Week of 1/27

Reading
We continued to learn about the central message of a story. In many stories, the author is trying to teach the readers an important lesson.  After reading Randolph and the Lion, students determined the main character's problem - nobody thought Randolph (a very small mouse) was big enough to be brave or helpful. Then, Randolph got his chance to prove everyone wrong when the Lion became stuck in a net. Randolph saved him by chewing through the rope. Students had great ideas about the message - that everyone has something they can be good or helpful at, regardless of their size.

We took our understanding about complete sentences to the next step by learning about nouns. Students should understand that a noun is a word for a person/animal, place or thing. We sorted examples of nouns into these categories, and then practiced identifying the nouns in sentences. We will continue this work next week!

Writing
We continued to learn about narrative writing, which is simply a story with a beginning, middle and ending to it. I read two stories to them - A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni and Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler so they could hear and see examples of narratives. Students brainstormed ideas for new stories and planned these new stories by illustrating the major events. While writing, many students included ordinal words such as first, next, then, or last to tell the order of events in their own narratives.

Math
We began unit 5 this week. A family letter was sent home in red totes explaining the major learning targets and activities in this unit. We spent much of the week focusing on combinations of 10. By playing routines and games such as Quick Images, Build It, Make 10 and Tens Go Fish, students practiced building 10 using two addends on ten frames and writing equations to go with it. Students are starting to build their "fact power" by knowing some of these combinations by heart (ex. 5+5, 1+9, 2+8, etc.).

Library
We continued our bridge building challenge with Mrs. Stanbro. Students were reminded of the steps needed to be effective problem solvers, as you can see in the photo. Using their sketches from last week, partners chose from a variety of materials including plastic cups, straws, cardboard tubes, and tape to construct their bridges. They tested its strength using weights. Some students discovered their bridges weren't as strong as they had hoped...and will be thinking about how to make them stronger for next week!

Upcoming Dates

• There is an early release on Wednesday, February 5th. Students will be dismissed at 12:35pm.
• There is no school Monday, February 17th - Friday, February 21st for February vacation.

Thank you,

Mrs. Bradstreet