ROOM 105 NEWS 
December 7, 2011
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PLEASE SEND IN YOUR RECIPE TO BE INCLUDED IN OUR GRADE LEVEL BOOK. We hope you will be joining us for the Luncheon on 12/16 at 11:30. I am looking forward to tasting all the wonderful items that are being brought in.
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In Reading & Writing - we are working with the Narrative Genre. Narratives are stories that are told by someone. We have been working on how to support our thoughts with details from the text.
When children read their book in a bag, some questions to ask: How was the character feeling and why do you think that? What would you have done differently if you were that character? Why? We try to stay away from questions that are yes and no. How would you describe one of the characters? Why?
We are currently working on 2 stories. One will be a surprise for a family member. The other story is a small moment. It requires the children to pick a topic that takes place in a short period of time, but stretch it by telling all of the details. This is a very difficult concept, but we read lots of great stories as models.
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT OUR CLASS PAGE SITE. PLEASE EMAIL ME @ cparra@ci.stamford.ct.us if you haven't received an invite yet to join the page.
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November 7, 2011
Today we will begin our new units in Reading and Writing. We will be working on Narratives and Personal Narratives.
Writing - Students will be expected to take their personal narratives through the writing process. (Brainstorming, Drafting, Revising, Editing and Publishing) The students have been given many tools to help with revising and self editing before they can bring a piece to the teacher to take to publishing. This unit we will also introduce peer editing.
In Reading, we will be discussing the theme of stories. We will also discuss how authors develop characters and how settings play an important part to a story. We will continue to model and discuss making connections to stories and how these connections help us understand the story.
In Math, we are currently working on place value, money and time. At the end of the family letter, are some Do-Anytime Activities that would be helpful to your child.
In Science, we are still investigating our changes in Matter. We created condensation. We combined and separated 2 solids (gravel/salt) using a sieve. We combined solids and liquids (gravel/water, salt/water and tissue/water) and tried to separate them. We are learning about evaporation and that the biggest factor for change is temperature. Some vocabulary words we are learning are: mixture, dissolve, evaporation, condensation
In Phonics we will be beginning vowel digraphs (2 vowels that make 1 sound) - we call these the "talkers" and vowel dipthongs ( ou, oy, oi, ow) - we will call these the "whiners". Lists, games and activities can also be found on www.spellingcity.com by searching by name or school.
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October 7, 2011
Students are learning our routines and rituals for the Reader's and Writer's Workshop. We are working on being quiet and considerate workers so that we can all do our best work. We are practicing choosing just right books and what it means to be an active listener. I am in the process of administering DRA's and will begin to take small groups when they are complete.
Many students have already published a story or two. Some strategies that we have introduced and tried to incorporate into our writing are: Using our senses to describe a place, choosing a small moment and stretching out the details. writing about a series of events, using repetition, and a problem/solution structure.
Some of the literature that we have shared together during Reading and Writing are: Tulip Sees America, Piggybook, She Come Bringing Me That Little Baby Girl, Just Like Mama, When The Relatives Came, Rainy City Rainbow and The Emperor and the Kite, and Miss Nelson is Missing.
In Math, we used the computer lab and children received their username and passwords for the Everyday Math Online game programs. The website is www.everydaymathonline.com.
We are beginning to discuss the importance of automaticity in our basic facts. We will be playing many games that reinforce basic fact practice.
Please let your children have practice with coins and dollars whenever possible. Many of the children confuse the picture of the nickel and quarter.
We completed our first project. It was called O.R.E.O (Our Really Exciting Online) Project. Ask your child what we did. I will post pictures soon.
We have begun our discussion of Matter in Science. We will begin our experiments on how matter can change.
In Social Studies, we are discussing our School rules and things we WILL do to show that we have good character.