Our Versions of the Classics

Today in Writers' Workshop, students learned another pre-writing strategy to help them when they are brainstorming stories and ideas to write about.  We looked at The Three Little Pigs, by Chris Weisner, and studied how he changed a story he was familiar with to make it his own.  Students then applied this strategy during independent practice.  The kids LOVED this strategy; they wouldn't put their pencils down (see below)! Ask your child what they wrote about in Writers' Workshop today!

In Readers' Workshop, students noticed how I help myself when I'm not hooked on a book yet.  Effective readers persevere and try to new strategies to help them get hooked.  Today, students learned that you can say the characters' voices in your head to make the dialogue and story more interesting.

In Math Workshop, students dissected the true meaning of the equal sign.  They then used this knowledge to show the same number using many different concepts, numbers, manipulatives, etc.  Over the weekend, ask your child what the equal sign really means (Answer: It means the same as, or equal to; not "the answer").

In Social Studies, students took on more responsibility comparing rules and laws, and explaining and writing their reasoning regarding their similarities and differences. They then identified examples of rules and laws and used their understanding of authority figures to help them.

In Word Study, students began to apply their knowledge of the CVC rule to help them sort and explain how to spell words with suffixes. Then students found words around the room and appropriately added the suffixes (see below).

In Read Aloud, students participated in "productive dialogue" whereby they used talk moves to build on and bounce off of others' ideas.

A quick few notes as we go into the weekend..  Please check your child's Beaver Folder sometime this weekend; there are a few papers that may need to be returned.  In addition, I want to apologize for not sending back checked homework yet.  As I'm a new teacher, I didn't have log-in information for the grading system.  Checked homework will come home next week.  Thank you for your patience!

Homework:

• Read 20 minutes  

Reminders:

• Picture Day is Tuesday, September 9.  Please check your child's Beaver Folder!
• Parent/ Guardian Permission forms due Tuesday, September 9.
• Blog permission slip due

Thank you,

Ms. Smith