Below are two articles I thought parents would find helpful and interesting. Although they are written for a teacher audience, the information and resources shared can certainly be helpful and relevant for parents.This first article addresses the idea of grit being a determination of success, as well as how to go about modeling grit and teaching grit to students. It is full of additional resource links that may be helpful or interesting. True Grit This second article discusses close reading and strategies for close reading. Many folks really are not sure what close reading is or why it is important. It is a newish focus with our shift to the Common Core and this article may be helpful in understanding what we are doing in school and how you can be helping your child at home. Strategies for Close Reading Thank you so much for your continued support and for all you do at home to support your child's success and creativity!
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We had a great Valentine's Day celebration in 4W! It was so much fun to see each child's "For the love of Literature" construction. Awesome displays of creativity! Our party was filled with tasty treats and some fun density demos by our guest, Krista Gerhardt, from WPAFB. A great time was had by all. Thank you to everyone who helped! Enjoy the slideshow below… WORD WORKEvery week begins with small group word work. This is a time for students to discover, discuss, and work with word spelling patterns, prefixes, suffixes, syllabication, homonyms, homophones, vocabulary and much more! Students then work independently and with partners throughout the week on sorting and spelling activities. Every child is encouraged to complete several sorts at home throughout the week. If you need a list of these activities, let me know. I have lots of extra copies! FIGURATIVE LANGUAGEFigurative language has been a focus over the last couple weeks in our class and we will continue to notice, analyze, and use these literary devices to comprehend what we read and communicate clearly in our writing and speaking! Students collected examples they found in their reading and posted them to share! CLOSE READINGStudents work on their close reading skills every week. It is so exciting to see them using the strategies and skills they have been taught. I so enjoy the great conversations we have in both small groups and as a whole class. NEWSELA is my new favorite tool for non-fiction reading! Students sign in, check out the articles I assign in the class binder, and then can adjust the Lexile level so that the reading is leveled just for them! Fridays are a great time to group students by the articles they chose to read throughout the week. Below, students are doing work with vocabulary, determining important take-aways, discussing questions they have about the reading, discussing text structure, and using the article content to further understand how organisms interact with their environment. Life ScienceChanges in an organism’s environment are sometimes beneficial to its survival and sometimes harmful. Students have been doing a lot of important work so that they can understand and defend the statement above! Part of our work is shown below: MID-YEAR ReminderI was visiting Mrs. Williams the other day and saw the sign below posted in her room. I love it. It's important that kids understand that success in area requires time, effort, practice, and many times…failure first. So, I snapped a photo and we had a great discussion at the beginning of last week. Thanks, Mrs. Williams for the GREAT reminder!
Curious about your child's learning? Below are some questions to get the conversation started! Can you share with me some of the different types of text structures non-fiction authors use? Can you give me some examples?
What is the purpose behind similes and metaphors? How are they used? What's the difference between the two? Explain what it means to THIEVE the text? What is the purpose for doing so? Tell me about your Reader's Response assignment. What kind of work did you do on Friday with your NEWSELA (current events) articles? Tell me what you know about fractions. What confuses you? Teach me about equivalent fractions and about how to model them using a bar model or a number line. What can you tell me about this statement? Changes in an organism's environment are sometimes beneficial to its survival and sometimes harmful. |
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