Mrs. Wood’s Classroom Blog

Opening: Students worked on the DLR packet from this week.

Math: We reviewed for our Unit 6 math test. We went over the problems the students will see on the actual test.

Physical Education

Math (continued): We had a 2nd grade meeting while the students were in PE and it went long. I had the person who covered our room work with the students on catching up some math boxes we had missed during this unit.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – Students took the test on the story Jamaica Louise James. They did a really good job of looking at the questions and thinking about their answers. They were expected to work on this test on their own. I read the directions to them and let them begin taking it. Most of them did really well. Very few students needed clarification on words. The biggest problem was the students were forgetting to answer BOTH parts of the questions so I would ask them “did you answer this part?” and have them do it again.

Working with Words – We did a Guess the Covered Word activity that they would have done yesterday if we hadn’t had a snow day!

*Eduardo’s mom and dad surprised our class with cupcakes and juice to celebrate Eduardo’s 8th birthday. Happy Birthday Eduardo! The cupcakes were very tasty!

Silent Reading

Read Aloud – We read from Ramona the Brave

Recess

Math Test: Because it has been predicted that we were going to get a lot of snow again overnight, I had the students begin their math tests today. Only a few finished them though. Hopefully we have school tomorrow and everyone else can get finished up!

Homework: Spelling words 5x each (Entire homework packet is due tomorrow!)

Dear Families –

I am terribly sorry if it seems like I am not keeping up on the blogging! I was out on Friday then had to be out unexpectedly today and tomorrow. I apologize for the short notice. (A very important training opportunity became available and I have learned a lot just in one day so the students will definitely benefit! )

Fortunately, we had a truly wonderful substitute teacher on Friday and during our records day on Monday he agreed to come back for both days this week. This is a true blessing because he knows the students and they know him! He is preparing them for the test we will be taking on Thursday when I return.

A brief overview of what the students have been working on:

• Reading: The students are finishing up the story, Jamaica Louise James. Today they would have done the comprehension questions and tomorrow (providing we don’t have the snow day they are predicting), they will take the test on the story.
• Writing: The students are working on summarizing activities. It is important for the students to be able to summarize something they have read to pull out only the important details. We’ve been talking about vertebrates in science and I found two great summarizing activities that integrated our vertebrate study in with writing.
• Math: The students have continued to practice arrays. Tomorrow they will review for the Unit 6 test and on Thursday we will take the test. It will cover addition with 3 numbers (ie. 12+8+15 = ___), subtracting, number stories and the arrays.
• Social Studies: The students took a quiz on the mini-unit we just finished (part 1 of many on communities) last week and today they did a map activity to help them learn to read maps. This particular map went along with our look at communities because it was a map of a small town and they had to read the symbols in the key and answer some questions on it.

Have a great day tomorrow families. Stay warm! See you on Thursday.

Sorry this was not posted yesterday. I was out for training in the afternoon and time got away from me! I will also be gone on Friday (the 25th) so that update will not come until Monday when I have had the chance to see what the students got accomplished with the substitute teacher. (I don’t think they will get through all the work I left, I left a lot!) Please remember there is also NO SCHOOL for students on Monday, the 28th. It is a records day for teachers so we can prepare report cards. Have a great weekend!

Thursday 1/24/08

Opening: Students worked on their DLR for the week.

Math: We continue to look at and review arrays. Today we completed lesson 6.10 which gives us more number stories to help the students begin to make the connection between the array and simple multiplication. A good way to remember how to set up the actual multiplication problem is that you are taking the number of items in each row and multiplying it by the number of rows. If I have 5 rows of 8 items, I would write the problem as 8×5 because I am going to add 8+8+8+8+8 to get my answer. When I asked the students if they knew how to add, they all said yes, and I said “well guess what, then you can multiply!” Multiplication is just repeated addition and when they start to see that pattern, they get very excited because they realize its not that hard after all.

Physical Education

Class Meeting: We had our meeting today since I will be out tomorrow. Students and I reviewed our Raise Responsibility Levels. Most of the students are starting to realize that its up to them to make the good choices so they can learn. They are trying to be better about working quietly, not talking in the hallways and following the directions the first time.

Make up: Some of the students struggled with a cross-text/paired reading writing that we did last week. I went back over how to do them with the students because this is important MEAP preparation stuff. My goal is not to scare the students when it comes to the MEAP but rather to inform them and make them realize that while it is important, it is just a test. I showed them some sample writings from 3rd graders last year and showed them the papers that got high scores and papers that got low scores. It seemed to help them understand what I’m looking for. I gave them some time to work on fixing the piece of writing.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We talked about inferring today. When we infer, we take information from the text, combine it with our own life experience to figure out something. For example, if I came into the classroom wearing a cast on my arm, the students could infer that I broke my arm because they could see the cast and they also know from their life experience that people who wear casts probably broke that limb. I like to refer to inferring as “reading between the lines” because we are figuring out things that are not actually told to us in the story. We read a short story called Luann’s House and practiced inferring information from that story. Then we did a few fun examples with inferring and it seemed like the students were starting to get how inferring works.

Working with Words – We did a guess the covered word activity today about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Read Aloud – We finished reading Ramona the Pest today. We will be reading another Ramona book starting next week.

Recess

Social Studies: We learned about basic needs and the difference between goods and services today. Students will take a short quiz on the last 3 social studies lessons tomorrow.

Writing: I showed the students a few more MEAP sample papers and let them have the last 20 minutes of the day to continue fixing their cross-text papers from last week.

Homework: Homelink 6.10

Wednesday 1/23/08

Opening: Students began the DLR packet for this week.

Math: We worked on lesson 6.9 in math which continued to work with arrays for multiplying.

Interventions: We began our new stories. Our focus (for all groups) this week is to Evaluate what we are reading. Students took a look at vocabulary for the stories and we did picture walks and talked about what we think the story will be about.

Library

SSR

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – Students looked at the vocabulary words for the next story we will be reading. They also previewed the spelling words that go with this story (due to the short week this and next week, we’ll use this list through next week). Students then did a picture walk of the story, Jamaica Louise James.

Working with Words – Students learned their new word wall words for the week and they chanted, clapped and cheered them.

SSR

Art

Writing: Since we did not have school on Tuesday and the students were with a substitute teacher this afternoon, I left a creative writing activity for them to do, asking them what they would do if they had three wishes!

Homework: Homelink 6.9 and Handwriting

Opening: Students completed Daily Language Review packet for the week. This was turned in (you will see it in next week’s folder).Math: We continued with our look at arrays and how arrays help us to group things. Today’s lesson focused upon grouping items of equal numbers. For example, if I bought 3 packs of gum and each pack had 5 pieces, I would have 3 equal groups of 5. Students are encouraged to use pictures, Xs, dots or “tick” marks to help them illustrate these problems and understand them better. We also spent time catching up on some Math Boxes we haven’t gotten to during the week.

Interventions: We did a Parts of Speech lesson today. We haven’t done one of these in awhile and they really enjoy them.

Classroom Meeting: We are continuing to review and outline expectations for behavior. Its unfortunate that so many students in our room prefer to be social instead of pay attention and learn — it becomes very clear who is paying attention when work is being rushed through or done with a lot of mistakes. We discussed strategies to keep ourselves on levels C and D so that we can get the education we need and deserve.

Writing: Students continued to work on their cross-text writing pieces. Again, so many students are socializing during this writing time that their writing is reflecting this. Over half of our class did not complete their cross-text writing today (many hadn’t even really started because they are choosing to play around or waste time). To that end, those students will have to miss some recess time to get their work done — it is very important that the students know and understand how the cross-text pieces are done. They are on the MEAP test but its also just a good skill to be able to compare two books or other stories with each other.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We completed the 2nd half of the Paired Reading selection. Most of the students took my advice and tried reading the questions first before reading the story. It really seemed to help them focus on what they were reading to find out.

Working with Words – We took our spelling test today on the “Y” words.

Self-Selected Reading

Read Aloud – I read from Ramona the Pest. We’re almost done with this story. The students are really enjoying her a lot.

Recess

Make-Up: Since so many students needed extra time to work on their cross-texts and/or other work from the week, we used the last part of the day for this. I was going to do a Dr. King activity with the kids but I decided to send it home with them instead (they do not have to return it to school). I warned the students that if we continue to have a lot of students not completing their work with their best effort, we will not be able to continue to try to earn AFC (most of the students have not been able to participate the last few times because they have so many missing assignments). I try to emphasize to them that they are hurting themselves when they don’t do their work. Parents, please encourage your student to do his/her personal best on each and every assignment and return the work on time so they do not lose out on other educational activities we could be doing.

Homework: none

REMINDER: NO SCHOOL MONDAY IN HONOR OF DR. KING’S BIRTHDAY

Opening: Students worked on Daily Language Review – Thursday Week 8.

Math: We reviewed last night’s homework (many kids are getting the answers right but are struggling with showing their work properly and this is VITAL for tests — if I can see where they are making mistakes, they can at least get partial credit for the work) and moved on with today’s lesson. We talked about arrays — arrays are arrangements of dots or Xs in a rectangle or square shape. They represent the beginnings of multiplication. If you want to make an array of 16 Xs, you would have 2 rows of 8 Xs or 4 rows of 4 Xs. Each would represent the following: 8+8 (or 8×2) and 4+4+4+4 or (4×4). Arrays help kids to SEE how multiplication is just repeated addition and gives them a picture to reference as well.

Physical Education

Computer Lab

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We began a pre-test from our Focus on the MEAP text. I know it may seem early to be thinking about MEAP but the strategies that the students can be taught with these prep lessons will really help them when they take the test for the first time next year. Today we looked at a Paired Reading selection — we read the first selection and answered the questions. The strategy we worked on was to read the questions FIRST and THEN read the selection — that way students who don’t read as fast know what information they are looking for and its easier for them to focus in on what they want to find out. Today I went a bit easy on them — we read the questions together first and then I read them the selection and had them answer the questions on their own. Tomorrow I will see how they do without help (because no one can read to them, pronounce words or even tell them what a word means on the actual test).

Working with Words – We did a rhyming activity with _ake endings.

Self-Selected Reading

Read Aloud

Recess

Writing: Students took the information from their graphic organizers we made yesterday and began writing their cross-text pieces in response to the prompt: “Everyone has the right to be free. Do you agree or disagree? Explain why.”

Social Studies: We did a lesson on the customs that communities share, using the example of the Fourth of July. What customs and traditions do we see on that holiday? (Fireworks, parades, etc.)

Homework: Home Link 6.6, Spelling sheet

Opening: Students found themselves in a new seating arrangement today — hopefully this will cut down on the socializing in class. I am trying to emphasize to the students that the more time they spend talking, the less time they spend learning! We also worked on Daily Language Review for Wednesday, week 8.

Math: We are continuing to look at subtraction with the longs (10s) and cubes (1s). Some of the students are becoming passive and not caring about showing work — I am pushing them to show work or redo the assignments. Not only is it vital for THEM to see how they are working out a problem, but if they make a mistake without showing their work, I can’t begin to see where they went wrong. Today we practiced more on subtracting with trades. The picture cues on the homework from last night are nice — how many cubes are in a long? 10. So if I have to trade (borrow), 1 long would be taken away and 10 cubes would be added. Homework tonight will continue to reinforce this.

Interventions: Groups worked on the comprehension activity to go along with our story for the week.

Library

Handwriting: Students practiced writing capital and lower case T.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We read “Hooray for Main Street!” today which is one of our phonics readers. We read the book together in small groups and then met with a partner to discuss the characters, the setting, the problem in the story and the solution. Then we got out the comprehension cube and the students who caught the ball had to tell us a part of the story based on where their right thumb landed (so if it landed on “setting” the student would tell us the setting in the story).

Working with Words – We did a making words activity today. Our secret word was mountains.

Read Aloud – I read more from Ramona the Pest. Ramona got herself stuck in the mud, ask your child about it!

Art

Writing: Today we began to put together the information from both of the stories we read this week. The question the kids need to be thinking about is “Everyone has the right to be free. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?” We began filling in our organizer and we took a position today (each student either agreed or disagreed and wrote it down) and tomorrow we will begin the actual writing of the cross-text.

Homework: Home Link 6.6 and Handwriting – letter O

Opening: Students worked on Daily Language Review – Tuesday, Week 8.

No Assembly (Due to Voting in the Gymnasium)

Writing: We continued to work on our cross-text writing. We read “Follow the Drinking Gourd” today which talks about how Peg Leg Joe helped to bring slaves on the Underground Railroad to freedom. We wrote important information down about this story so that tomorrow we can begin to compare the two stories.

Interventions: We continued to read our books and look at how the characters solved the problems they encountered. Students are getting better at predicting what will happen by reading the pictures.

Math: We finished lesson 6.5 on subtraction. MANY of the kids are not showing their work on the trade-first subtraction method. If the kids don’t show their work, I don’t know what they are doing if they make a mistake. (This is the “old fashioned” math you and I learned in school.) We used our base-10 blocks to see how we turn a long (a 10) into 10 cubes (a cube = one).

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We read a phonics reader called “Mouse’s Crowded House”. We echo read the story and then we searched the story for all of the “ou” and “ow” words – we had to be careful because they had to have the “ow” sound like in “cow”.

Working with Words – We did a guess the covered word activity today thinking about words that would fit into the sentences about building a snowman.

Self-Selected Reading (SSR)

Read Aloud: We are continuing to read from Ramona the Pest.

Recess

Science: Students reviewed what we learned about mammals and we began looking at amphibians. Ask your child how amphibians and mammals are different.

Social Studies: We read a short article about communities and how communities look. How does our community look? What does community mean? Ask your child these questions and see if s/he can answer them!

Homework: Home Link 6.5

Opening: Students worked on Daily Language Review – Monday, Week 8.

Classroom Meeting: We dicussed our Raise Responsibility levels, specifically level B. Level B deals with Bossing and Bullying — if the teacher has to ask us to do something more than once, we are on Level B because the teacher has to boss us around to get us to do what we should be doing. We discussed why Level B is not a place we want to be. We want to be at C (cooperation) or best yet, D (democracy) where we do the right thing just because its the right thing to do.

Music

Interventions: Today for interventions, we continued to talk about predicting and problem solving. Students discussed new vocabulary for our new books and completed a vocabulary worksheet. Then we did a picture walk through our new book. I like to tell the kids we are “reading” the pictures, because in this level you CAN tell a lot about what is happening in the text by simply looking at and “reading” the pictures.

Math: We got to pull out our Base-10 blocks today for a fun activity with subtraction. Students are working on subtracting with 2 digit numbers (33 – 12 for example). They use the blocks to give them a visual aide to reinforce the idea. Today we did simple subtraction that does not require “trading” from the 10s place. It was good practice to get the kids used to using the blocks again. Tomorrow they will use the blocks again to finish this lesson, but we will use trading in our subtraction as well.

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – We took our test for the story Big, Bushy Mustache. The students did surprisingly well with it for a Monday afternoon! We spent a lot of time last week digging in to this story and it seemed to stick in their minds a bit better.

Working with Words – We took a look at our new word wall words for the week. They are friends, people, before, off and after.

Self-Selected Reading (SSR)

Read Aloud – We are continuing to read from Ramona the Pest. I found the “sequel” to this story in my box of books at home and I think the students might really enjoy that one when we finish this one

Recess

Writing: We are working on a cross-text writing about Black History and MLK. We read a biography of Rosa Parks and took some notes about what we wanted to remember from the story.

Science: We were running short on time this afternoon but I was able to show the students a really cool vertebrate powerpoint I found that included skeletons of different vertebrates and some x-rays of them too. The students enjoyed the presentation a lot.

Homework: Reading Comprehension (they should read this aloud to you) and study new spelling words

Opening: Students worked on Daily Language Review – Friday, Week 7.

Math: We finished some of the journal pages we didn’t finish this week and worked on our math boxes. We also reviewed some homework we had done during the week. Its very important for the students to have this feedback so they know they are doing the right thing on their work. I was hoping to have time for the kids to play a math game but unfortunately we had too much work to make up.

Interventions: We did a whole-class intervention today. We read an African folktale called “How Zebras Got Their Stripes”. Its a fun book

Classroom Meeting: We discussed our goal levels, the choices some of the students are making and how they are affecting their education if they are not on task.

Writing: We finished writing our narrative on our winter vacation. Students wrote a final copy on lined paper and it will go into their portfolio after it is scored.

Lunch (Students lost their lunch recess today because they were SO disrespectful to the parapro who covers our room while I am on break. I was upset to see that they treated her so poorly.)

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – Students completed the comprehension questions at the end of the story, Big, Bushy Mustache today. I helped them to restate the questions — I had them already written for them how I want it done (this is GREAT MEAP stuff too — it’ll give them higher scores, promise!) so they will know. They had to fill in the answers though!

Working with Words – Students took their spelling tests on the spelling words for the week and our word wall words from this week.

Self-Selected Reading

Read Aloud: The students are begging me to keep reading about Ramona They think she is hilarious (I like her a lot too, she’s a stinker!)

Recess

Make-Up: Even though the kids earned their AFC time, we only had 3 kids who didn’t owe me work from the week This is not good. I stressed to them how important it is to turn in EVERY assignment (with a name on it!) so that they get credit for the hard work that they do. They had to complete make up work during this time instead getting to have their free choice and use the centers games, etc.

Homework: none. Have a Great weekend!

Opening: Students worked on Daily Language Review – Thursday, Week 7.

Math: We had to finish the math lesson from yesterday that the kids did not finish with the substitute first. The kids learned how to do  comparison diagrams to help them compare numbers and prepare subtraction sentences. Today we talked about addition and subtraction number stories — we reviewed start-change-end boxes, part-part-total boxes and the comparison diagrams. We found that we could take a story problem and put the numbers into ANY of those three diagrams to help us figure out the problem. Homework tonight won’t ask them to use all three diagrams for each problem, but they will use each diagram to help them solve the problems.

Physical Education

Computers: We did not visit the lab today, instead – I projected my computer onto the screen for the kids and showed them Study Island (a MEAP prep website), StarFall (a great literacy intervention for kids who need extra reinforcement with reading) and a few other sites that they will be able to use when we do visit the lab next week.

Silent Reading

Lunch

Literacy Block:
Guided Reading – Again, we had to finish up  things the kids didn’t get done with the substitute yesterday.  We listened to Big, Bushy Mustache on the CD, and completed a graphic organizer to help us think about the problem Ricky had in the story. Then we moved on to today’s actual lesson.  We created a multi-flow map to think about the cause/effect relationship in this story.

Working with Words -  We worked on rhyming pairs today. We reviewed -ay words. The students had a lot of fun coming up with enough words to fill a half page!

Read Aloud – The kids are really getting a kick out of hearing about Ramona and her friend, Howie and the trouble they are causing in kindergarten!

Self-Selected Reading

Recess

Writing: We are continuing to work on our winter vacation stories. Today the kids continued to work on their drafts. Tomorrow we will get ready to publish them.

Science: We continued to talk about vertebrates. Today we discussed mammals. Mammals have hair or fur, we can regulate our body temperatures (for example, us humans may put on or take off a coat to get warm or cool down, animals often grow their hair thicker to protect them from the cold and then shed it in the warmer months). Mammals also give birth to live babies (we talked about how cats and dogs don’t lay eggs!) and most mammals walk on 4 legs, with humans only walking on 2.

Homework: HomeLink 6.4, Spelling Sentences