reading-and-writing

Reading/Writing week of 12/10

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:20:08 +0100

We have REALLY been enjoying reading and listening to different folktales, so we are going to continue to study folktales to help us use a variety of reading strategies. This week, we are going to be thinking about cause and effect. We'll be reading some new stories and will find the causes and effects in that story. We'll be using cause and effect to help us understand how a lesson is learned in the story.

By the end of the week, students will be expected to explain, in writing, what lesson could be learned from the story and provide details from the story to prove it. We are always reminding students to go back to the text to find examples to support their thinking!

In writing, we'll be starting to write our own folktales. The kids have been working really hard with Mrs. Puyear in Media to research different settings and characters, and they are just about ready to write their own folktales. They will be adapting a well known story such as 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' or 'The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.' We are excited to see how these stories turn out!

Reading/Writing week of 12-3

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:35:44 +0100

We have been getting some great feedback about the new reading homework from kids and parents, so thank you for all of your support! If you have any questions, or concerns please email us!

This week, in reading, we'll be using folktales to practice the strategy of retelling. When retelling a story, we are emphasizing to students that they don't need to include every single detail in the story, but just the main, important points. We'll be using two versions of a familiar fable to practice this skill, 'The Tortoise and the Hare'. We'll also be practicing this skill during reading groups with specific texts for each group. By the end of this week, we'd like to see our students write a paragraph to retell a story using the most important details and events. Use your child's homework book to help them practice the retell strategy.

In writing, we'll also be using folktales to explore how the setting is important in a story. Students will be using two different Cinderella stories and comparing the settings in the stories. We will discuss how the change in setting changes the story.
Then, at the end of the week, students will be developing their own Cinderella story by changing the setting again!

Reading and Writing - week of 11/26

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 02:23:37 +0100

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday! We all enjoyed time off to spend with our families, and can't believe that it's almost December!

The kids seemed really excited today as we introduced our new reading homework, so hopefully that will transfer to their work with you at home. ***We are looking for donations of plastic gallon sized baggies to hold our books for homework***

This week in reading, we'll be starting our unit on Folktales. We start by reviewing the characteristics of a folktale, to show the difference between this genre and other types of fiction. We'll be using folktales to revisit some concepts from earlier in the year as well as explore some new thinking. We'll be discussing characters and their traits again, in the context of overcoming challenges. We'll also look at how other characters respond to events in the story. Folktales are a great way for us to look at the central message or lesson in a story. Most folktales were told and retold in order to teach some sort of lesson, and we'll explore what some of those are in the books that we read.

In writing, most of the classes are still finishing up some descriptive writing pieces, and we're hoping to start our unit on writing folktales next week! We'll keep you posted!

Reading and Writing Q2 Week 2

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:37:22 +0100

This week in reading, we'll be working on questioning as a strategy to help us become better readers. Good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading to help clarify information and focus on key details in a text. We'll be using an e-book called Map-it Out! Understanding and Using Maps to help us learn map skills as well as focus on the reading strategy of questioning. The e-book that we will be using this week is attached as a PowerPoint to the right of this post.

We'll also be using that e-book to practice using a glossary as a tool to understand difficult words in a text. This goes back to our study of text features. We are hoping that our students are applying these strategies at home when they read non-fiction texts at night!

**Remember- It is important for the kids to read a variety of texts for their 20 minutes each night! If all they read are fiction stories, try to find a non-fiction book at the library that might be interesting.**

In writing this week, we'll be writing descriptive paragraphs about a place that we've visited. Students will be asked to draw a picture of a place that they've visited. They'll be using sensory details and awesome adjectives to describe the place. Try to encourage your child to use descriptive language at home to describe a great meal, or a fun game that they've played. Point out when they use great adjectives to describe something!

Starting Fresh in Quarter 2

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:02:06 +0100

We hope everyone enjoyed two days off! We were busy at school on Monday, planning and getting ready to start second quarter.

This week in reading we will be continuing our study of informational texts by reviewing the text features we learned at the end of quarter 1. Students will be using text features to help them find key details and new information while reading informational texts. A list of text features that we're studying is included below:

Text Features:

title
heading
table of contents
photograph
illustration
caption
bold print
glossary
diagram and labels
chart
map
index

Students are expected to know the purpose of the text feature and also explain what key details the text feature helps them understand. An example is below:

The purpose of this photograph is to show me what the rainforest looks like. What I learned from the photograph is that the trees in the rainforest are very tall and close together.

The other strategy that we'll be working on this week is questioning. Students should be asking questions about what they're reading to help them think about what they're learning! Help your child at home by prompting him/her to ask you a who/what/where/when/why/how question about they book that he/she is reading. The question should be relevant and lead to better understanding of the text.

In writing we'll be working on informational and explanatory writing. Students will be using images to compose descriptive paragraphs by pulling out important details and using descriptive language.