SNOW, Snow, SNOW

Are you enjoying

our snowy vacation?

The following link is a wonderful book that really fits with our weather. If you are hunting for something to do inside, listen to this small girl's struggles with the nasty, stormy weather. Hopefully, you all stay safer than she was.

http://www.storylineonline.net/brave/fullscreen_xl.html

Polar Express Day

Wow! We made it!

In addition to all the activities in the video, we also had time to study some of the vocabulary from the Polar Express. The students found out what barren, prance, nougat, roam, lurch, and many other words meant.

Enjoy your break. I will see you all on the 8th of January. Be SAFE.

You may use this link to listen to the book Polar Express. Polar Express

Joy, Joy, Joy

What an exciting experience is to hear a struggling reader take a huge leap into enjoying what they are reading.

Congratulations! You did it! Keep up the hard work... You gave me a wonderful Christmas gift...your reading!

Happy Holidays

Math

AAA Math

We just started a new math unit called Shapes, Halves, and Symmetry. during this unit the students will investigate geometry and fractions.

They will:

• Build new designs by covering a large design with smaller shapes.
• Look for shapes in our environment
• Look for arrays-for example, in ceiling tile, windows, and the calendar
• Make the connection between arrays and fractions and multiplication
• Look for patterns
• Look for symmetrical designs

Other than our number of the day, they will not be focused on number sense. I added the AAA Math link so they can continue to learn number facts and while working at their own level.

Enjoy the web site and math practice. We worked on the site today in class so they would know how to use it.

The before school reading class has been studying syllable rules and how to use those rules to decode new words. The short video clips show some of the students working on the SMART board and on interactive web site. BBC Syllables

They have learned six rules:

1. Words with double consonants are broken between the consonants. (hop-ping)
2. Words with two consonants are broken between the consonants. (bas-ket)
3. Every syllable has one vowel sound.
4. The number of vowel sounds in a word equals the number of syllables.
5. When a word ends in sion, tion, and ture those word endings are a syllable. (nature)
6. When a word has a VCV pattern it will be divided based on the sound of the first vowel. (decide)

Letters to Santa

Today we studied friendly letters and started our letters to Santa. Formatting, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling were essential for completed letters because students had to be sure Santa could read their letters quickly. To enable accuracy each child had three editors and each editor had to find something that needed checked. I also limited what they could ask for: no live pets, not more than 3 things.

All of the students were very busy getting their wishes ready to send to Santa.