Greetings
from Room 10,
Happy New Year to everyone! We are off to a terrific start in 2013. It’s so hard for me to believe that we have
already completed over four months of school.
It actually makes me quite sad to realize how quickly this year is going
by. I know I have mentioned this in the
past, but this is a truly special group of children with whom I thoroughly
enjoy working. I view each and every day
as a gift.
This week has been very productive
as the respiratory unit begins to wind down and the unit test is on the
horizon. They will be tackling the test
on Wednesday afternoon. I have given
them a study guide, walked through the test format and assured them that they
have all the tools they need to be successful.
I have encouraged them to begin studying, so you should see them review
their respiratory notes over the weekend and early into next week. On Thursday we will begin the long-awaited
whale unit.
In writing the children have been
working tirelessly on their ABC books.
Most of them are about half-way through the alphabet. I have seen some amazing illustrations and
have enjoyed reading their informational texts.
We will continue to work on this project at least through next week. If you see it coming home, it’s because your
child is behind. Otherwise, I fully
anticipate that they will be finished by Friday.
In reading our focus has been
author’s purpose. My small group
instruction focused on the three reasons an author writes. Ask your child to name the three “purposes,”
and to give you examples of each. Today
we began a whole-class “close reading” of two related articles; one from TFK
and the other from the Times Union. And
guess what the topic was! Yes, it was
cursive writing!! It was fun to use an
article that the children were a part of.
We conducted a bit of research on Wednesday in anticipation
of the wax museum project that will be held the end of February. The children are selecting some interesting
characters from the Western Hemisphere.
Each child will become a person in history (either dead or alive), and
will be asked to write (and memorize) a one-minute speech as if they were that
person. In addition, they will create a
poster to showcase the contributions their character has made. All of this work is done in school. The only thing you will need to be involved
in is creating a costume. This is really
an amazing experience; details to follow.
Kind
regards, Lester Betor
No comments:
Post a Comment