Powerful Adjectives!

We added a tab to our Thoughtful Logs this week called Powerful Words and Phrases (PWP). We learned that this tab is used to keep track of fantastic words and phrases we find as we read. Recording these words and phrases will help us visualize as readers and help us use new words in our own writing.

Students will keep track of Powerful Words and Phrases in categories to help them understand the different types of words and phrases that can be found in books. We began by learning about adjectives. We learned that adjectives are describing words that tell what something is like. We read the mentor text Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes and recorded powerful adjectives that we heard to describe other words. 

To further practice this skill, we copied a page from the book and highlighted powerful adjectives as well as the words they described. Children then had a better idea of what an adjective is. They used their own independent reading books to flag adjectives in their reading and record them into their Thoughtful Log.

Fall is Here!

This week we had our fall party and costume parade. We also did some activities to celebrate the season. We read several books about bats and kept track of our SCHEMA as well as our new learning. Students demonstrated their learning by creating a bat project and writing facts about bats. 

We also read a story about a little witch who made a home for herself out of an orange piece of paper she found in the woods. Students folded the paper and cut it the way the witch in the story did. When they unfolded their paper they were surprised to find a Jack-O-Lantern which became their placemat for our party!

We had our annual party and parade this afternoon. Children dressed up and marched around the school to show off their creative costumes. Mr. Torrenga, our principal, was Superman!

Fire Safety Month

October is Fire Safety Month! We spent lots of time learning about safety procedures, exit plans, smoke detectors, and fire fighters. My husband is a firefighter and he came in today to talk to the kids about fire safety and show them the gear that firefighters wear. They couldn't believe how much equipment they have to wear to keep them safe!

Drew is demonstrating "Stop, Drop, and Roll"



Quiet Critters!

The day has finally arrived! We have earned all our Quiet Critters! This has been a goal of ours since the beginning of the year. Students earned a Critter for quiet classroom and hallway behavior. Sometimes if we were REALLY super quiet we earned two! However, Quiet Critters were also removed if our class was not quiet. This has been an amazing classroom management strategy and students were very motivated by it. After our jar was filled, we brainstormed together to come up with a list of "handsome rewards" that we could choose from as an incentive for earning all our Critters. Students voted to have my dog, Luca, come into the classroom for a visit. Keep up the great work Quiet Kiddos!

Thick Vs. Thin Connections

We've been working on the reading strategy of Making Connections. Students know that they can make text-to-text connections, text-to-self connections, and text-to-world connections and we've practiced each as a group and independently. Our goal is to make thoughtful connections that really deepen our understanding, rather than surface-level connections that don't really help us understand the story better. We decided to differentiate these connections by using the words "thick" and "thin". After learning the difference between these connections I modeled making both kinds using a mentor text called "The Relatives Came". Then we decided which kind of connections mine were so the children could see the difference. The children anchored their learning into their Thoughtful Logs to help them remember the importance of making thick, thoughtful connections.



Word Work

We have begun implementing Word Work into some of our small group guided reading lessons during Reading Workshop. Students use small whiteboards and magnetic letters to manipulate words and learn how to break them. This helps when they come to a word in a book that is tricky. This week we focused on vowel teams such as 'ai', 'ee', and 'ea'.



Never Eat Soggy Waffles!

We've been learning about Maps and Geography in Social Studies. This week the children were introduced to the cardinal directions, North, South, East, and West. We learned a little riddle for helping us remember which direction goes where on the compass rose. We had fun playing a game using animal pictures and telling each other which direction to move in to end at a certain animal. As an extra challenge, we added the intermediate directions and then things really got tricky!



Spelling Tests

Our Spelling for Writers program is unique in that each student has a different set of individualized, self-selected words. Students take a pretest at the beginning of each week based on a particular generalization or pattern. After correcting the pretest themselves, students replace words spelled correctly with words from a "shopping list" containing more challenging words with the same pattern. This makes the post-test at the end of the week a little challenging because each student has a different set of words. Today we learned how to partner test by trading books and taking turns being the speller and the tester. The second graders did a great job for our first time practicing this!

Read to Someone

We have been working hard to learn to be independent with our literacy choices during Reading Workshop. One of the choices we've been practicing is Read to Someone, adapted from The Daily Five. In this activity, children find a partner and take turns reading to each other from their own self-selected Just Right Books. They check for understanding at the end of each page by sharing the "who" and the "what" from their partner's reading. We've been working especially hard on using quiet voices during this activity so we don't disturb the group at the reading table or the other independent workers.

 

Fourth Grade Buddies!

Last week we met and chatted with our Fourth Grade Buddies in Ms. Bongers' class!! This was an exciting day for the second graders, as they eagerly anticipated this activity all week! We had fun learning about each other doing a special get-to-know-you activity. The second and fourth graders asked each other questions and recorded their findings on a Venn Diagram, comparing and contrasting their favorite foods, teachers they've had, books they've read, subjects they like, etc. These projects turned out really cool, and they are hanging on the bulletin board outside our classroom. We can't wait to meet our buddies again next month!