The students selected their favorite pattern book to share with the class! However, before sharing, they learned about editing and revising. First, the students re-read their work and asked themselves if they wanted to add more, add a surprise ending, add details to the pictures, etc. Then, they learned how to make their writing easy to read. They checked their writing to make sure word wall words (i.e. sight words) were spelled correctly and they added a punctuation mark at the end of each sentence. Finally, they added color to their pictures and "fancied up" the cover of their books. On Thursday and Friday, they took turns reading their books to the class! Great work, kids! Now, onto the next unit in writing.... Growing as Small Moment Authors.
Highlights from Reading Workshop:
We began a new unit in reading: Non-Fiction Books. To introduce the students to what non-fiction texts are, I read many pairs of books on similar topics, one that was a fictional story and one that was non-fiction. The students began to notice the difference between the two kinds of books and we talked about the author's purpose/intention when creating each book.
The students also learned that one of the text features non-fiction books may have is photographs (as opposed to illustrations). They looked for photographs in the books that are in their book boxes and used this feature to help them sort the books between fiction and non-fiction. We will continue to work on learning other text features, as this is not the only indication of a non-fiction text.
Highlights from Math Workshop:
As a new unit is underway, the students are honing in on their addition and subtraction skills. In the last unit, they investigated +1 and -1 patterns, and their familiarity with such patterns will help their ability to solve addition and subtraction problems fluently, which is one of the foci in our current unit. In addition to solving mixed addition and subtraction problems, students are also working on showing addition and subtraction through pictures and with manipulatives. Lastly, we worked on solving addition and subtraction story problems that were told to the students orally.
Other Highlights:
We took a trip to the computer lab for the first time! The students will be going to the computer lab on a weekly basis and will be introduced to keyboarding skills during this time. This is meant as an introduction to keyboarding, and they will continue to get practice with this skill in grades 1-5.