This week in Reading Workshop we have begun our first nonfiction unit. Students have been selecting nonfiction books to read for their independent reading time in class and for their 20 minutes of reading at home. During the course of this unit ALL students are expected to read nonfiction for their 30 minutes of reading homework each night. We discussed the difference between reading nonfiction like you are waiting for the dentist (flipping through pages) and reading to learn. We decided that when we read nonfiction for our school work we want to be readers that learn. Students also learned that good readers preview nonfiction before reading in order to warm up their minds and connect the topic they are reading about to their lives. Students also worked on summarizing chunks of text by using the main idea and supporting details.
We also began a new unit in Writing Workshop, Essays. Students had a mini essay bootcamp where we flash drafted an essay about why we love ice cream. We than began generating ideas for our own essay. Students thought of a person, place or an object that is important to them and then started to write down their thoughts about that person, place or object. We will continue to work on generating ideas before we choose 1 idea to draft into an essay. Students also blogged about their week in school (don’t forget to read your child’s blog!). We also read our quadblogging friends blogs and commented on them. This week we commented on posts made by Ms. Azzopardi’s Year Two (8 year olds) class from Sydney, Australia.
In Math this week we are working on different strategies for multiplying 2 digit by 2 digit numbers. We started with rounding to make estimates and finding compatible numbers (numbers close to the actual number that are easy for us to multiply mentally) to make estimates. Next we learned how to use arrays and area models to multiply 2 digits by 2 digits, and last we learned the partial products method today.
In Science we have been looking at different adaptations that predator and prey animals have, such as eye placement. (Eyes in front better hunt, eyes on the side better hide). Students also learned about biodiversity and what can happen when one organism disappears from the food chain.
Important Dates
Wednesday – Sunday, November 23-27 – Thanksgiving Break
Thursday and Friday, December 1 and 2 – 1/2 Days (Records Days)
December 23- January 2 – Winter Holiday Break