I hope you enjoyed some of the sunshine we had over the weekend!
There has been a lot of hard work going on in the classroom. The kiddos have been learning new concepts in math and are getting ready to take their test towards the end of this week. The kids are learning how to add double digit numbers such as 30 + 50 = They are also learning how to add into the next decade with problems such as 27 + 8 = We have also learned the skill of greater than, less than, and equal to.
In reading we are learning about non-fiction texts. We have learned about different text features such as: captions, index, table of contents, headings, close-ups, labels, and maps. Our discussions have centered around what we can learn from these features and how we can use them while reading our non-fiction books. We have just begun working on understanding what the main idea of the book is. This is a harder concept for the kids to learn so it will take lots of repeated practice and discussions with the class as a whole and our reading partners. Along with talking about the main idea, we are practicing writing down our main ideas.
In writing our focus is on How To writing. This is not something that is graded for the report card. It is just an introduction for the kids. Over a week we looked at how to's together and talked about what we noticed, focusing on the transition words and that the steps are written specifically and in order. We wrote a How To together - How to make a s'more. Now, the kids did some brainstorming on what they are experts at and have begun to write their own How To.