Winter Break Notes

When we return to school on Monday, we will begin our informative writing instruction. In past experience it would be a good idea for you to know in what topic/subject your child feels they are an expert. Some examples from past projects include:

• Weather
• Theater Arts
• Tigers
• Football

Our first step of the writing process will include:

1. Brainstorming possible topics for writing
2. Choosing and charting information regarding the topic
3. Organizing the information into chapters

A good example of what the above first steps may look like when completed may be:

Sharks

• The Life Cycle of the Shark
• Shark Habits
• Threats to Sharks

Additionally, as part of your child's homework across this unit, have your child describe for you the daily writing lesson. This will help to cement the learning in their memory and facilitate their work in class (the lessons will also be outlined in the daily messages here). As they describe the lesson to you try out what they describe for yourself. This will help them to see an expert writer involved in the writing process close up. You will be on the same writing step as they are and they will see your project grow as theirs does. It will also inform you as to their ability to repeat information they learn in class. It is best that your subject of expertise NOT be the same as your child's. Let them have their own area of expertise as you will  have your own. You might draw upon your current or past work experience for ideas or even take some time to research a new topic you are interested in. Examples may include:

• Cooking
• Organic Gardening
• Exercising
• Driving
• Sewing

Also, you have probably seen by now your child's world map that they will use to study the for this reporting period's exam. To clarify, your child does not need to know the the boundaries of the continents. They will only need to label the continent with its name (i.e. get the correct name in the correct spot on the map). They will also need to label the oceans and Los Angeles as discussed on Back-to-School Night.

Your child also has 2 of the 5 stanzas (written in their own hand) of a poem we are memorizing for individual recital. The other stanzas will be forthcoming (SL.1.4.a).

Unit 2 Week 4 Preview

Continuing our exploration of families and neighbors, we ask the question: what is a home? Our oral vocabulary words are collapse, company, construct, entire, and material. Our high-frequency focus words are again, could, make, one, then, three. Our grammar rule will be proper nouns and capitalization. In phonics and spelling we will tackle the complicated idea of the open-syllable long-vowel spelling beginning with 'long-a'.

Reminders:

Every year Room 11 has the tradition of electing a class president. This supports the government portion of our Social Science standards. Those students interested in running for Room 11 Class President 2014-15 will work on a speech at home to be delivered to the class on November 3, 2015. Speeches will be filmed using chroma key technology and saved to flash drives.

Students who would like to have their videos edited, will make sure they are not wearing any shade of green in any part of their outfit.

On this day we will also try to film our expert interviews. Those students wanting their interviews to be edited will also need to remember not to wear green on that Monday. Make sure to practice these and these questions to improve oral fluency.

Thirty-Fifth day of School

For the first time we recorded in our Sort Journals today and took a dictation test on 'long-a' spelled 'a_e'

The Math homework was optional tonight. Some students who were originally not going to take the homework changed their minds when they were aware that parents would be told about it. Interesting.

In Writing we brainstormed settings for our realistic fiction pieces. We began the slow process of digitally processing our personal narratives from the last unit. This is where our flash drives come in handy.

In Science we observed a collection of 7 liquids and generated a list of properties for liquids. Among our vocabulary were: bubbly, viscous, translucent, and opaque.

We listened to a selection on the life of Alexander Graham Bell. We generated several questions based on the reading:

• What was Alexander Graham Bell known for?
• Why was he interested in studying sound?
• What were some things he attempted to do when he was young?

Soon we will record our interviews about the 2 famous people we have studied.

Eleventh Day of School

Today we listened to the story The Princess and the Pea. We discussed the characteristics of the genre of fairy tale. We discussed the 5 oral vocabulary words. Tomorrow we will retell the story using those  words. We will use this same process every week to practice retelling, use new oral vocabulary, and practice listening and speaking skills.

Yesterday we completed the "thinking" (brainstorming/idea collecting) portion of the writing process (CCSS 1.W.3). In addition to the ideas which cover our yellow writing folders and the list of memorable moments which we practice telling with our parents at home, we also made categorized lists of topics which we can refer to in our writing folders. Having these resources will help ensure that we will always have a cache of ideas from which to draw for inspiration. Today we began the planning portion. The planning portion steps of the writing process involves:

1. Touching and talking
2. Drawing and labeling

Our first step today was to touch (the pages) as we told our story to a partner. We listened for a beginning (which answers the questions: who, where, and when?) a middle (which tells what happened) and an end (which may tell what happened next and may indicate a change of emotional state).

Tomorrow we will begin the drawing and labeling stage.

In addition to your child's Math homework, you should find a Reading Log which has your child's number and the first due date of September 30th. As discussed at Back-to-School, the Reading Log may be completed in a parent's hand and should be signed by a parent at the bottom.

Composite Reading scores, and raw spelling scores are available in the classroom to interested parents.