The first edition of the JFK Student Newspaper is out!
Click here: http://pub.lucidpress.com/thekennedymonthlyjan/ to enjoy!
Be sure to look for the article by Ciara!
Friday, January 29, 2016
Monday, January 25, 2016
Classroom Update
Social Studies: We have finished out unit on exploration and discovered the many trips of different European explorers. Below are a few pictures from our week of presentations (Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures for most, but the students agreed posting a few would be ok :)
Writer's Workshop: Last Friday students finished their persuasive essays! Your child can share their essay with you by logging on to their Google Docs account. We used this technology to peer edit our writing. Students learned to give helpful feedback instead of fixing the work for their partner. We have many convincing essays on animals, environmental concerns, homework, sports, and many more.
Math Workshop: We have completed more work in fraction concepts focusing on understanding word problems by drawing a visual and writing an equation. Students also worked on a collaborative math mini project on Friday. Students "acted" out a wall painting situation with colored paper to determine the solution to the problem. Groups of three created a poster to clearly show their thinking to others.
Reader's Workshop: We have begun our non-fiction reading unit to coincide our non-ficiton writing unit. Students have set a purpose for reading non-fiction text as well as looked at various non-fiction text features. We discussed how these features help us to understand the information in the text and thought about which ones we may use in our informational birds of prey text in writer's workshop.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Classroom Update
Math
We are well on our way to completing our work with fractions. Before winter break students learned how to add and subtract both fractions and mixed numbers. We also started our unit on multiplying fractions before vacation. These past two weeks we continued working on multiplying fractions using area models and two different strategies for multiplying mixed numbers. This coming Monday we will begin the last part of our fraction work by looking at the division of fractions.
Reader's Workshop
Students have been working hard before vacation reading and preparing to meet in book clubs. All groups have had some really good conversations about the books they are reading. Many connections have also been made to our read aloud Wonder. Some groups have completed their book and other groups will be finishing next week. A final book club meeting will discuss turning points in the story and theme.
Writer's Workshop
Students are in the process of revising their persuasive essays. Students choose a topic that they feel strongly about and would like to persuade others to take action. We have begun revision with two strategies, adding evidence and unpacking or analyzing evidence. We will continue to work on other revision strategies next week.
Social Studies
Before vacation students learned about early explorations in China, Africa, and Europe. Students are now in the middle of their partner research project on an assigned explorer. Now that students have completed their research, they will create a presentation that will teach their classmates about their explorer. Students have also been learning a lot about how to research information using books and the Internet, an important skill for our upcoming Birds of Prey informational writing project. We began talking about plagiarism and why is it important to paraphrase or put informational into your own words when doing research and taking notes. Along with this we talked about the need to cite the sources that they are using to find information on their explorer. And finally we discussed how to find reputable Internet sources and how to effectively Google search.
We are well on our way to completing our work with fractions. Before winter break students learned how to add and subtract both fractions and mixed numbers. We also started our unit on multiplying fractions before vacation. These past two weeks we continued working on multiplying fractions using area models and two different strategies for multiplying mixed numbers. This coming Monday we will begin the last part of our fraction work by looking at the division of fractions.
Reader's Workshop
Students have been working hard before vacation reading and preparing to meet in book clubs. All groups have had some really good conversations about the books they are reading. Many connections have also been made to our read aloud Wonder. Some groups have completed their book and other groups will be finishing next week. A final book club meeting will discuss turning points in the story and theme.
Writer's Workshop
Students are in the process of revising their persuasive essays. Students choose a topic that they feel strongly about and would like to persuade others to take action. We have begun revision with two strategies, adding evidence and unpacking or analyzing evidence. We will continue to work on other revision strategies next week.
Social Studies
Before vacation students learned about early explorations in China, Africa, and Europe. Students are now in the middle of their partner research project on an assigned explorer. Now that students have completed their research, they will create a presentation that will teach their classmates about their explorer. Students have also been learning a lot about how to research information using books and the Internet, an important skill for our upcoming Birds of Prey informational writing project. We began talking about plagiarism and why is it important to paraphrase or put informational into your own words when doing research and taking notes. Along with this we talked about the need to cite the sources that they are using to find information on their explorer. And finally we discussed how to find reputable Internet sources and how to effectively Google search.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)