Classroom Update: October 7, 2016

Here's an update on our learning from this week. :)

In Word Study, we practiced different ways to study this week's words. Each week, students are assigned a pair of homophones and a list of words that fit a particular spelling pattern. This week's homophones are "scene" and "seen." This week's spelling pattern was words ending in "ch." We completed a variety of activities to practice these words including...

Building words with magnets....

An activity called "Roll a Word"...

The "Swatting Game"....

And activities on the website Spelling City.

In Reading, we continue to build the skill of finding evidence. This week, we read a passage about Benjamin Franklin and looked for evidence to support the statement "Benjamin Franklin had many talents." Ask your child about one of Franklin's many careers!

In Writing, our student teacher Ms. Stanizzi gave students strategies for writing effective beginnings to stories. Some of the strategies include asking a question, describing actions, using dialogue, or using a sound word. Students applied these strategies to their own narrative writing.

In Math, we introduced a new tool called Xtra Math. This is a website where students can practice their basic addition and subtraction facts. Later in the year, we will use it as a tool to memorize multiplication and division facts. Right now in math, we are working on refining and strengthening our strategies for solving addition and subtraction strategies.

Addition Strategies

Subtraction Strategies

In Social Studies, we are wrapping up our unit on local geography and map skills. We reviewed the facts that we learned this unit by playing a game of jeopardy today.