Woodland Animals

We have been learning about animals that live in and around the woods in Illinois.  We have been working with a partner on our first research projects of the year.  After choosing a woodland animal, we used a graphic organizer to record information about the animal's appearance, habitat, diet, life cycle, and behavior.  Then, we began completing pages in a booklet about the animal.

 Also, as a part of our study, students rotated through several different activities including:  stamping and writing animal names, working with scrambled sentences about animal behaviors, and making tracks in play dough with real models of deer and raccoon feet!

We have learned so much from our research and can't wait to share all of our reports!

Our Room is Ready!

Here is our room all ready for students and their parents to come and check it out on "Backpack Night."  The following pictures were taken right before the room began to buzz with the excitement of students and parents as they brought supplies and looked around the school.

  This picture was taken from the teacher desk area.

  Students meet on the carpet here for lessons, stories, and activities on the Smartboard.

This is our "Wonder Center" where students can investigate books and nature objects.

Here you see our leveled books for self-selected reading.

This is my "teacher" area.

Our Word Wall will be built on these cabinet doors.

A view from the back of the room as you enter through the door.

This is the Listening Center where students listen to books on tapes and CD's.

Friday Brown Bag Book Club

What fun we had on Friday during our first "Brown Bag Book Club"!  All week we read, and reread, a story titled "The Beasty Story" by Bill Martin, Jr. and Steven Kellogg.  We used it for mini-lessons such as:  listening for interesting words, learning about story organization/sequence, characters, and setting.  On Friday, students completed a literature response form and attached it to the front of a paper lunch bag.  During the "Book Club" students discussed the book as they answered questions posed by Mrs. Nelson while enjoying a snack from their bag.  We have provided links below so that you can see the "Brown Bag Book Club" in action...

Friday Brown Bag Book Club video:

More:

What We've Been Up to in Math So Far!

Once our initial assessments were finished we began working on reviewing basic adding based on the new  Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  During the past few weeks we have been working on learning different ways to add using manipulatives, drawings, and number sentences.  We have practiced representing addends from story problems using manipulatives such as two-colored counters, connecting cubes, and with drawings.  We have also been working on finding the different ways to make a number using manipulatives.  The following are some pictures of an activity we did using 1" paper squares...

Students also have a "mini" math journal containing spiral review activities based on CCSS.  They work on this during the morning "Wake Up Work" time.

Reading and Writing in Our Room

We thought you might like to see reading and writing in action in our room...

Here we are reading poems together during our "Wake Up Work"...

Enjoying books during free time...

During "Read to Self" students read quietly and independently from "Good Fit Books"...

Writing in our journals during "Work on Writing"  when work on writing the whole time quietly and independently.  This is time for students to practice using the word wall and inventive spelling.

We hope you enjoyed seeing these pictures of us having fun learning through reading and writing!

It's Already September!

We are off to a great start in Mrs. Nelson's classroom!  We have made many new friends and are learning the routines to make our day run smoothly.
When reading and writing we use the "Daily 5"  format. We learn what it "feels like", "looks like", and "sounds like" when we are doing our work.  So far we have practiced "Read to Self" and "Work on Writing" making classroom charts to refer to throughout the year.  We are building our stamina each and every day!  This means that we are training our brain and body "muscles" to be able to work quietly for a longer and longer time with each round of "Daily 5" we have.  We are learning to "get started right away" and "work the whole time."
We are reviewing the "Six Traits of Writing" and focusing right now on two of those traits.  One quality of good writing is using good conventions. In our daily journals we practice editing for spaces, using the correct spelling of word wall words,using capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and choosing the correct ending marks.  We are also learning about choosing the best topic and how to add details in our writing to make it more interesting.  When reading we are listening for "interesting" words that we can use in our writing.  We are planning to start using the website "Wall Wisher" to post the new, interesting words we find.  For more on this check out the "Wall Wisher" page on our classroom website. We have been amazed at the sentences our friends are writing already!
As you can see we have been very busy!  We will tell you what we have been working on in math next time!