With the change in our calendar this year, it's been a long stretch of learning time; however the students have continued to plug away in all of the subjects but are looking forward to a well deserved break this Thanksgiving. :)
In reading, students demonstrated good gains through the SRI and DRA assessments and many of them transitioned into higher level books in their reading groups. We are continuing to practice the skills of making predictions ("I predict..."), making connections ("This reminds me of..."), and summarizing. During the 2nd quarter, we'll introduce the skill of questioning ("I wonder...") to aid in their comprehension skills. Remember that to be considiered "on grade level" this nine weeks, students should be able to read and comprehend independently at level K (20).
In language arts, we have completed our writing assessment for fall data purposes and will now begin the writing process for our new topic Thanksgiving From a Turkey's Point of View. Students, masked as turkeys, will persuade their families not to eat them for Thanksgiving dinner.
Math, as always, keeps us VERY busy. Students recently finished learning how to tell time to five minutes through a variety of activities: games including Stop the Clock, I Have, Who Has?, and Wipe Out, Mega Math software, and guided and independent practice.
Now, students will dive into geometry, learning first about plane shapes and then transitioning into solid figures. Listening to The Greedy Triangle will hook students into their learning. They'll watch brief video clips, work with partners to identify and classify quadrilaterals around the classroom, and apply their learning through Promethean flipcharts to name just a few activities. The highlight of the geometry unit is definitely creating the well known solids with toothpicks and marshmallows!!
In Social Studies, we'll continue to learn about the first people of Georgia (Creek and Cherokee) through our in-house field trip on November 10 with the Chattahoochee Nature Center. Then, we'll begin our discussion on economics, helping students to understand how to classify goods and services and then how to allocate them. Students will have fun simulating ways to allocate goods and services through a classroom lottery, first-come, first served, sharing, contest, bartering (trading), and money to name a few.
Phew!! There's a lot of fun learning going on in room 301!!!!!!
