviewed our examples of needs and wants.  We also celebrated Groundhog Day and compared our predictions with the actual results.

In Fundations we began our seventh unit with an introduction to four new glued sounds.