Tuesday, February 2, 2016

February Update!

Well, it has been a little while since the last update, so there is lots to share!  Here's what we've been up to.

Reading -The children have been working on their questioning skills.  They are able to create and ask questions of varying levels.  Some questions require students to look further into a text and some require them to think about themselves as the character in a certain situation.  We also are working on visualizing during our read aloud, How to Steal a Dog.  Recently the students learned about point of view.  It is important for them to determine how a certain point of view changes the lense through which a story is told and can possibly change our feelings about a character.  This week we are working on inferring, which is a review skill for the students, but we had some interesting conversations about the book that we read with the lesson, Coming On Home Soon. 

Writing- We have been working on Opinion writing this trimester.  Students have learned that in order to make a strong point they need to back their opinions up with facts and examples.  We have been practicing how to organize our opinion essays by starting with a great lead, a thesis statement, followed by 3 examples with elaborating details, facts and evidence under each example.  Students are provided with articles to help them form their opinions and gain knowledge to include valid evidence in their writing.

Math-December and January were pretty heavy months in math.  The children tackled double digit by double digit multiplication and mastered long division.  We are currently learning about numeric and non numeric patterns and will be moving on to fractions next.  Fractions can be a difficult and frustrating topic for students.  They may require your help with homework, but we will get through it.  Fractions are followed by work with decimals.

S.S.-During the month of December we studied the history of Rhode Island and our founding father, Roger Williams.  We discussed the Native American tribes that lived here and still do.  We learned about all of our state symbols, including the state drink, coffee milk and we learned about the land and geography of our great state.  We have since moved on to the south and have already had our states and capitals test.  In each region of the United States, the students learn about the features of the land, the climate, the people who live there and the plants and animals.  We will be moving on to the Midwest for our next region of study. 

Science- We just finished our first FOSS science kit last week.  The students completed hands on activities and investigations which covered electrical current, magnetism, sound waves, force and motion and light.  All units were part of the Energy unit in which students are now able to understand that energy is all around us, energy travels and energy can be transferred.  We are currently practicing our investigative skills using released Science NECAP experiments.  The children are getting to practice for the real Science NECAP, which will be in May, and will feel comfortable with the set up after using the released items to practice.   Our next FOSS kits should be arriving soon and we will be studying rocks and minerals.