Reading, Writing, and Social Studies
For the past two weeks, the children combined reading, writing, and economics. They read a story called The Goat in the Rug by Charles L. Blood, Martin Link, and Nancy Winslow Parker. This story is a narrative nonfiction selection about a Navajo weaver who sheared her goat for its wool, or mohair, then dyed it, spun it, and wove it into a rug. This story reinforces our Economics social studies theme, because it shows how people take natural resources and use them to make products for sale. The children discovered that making a rug from goat’s wool is very time consuming, and this makes hand-made Navajo rugs scarce. We talked about how the Navaho weaver is a producer of goods, and the students wrote a flow chart to show the steps the weaver followed in producing the rug. They took the written test, then worked together to weave potholders from looms using cotton loops.
They also read a story called The Ox Cart Man, by Donald Hall. This story is another narrative nonfiction selection about a farmer and his family being producers, the farmer going to market to sell their goods, becoming a consumer and buying goods, then returning home to start the process all over again. They made another flow chart of the steps the family followed and took the written test. They also took the social studies Economics test.
We will take a field trip to Fullersburg Woods on Thursday, March 19 in the DuPage County forest preserve to see how a natural resource such as Sugar Maple trees are tapped for their sap and turned into maple syrup. This will be our celebration for finishing the unit.
Writing Workshop
We wrapped up our Black History Research last week, and the students were very proud of their projects. They were delighted to see your comments on SeeSaw.
This week, the children started to write "Gripping" realistic fiction stories during writing workshop. This unit builds on their knowledge of writing personal narratives, also known as small moments, and allows students to create their own realistic tales. The writers in our class seem to love this work, and they are finding success by creating characters with the same age, same gender, and same interests as themselves. We have done some shared writing about video clips from Toy Story and Sandlot to help students understand the importance of detailed descriptions using adjectives, comparisons, and onomatopoeia. We've also talked about how to build tension in their stories by adding unexpected but believable details.
Math
We are working on Unit 5 in Investigations Math. The first investigation in this unit was about combinations of 100. Students added and subtracted 10, 20, and 30 and 1, 2, and 3, to or from 2-digit numbers as they try to capture 5 chips scattered around a 100 chart. They solved 2-step story problems about money and stickers, and they figured out how much more they needed in order to have 100 or $1.00. Students continued to review and practice addition and subtraction facts and considered the relationship between adding 9 and 10 and subtracting 9 and 10. They also worked with adding and subtracting 7 and 8.
We are working on the second investigation now. It is about adding within 100 and counting to 1000. Students will think about combinations that make 100 as they try to find pairs of 2-digit numbers that equal a number close to 100. They also revisit activities that extend the rote counting sequence to 1,000. They practice reading, writing, and comparing 3-digit numbers, skip counting within that range, and adding 10 or 100 to any 3-digit number. They use the stickers to represent 3-digit numbers as hundreds, tens, and ones.
The third investigation will be about fluency within 100. Students will solve story problems, including comparison problems with a bigger unknown and problems with more than one step. They will focus on developing efficient and accurate strategies for adding 2-digit numbers within 100, specifically those that involve adding tens and ones and adding on one number in parts.
Word Work
The sort from the last week was about au and aw. They noticed the au and aw sound the same but appear in different places in a word or syllable. Au appears at the beginning or middle of a word or syllable (like August or caught), while aw appears at the end of a word or syllable or before l, n, or k (like draw or hawk). The pattern is similar for ou and ow which we had discussed the previous week.
For the past two weeks, the children combined reading, writing, and economics. They read a story called The Goat in the Rug by Charles L. Blood, Martin Link, and Nancy Winslow Parker. This story is a narrative nonfiction selection about a Navajo weaver who sheared her goat for its wool, or mohair, then dyed it, spun it, and wove it into a rug. This story reinforces our Economics social studies theme, because it shows how people take natural resources and use them to make products for sale. The children discovered that making a rug from goat’s wool is very time consuming, and this makes hand-made Navajo rugs scarce. We talked about how the Navaho weaver is a producer of goods, and the students wrote a flow chart to show the steps the weaver followed in producing the rug. They took the written test, then worked together to weave potholders from looms using cotton loops.
They also read a story called The Ox Cart Man, by Donald Hall. This story is another narrative nonfiction selection about a farmer and his family being producers, the farmer going to market to sell their goods, becoming a consumer and buying goods, then returning home to start the process all over again. They made another flow chart of the steps the family followed and took the written test. They also took the social studies Economics test.
We will take a field trip to Fullersburg Woods on Thursday, March 19 in the DuPage County forest preserve to see how a natural resource such as Sugar Maple trees are tapped for their sap and turned into maple syrup. This will be our celebration for finishing the unit.
Writing Workshop
We wrapped up our Black History Research last week, and the students were very proud of their projects. They were delighted to see your comments on SeeSaw.
This week, the children started to write "Gripping" realistic fiction stories during writing workshop. This unit builds on their knowledge of writing personal narratives, also known as small moments, and allows students to create their own realistic tales. The writers in our class seem to love this work, and they are finding success by creating characters with the same age, same gender, and same interests as themselves. We have done some shared writing about video clips from Toy Story and Sandlot to help students understand the importance of detailed descriptions using adjectives, comparisons, and onomatopoeia. We've also talked about how to build tension in their stories by adding unexpected but believable details.
Math
We are working on Unit 5 in Investigations Math. The first investigation in this unit was about combinations of 100. Students added and subtracted 10, 20, and 30 and 1, 2, and 3, to or from 2-digit numbers as they try to capture 5 chips scattered around a 100 chart. They solved 2-step story problems about money and stickers, and they figured out how much more they needed in order to have 100 or $1.00. Students continued to review and practice addition and subtraction facts and considered the relationship between adding 9 and 10 and subtracting 9 and 10. They also worked with adding and subtracting 7 and 8.
We are working on the second investigation now. It is about adding within 100 and counting to 1000. Students will think about combinations that make 100 as they try to find pairs of 2-digit numbers that equal a number close to 100. They also revisit activities that extend the rote counting sequence to 1,000. They practice reading, writing, and comparing 3-digit numbers, skip counting within that range, and adding 10 or 100 to any 3-digit number. They use the stickers to represent 3-digit numbers as hundreds, tens, and ones.
The third investigation will be about fluency within 100. Students will solve story problems, including comparison problems with a bigger unknown and problems with more than one step. They will focus on developing efficient and accurate strategies for adding 2-digit numbers within 100, specifically those that involve adding tens and ones and adding on one number in parts.
Word Work
The sort from the last week was about au and aw. They noticed the au and aw sound the same but appear in different places in a word or syllable. Au appears at the beginning or middle of a word or syllable (like August or caught), while aw appears at the end of a word or syllable or before l, n, or k (like draw or hawk). The pattern is similar for ou and ow which we had discussed the previous week.