A Week of Discoveries and Learning

The week began with reading Thanksgiving themed books.  One of the books was Turkey Trouble.

Once it was read to the children, 4Z worked on clever ways to disguise their turkey.  There were many great disguises.  

Throughout the week, the children worked in stations.  We did a vocabulary activity on their chromebooks, read short stories and worked on their personal narratives.  

During centers the children work in their small groups to get the tasks completed.  They are working out very well and am pleased with the cooperation and team work.  

The children are at the writing center and teacher directed center in the pictures above.  I love to see the connections they are making as they read and they help each other out if they do not understand something.  The children are learning skills on how to work in groups and with one another.  

You can see how engaged they are on each task.  

This coming week is a short one, just Monday and Tuesday, then we celebrate our Thanksgiving break.  Wishing you and your family a very Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving.  

 

Kindness Grows at SOS

 Another exciting week during our ELA classes.  We are continuing with Wonders, reading stories, learning new vocabulary words and discovering what subjects and predicates are all about.

Station rotation is working out nicely.  The children are able to rotate among 3 different centers and work in groups to complete the tasks.  One station  is the Technology center.  Here they work on Lexia, IXL skills or Epic.  In station two the children work with me in a small group and we read together and work on reading strategies.  The third station is a word work center.  Here the children work on spelling or vocabulary activities.  Overall, the children seem to be doing well with their group member

The weather has been cooperating, for the most part, and we are able to get the children outside for recess.  We also rotate in the school yard.  We have the playground, basketball court and the bench area.  Each day they get a particular section to play in.  

The days fly by and we are always so engaged in all activities. 

 The children help one another out, encourage each other and show one another kindness.  Whether they are in small groups or whole group, they are always showing each other what needs to get done or how to do

a particular task.  They are so helpful both to each other and in the classroom.  

On Friday, World Kindness Day, we began to fill up our Gratitude Jar.  The children can write up on a small slip what they are grateful for.  I am hoping that by the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break it will be filled with many grateful slips.  

Each ELA class is participating in this and I cannot wait to see how full it gets.

Speaking of World Kindness Day, the children did many activities like, writing kind things about their classmates, reading about where and when it originated and performed acts of kindness throughout the day.  Many also wore cardigans in honor of Mr. Rogers.

We are a class of kind students and help each other out in any way possible.  It makes me happy to see the children getting along and encouraging one another.  Let's keep this theme going all year long.  

I'm looking forward to another week of positivity, learning and gratitude.  

Here are some of the books I will be reading to the students:

 

Reflections of the Week

Our week was filled with lots of learning, discoveries and activities.

We began centers and the children seem to have done well with them.

Each station has a certain activity to work on for 15 minutes, then the groups rotate to another one.

The children are very engaged and focused.  They complete the work that they are assigned and move on to the next station once the timer goes off.  

The children have also been working on Lexia which is a reading program that they progress through.

As I have stated in the previous blog, this month we are focusing on Gratitude.  We were able to view a video about paying things forward.  We also did acrostic poems and a paper chain about things we are grateful for.

Our read alouds are also revolving around being grateful.  The children start great discussions around them and share out many connections that they may have with the books.

The children in 4Z have an opportunity on Fridays to redeem their class dojo points.  I set up the shop and give them time to select items they want.

This week I also introduced the students to their first book project.  It is a diorama and it is due on December 6th.  Many alrady have a book that they are reading and others were able to choose from the variety of books that I have.  The were given a handout of how to do this project and it is to be done at home.  

Below are some examples of how to create dioramas.  I am eager to see how they do on these.  This is not an option but a required assignment for all of the students.  

They can use any materials around the house or from outside to recreate a scence from the book.  They will be presenting them to the class starting on the 6th.  All of them need to come in by that day.  

Here are some other pictures of the students thay I took during the week. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Don't forget- there is no school on Thursday- Veteran's Day. Please reach out if there are any questions or concerns.