During these two weeks, students have learned about a couple different reading habits. One good reading habit students learned about was that readers do something at the end of reading their book. Students learned that there are several things they can choose from after reading. They shared that they can reread the story for more understanding, they can choose their favorite part and share it with a friend, or they can retell the story on their fingers. Student chose their favorite part of a story and then we gathered as a class to share those favorite parts. Students also practiced retelling a story in order aloud using their 5 fingers or more, as needed. They also practiced writing a retell of a story in order on a reading reflection paper. They learned the importance of remembering the details of a story they read but that it is ok to peek back inside the story for reminders. Another good reading habit students learned about was to read more and more. We discussed that readers do not just read one book like a musician does not just sing one song. We read many books. We also discussed how we choose books to read. Some shared they read easy books first while others read harder books first. Some read books of interest by taking a sneak peek and others choose fiction or nonfiction books first. It was great to see the students choose many books to read to self daily.
Students partnered up to read articles of different birds: peregrine falcon, owl, hummingbird, and more. They also learned how to highlight the important words in the article. They are learning that by highlighting the important words, we are better able to see those words and it helps us better understand the story as we reread them.
Students also learned about the parts of a letter. They have just started to write friendly letters to their peers, fold them into airplanes and deliver them into the correct mail hangar. Students were so excited to write a letter and then receive one too. They opened up their first letter to read and felt delighted and appreciated by the friendly message. We are excited to write and read more friendly letters.
math
These past two weeks, students have continued to participate in math workshop. They have been recording in their math number journals to study each school day number. They have played math activity games with a buddy. They also started to participate in partner practice where they got to build 2 digit numbers by rolling 2 dice with a partner. They have to build, record, and say the numbers. We also started to measure using math tools and rulers. Students talked about the starting point of where you measure and where we end. We also talked about the importance of using the same tool each time you measure and not to mix different size tools at once. Students got to estimate and measure the wingspan of an albatross in small groups. The length of an albatross' wingspan is about 10 feet long. There is a blue tape about 10 feet long in our classroom floor to represent the wingspan of an albatross. Students were able to use 12 inch rulers, base ten rods, crayons, and square tiles to estimate and actually measure the length of this large winged bird's wingspan. Students learned to adjust their estimates as they continued to learn about the actual measurement of these tools. It was great to see how some of their estimates gradually became closer to the actual measurements.
Writing
During project times, students are busy writing about their observations, design procedures, and results. Students write about their designs for their plane models for test 1 and test 2. For their first plane model test, they used straw, paper plate, paper, and tape. They wrote the steps in order using the sequence words: first, next, then, and then, and last. Students also represented their designs by illustrating a diagram of the model planes with picture and labels. Some chose to label the parts of the plane and others chose to label the parts with the name of the materials they used.