Writing :
This week in writer’s workshop we continue our Lucy Calkins narrative unit of study. This week, we will talk about how students can revise their teaching piece (see below). We will also continue our saying "When we are done, we've just begun!". Students will be put in pairs that they will work with in writing and reading. Partners will practice working collaboratively, and being good COMMUNICATORS with each other. After I model, they will discuss things like asking questions, reading their pieces to each other, and giving suggestions to their partner about their writing. Student will also begin to make cover pages for their books with a title and pictures/labels to match. What can you do at home?? Have students practice sounding out words and writing down the sounds they hear on paper long with drawing pictures with details and labels on their pictures. You can also remind students that when writing, the first letter in a sentence is uppercase and the rest is lower case, there are finger spaces between words, and periods at the end of sentences. We will continue to work on this in class. READING: During reading, students will continue reading/looking at nonfiction books independently and with a partner and will also begin reading old favorite storybooks. We will focus on how “Readers Learn From Books, Too” and “We are Storybook Readers.” What can you do at home?? Read every night like you are working with a partner (sit side by side, have a book in the middle, read back and forth.) Ask your child questions about what she/he is reading about. If your child seems to be focusing more on needing work with letters and letter sounds (which is PERFECTLY okay!), have them find letter in their books or around the house and ask them what sound it makes and visa-versa. Phonics: We are reviewing letters C, O, A, D, and G and will be working on letters H and T this week.
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- In writer’s workshop we continue our Lucy Calkins narrative unit of study. Along with “When we are done we have just begun,” we will talk about how students can revise their teaching piece (see below). Students will be put in pairs that they will work with in writing and reading. Partners will practice working together after I model-they will discuss things like asking questions, reading their pieces to each other, and giving suggestions to their partner about their writing. We will talk about how to use the stapler safely so students can add more pages to their books. Student will continue to make cover pages for their books with a title and pictures/labels to match. I will also introduce to students how we can plan our book before we begin so that students can get all the paper they need together before getting to work. What you can do at home: have students practice sounding out words and writing down the sounds they hear on paper and draw pictures with details and label their pictures. You can also remind students that when writing, the first letter in a sentence is uppercase and the rest is lower case, there are finger spaces between words, and periods at the end of sentences. We will continue to work on this in class.
-During reading, we will begin working in small groups and independent centers. With me, students will be working on skills at their level (letters, letter sounds, word families, etc.) and/or reading instructional level texts and focusing on comprehension strategies for their level. In independent centers, students will work on I-read and partner or private reading. Students will continue reading/looking at nonfiction (teach about the world) books from their book bins independently and with a partner. We will continue to focus on how “Readers Read With A Partner.” (Please see below) What you can do at home: Read every night like you are working with a partner (sit side by side, have a book in the middle, read back and forth, etc.) and ask your child questions about what she/he is reading about. -For phonics we will review our previously taught letters and sounds C, O, A and focus on letters and sounds of D and G. You can practice these letters at home too. Here is a great letter/sound song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeUONxZYAs In writer’s workshop we will begin our Lucy Calkins narrative unit of study. This is a series of lessons that introduces our writing center, the tools, and how to write about topics we know about. Students will begin working on adding details to words and pictures and labeling the items in their pictures. The Lucy Calkins series also works on having students write across pages like a book so that it is easier for students to organize their ideas. We will create a chart of what to do when students think they are done. “When you are done, you have just begun.” Students can add to their pictures, add to their writing, look over their writing with a partner, or start a new piece. What you can do at home: have students practice sounding out words and writing down the sounds they hear on paper, draw pictures with details, and label the objects in their pictures.
-During reading I will be pre-assessing students on letters/letter sounds and sight words. Students will be reading independently and with a partner as well as working in independent centers. I will also be observing student reading behaviors which will also help me plan for instruction. We will also begin practicing our reading routine. - Last week in phonics, we practiced the sound of letter c (as in cat) and writing the upper case and lower case letter c. This week we will be working on the letters o( as in octopus) and a (as in alphabet). What you can do at home: Practice writing uppercase and lowercase letters c, o, and a and review what sounds they make. In writer’s workshop students will continue our persuasive/opinion writing to make the world a better place. We have been thinking of problems we are seeing in our school (not picking up trash, running in the hall, talking in line, etc.) and in the community (littering, cutting down trees, etc.) and writing to solve these problems. We have been discussing who we should write these for and how we can get the word out like hanging up signs and putting our books in the library.
What you can do at home: have students practice sounding out words and writing down the sounds they hear on paper and draw pictures with details and label their pictures. You can also remind students that when writing, the first letter in a sentence is uppercase and the rest is lower case, there are finger spaces between words, and periods at the end of sentences. We will continue to work on this in class. - During reading this week we will continue our new unit on becoming avid readers. We will discuss reading nonfiction books is like watching a nonfiction movie- we can learn new information and that we come up with thoughts/questions and respond with interest to new things. We will practice talking about nonfiction books with our partners and explain what they have learned. This week in Writer's Workshop we will continue our persuasive writing unit. For this unit, we will identify a problem, think of solutions, write a lot about it, and decide who our reader is. The kids have already been loving brainstorming ways to fix problems they see in the classroom, at home, and on the playground.
What you can do at home: have students practice sounding out words and writing down the sounds they hear on paper and draw pictures with details and label their pictures. You can also remind students that when writing, the first letter in a sentence is uppercase and the rest is lower case, there are finger spaces between words, and periods at the end of sentences. We will continue to work on this in class. - During reading this week we will continue our unit on becoming avid readers. We will discuss that avid readers are readers who hate to put their books down and love to read everywhere! We will read a book called "Not Norman" and we will imagine what it would be like to be the character. When things are really rough for characters, readers feel what they feel. We will discuss how the boys feelings changed throughout the story. I will also be teaching students to think about the characters feelings and how we should read the words that they say. For phonics, we will be reviewing letter sounds, digraphs, and blends. Our focus will be on L-Blends: bl, gl, fl, sl, cl, pl In writer’s workshop this week, we will finish up our “How-To” books unit. Students will choose a book they want to edit and get ready to “publish.” Students will take their informational post assessment at the end of the week.
What you can do at home: have students practice sounding out words and writing down the sounds they hear on paper and draw pictures with details and label their pictures. You can also remind students that when writing, the first letter in a sentence is uppercase and the rest is lower case, there are finger spaces between words, and periods at the end of sentences. We will continue to work on this in class. - During reading this week we will begin our new unit on becoming avid readers. We will discuss that avid readers are readers who hate to put their books down and love to read everywhere! We will revisit a previously read story called “The Carrot Seed” and we will imagine what it would be like to be the character. When things are really rough for characters, readers feel what they feel. We will discuss how the boys feelings changed throughout the story. I will also be teaching students to add sticky notes with a happy face or sad face as we are reading to help us remember how the characters are feeling when we go back and talk about what we have read. -In writer’s workshop this week, we will start finishing up our “How-To” books unit. We will discuss creating different how-to books on the same topic. For instance if a student loves football, they can write a whole series on this such as “How to throw a football,” “How to score a goal,” and “How to be a good sport.” We will also review writing an introduction page that gives the reader information in case they don’t know what the writer’s topic is about. Students will also learn how to include a dedication page in their books in order to give it as a gift.
What you can do at home: have students practice sounding out words and writing down the sounds they hear on paper and draw pictures with details and label their pictures. You can also remind students that when writing, the first letter in a sentence is uppercase and the rest is lower case, there are finger spaces between words, and periods at the end of sentences. We will continue to work on this in class. - During reading this week, I will finish giving students their reading level assessment. Students will have a celebration in which they will get into small groups and read a nonfiction book from their book bins to their group members and teach them about the book. In writer’s workshop this week, we will continue our “How-To” books. We are reviewing all the pages we need in a book and practice saying the pages we need across our fingers to help us remember the order of our pages and our transition words- Introduction page, First, Next, Finally, and conclusion page. We will continue to work on drawing up close diagrams and pictures so the reader can use the pictures to follow the steps.
What you can do at home: have students practice sounding out words and writing down the sounds they hear on paper and draw pictures with details and label their pictures. You can also remind students that when writing, the first letter in a sentence is uppercase and the rest is lower case, there are finger spaces between words, and periods at the end of sentences. We will continue to work on this in class. - During reading this week, I will give students their reading level assessment. We will continue our unit on non-fiction books. I will teach students that readers can respond to the text by reading the words then using the pictures to learn even more information. We will practice saying things like, “The words say_____. I also see ______ in the picture and it makes me think ______. We will discuss that when readers read, they think, “How does this page fit with the title?” They also stop midway to think, “How do all these pages fit together so far?” After reading, they stop again to think, “What is the WHOLE book mostly about?” Readers do a lot of stopping and thinking all along the way to figure out what the book is mostly about. We will also learn that when readers find a topic they are interested in, they can read more than one book on that topic to learn as much new information as they can. In writer’s workshop this week, we will continue our “How-To” books. We will discuss how much we have grown as writers since the beginning of the year and talk about goal setting. We are working on informational books that will be put on display on the writer’s gallery the week of March 18th. We are working on transitioning back to using the word “you” when writing a how to book so it can teach the reader. We will continue to work on drawing up close diagrams and pictures so the reader can use the pictures to follow the steps.We will be reading an informational book called “My First Soccer game.” We will use this book as a mentor text to help us write our own books. I will introduce the following chart:
Learning from a mentor how to text
During reading this week, we will continue our unit on non-fiction books. Instead of acting like teachers, students will pretend they are news reporters retelling their books this week! They will say things like 'Did you know...? Another interesting piece of information is... In this book it teaches you all about...' Since we are starting our new science unit on animals, we will study nonfiction books about animals. We will also be working on collecting “expert” words as we read. These words are important words on the topic that we might know or not know. If we don’t know these words, we will use different strategies to find the meaning. Students will work on building their reading stamina independently and work on IRead. What you can do at home: Continue practicing blends and digraphs and reading every night! In writer’s workshop this week we will continue our How- To unit. We will write a book as a class about having a fire drill. We will plan the book across our fingers, touching and telling about what we will be writing about. We will check to make sure our writing makes sense by rereading to a partner or ourselves and make sure it is easy to follow the steps. We will also work on our pictures and adding diagrams with labels. For example, if a student is writing how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, they could have a diagram of a piece of bread with labels of all the parts of the bread on that page. We will continue to use the following chart:
How-to writing:
What you can do at home: have students practice sounding out words and writing down the sounds they hear on paper and draw pictures with details and label their pictures. You can also remind students that when writing, the first letter in a sentence is uppercase and the rest is lower case, there are finger spaces between words, and periods at the end of sentences. We will continue to work on this in class. - During reading this week, we will continue our unit on non-fiction books. We will act like teachers and retell our books to our partners. We will say things like “This book was mostly about _______” and “One example is_________.” We will also discuss the endings that nonfiction books have and that some nonfiction books just end without an ending. When we come across a book like that, we can practice creating our very own ending page for the book. When we practice writing these endings, we will make sure it sums up the main idea of our book. Students will work on building their reading stamina independently and work on IRead. What you can do at home: Continue practicing blends and digraphs and reading every night! |
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