Students are learning about famous Americans in Social Studies. We are reviewing and studying the following famous people:
George Washington
Abrahman Lincoln
Eleanor Roosevelt
Benjamin Franklin
George Washington Carver
Betsy Ross
Martin Luther King Jr.
Susan B. Anthony
Pocohontas
Students will soon have their very first project to complete at home! Look for Man in the Can information to come home soon!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Power Teaching
This week I started using Power Teaching in the classroom. I was surprised at how quickly the students caught on and by how excited they are!
Power Teaching is a great concept. I teach mini lessons all day and have the students reteach the same concepts to each other. The students are actively engaged, animated, and truly learning and remembering information!
I absolutely LOVE Power Teaching! Thank you Chris Biffle for coming up with this unique concept!
Power Teaching is a great concept. I teach mini lessons all day and have the students reteach the same concepts to each other. The students are actively engaged, animated, and truly learning and remembering information!
I absolutely LOVE Power Teaching! Thank you Chris Biffle for coming up with this unique concept!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Classroom Pets
We have a bearded dragon named King Tut who is a member of our classroom. He eats crickets, which I provide for him. The students love bringing him peas, carrots, and apples from lunch. He is rather well fed. I told the students that they were only allowed to bring him one pea, one apple slice, or one piece of carrot...however, somedays over half the class will bring him just one pea! He is getting fat!
Writing--Capitalization and Punctuation
Writing is one of my favorite subjects to teach, but before we can get to the really fun stuff, we must first learn the basics. We are working on learning the capitalization and punctuation rules, as well as the four types of sentences.
Statement--simply a telling sentence. The sky is blue. The grass is green. These always end in a period.
Question--asks something and requires an answer. How old are you? What time is it? These always end with a question mark.
Exclamatory--shows excitement. We won the game! These end with an exclamation point.
Command--tells the subject to do something. Keep off the grass! These can end with a period or an exclamation point.
Statement--simply a telling sentence. The sky is blue. The grass is green. These always end in a period.
Question--asks something and requires an answer. How old are you? What time is it? These always end with a question mark.
Exclamatory--shows excitement. We won the game! These end with an exclamation point.
Command--tells the subject to do something. Keep off the grass! These can end with a period or an exclamation point.
Cloud Similes
In our Beyond Words unit we are reading wonderful literature. Students read the poem Fog, by Carl Sandburg, It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw and Cloud Dance by Thomas Locker. We discussed the figurative language in each book and how the authors compared things.
I took the class outside, with clipboards, blue paper, and white crayons to observe and draw clouds. Unfortunately, I picked a virtually cloudless day. So, instead we used white paints blobs in the center of blue paper and folded the paper and pressed it to make clouds. When the students opened their papers back up they had unique cloud shapes. They then wrote their own similes.
I took the class outside, with clipboards, blue paper, and white crayons to observe and draw clouds. Unfortunately, I picked a virtually cloudless day. So, instead we used white paints blobs in the center of blue paper and folded the paper and pressed it to make clouds. When the students opened their papers back up they had unique cloud shapes. They then wrote their own similes.
Reading--Making Connections
We are currently learning how to make connections when reading. The three types of connections are text to text, text to self, and text to world.
Text to text connections occur when a student can relate something from what they are currently reading to a book they have already read.
Text to self connections occur when students can relate an idea or event from what they are reading to something that has actually happened to them.
Text to world connections occur when students can relate an idea or event from literature to a real world event.
By making connections students can better comprehend what they are reading!
Text to text connections occur when a student can relate something from what they are currently reading to a book they have already read.
Text to self connections occur when students can relate an idea or event from what they are reading to something that has actually happened to them.
Text to world connections occur when students can relate an idea or event from literature to a real world event.
By making connections students can better comprehend what they are reading!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)