Bella shared Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, with us. She provided apples and honey for a sweet New Year.
When we instruct a student to "sound out" a word, they typically rely on the initial vowel or consonants. This strategy rarely provide enough information to successfully decode an unfamiliar word. Instead of "sounding out" words we are looking at the following elements of an unfamiliar word:
- We mark the vowel sounds (individual vowels or vowel teams). The number of vowel sounds in a word tells the reader how many syllables the word has.
- We circle consonant blends (two distinct consonant sounds that glide together, e.g., blend) and digraphs (two consonants make one sound, e.g., digraph, shut, chirp) because we understand we won't split a word into syllables between the two consonants in a blend or digraph.
- We split the word into syllables between consonants or consonants and vowels.
- We mark the vowels as long or short sounds (We have only studied short vowel sounds, closed syllables, so far.)
We continued to study proper nouns and introduced the capitalization and lowercase editing symbols.
Students studied four new vocabulary words this week. I do introduce the vocabulary words on the first day of the week, but they should be studied at home. I do spend time each day on parts of speech. Try to incorporate these vocabulary words into your conversations with your student and help them notice when they hear them. Students are starting to realize that the parts of speech depend on context. For example, we studied the word orbit this week as a noun, but it could also be used as a verb.
Reading
We added numbering paragraphs to our reading homework to help us develop a sense of paragraph. We understand authors use paragraphs to indicate to the reader that a new idea or topic is being introduced. Students also started highlighting the topic sentence in each paragraph and should view it as synonymous with the main idea or central theme. We differentiated between the topic sentence/main idea and supporting details. This is not always easy or clear, but that gives us the opportunity to improve topic sentences.
Students chose precepts from our read-aloud's companion title, 365 Days of Wonder, Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts. We discussed these in conjunction with idioms as they are rarely literal. Students will write their precept on the blacktop using sidewalk chalk next week during the Walk-A-Mile-In-My-Shoes Day event. We hope these will create interest and discussion around kindness and perseverance.
Writing
We linked directly to our reading homework by focusing on topic sentences for personal narratives.
Math
We concluded (but will revisit) rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, estimating, the partial sums algorithm, and the traditional (I call it the "efficient" algorithm). We reviewed telling time to the hour and half-hour.
Science
Students distinguished objects from natural resources (natural and a resource) from man-made objects and natural objects that we don't utilize. We further determined which natural resources we use for energy and which we do not. Finally, we classified natural resources into renewable and non-renewable resources. I've found that if a natural resource has to be extracted from the Earth, it is almost always non-renewable.
Important Dates and Reminders
New dates and times are indicated in red.
Fall conferences will be the second week of November. Please visit the signup genius page to choose your date and time by clicking on this link.
Important 1st Quarter Dates & Reminders
September 30, 2014 - Walk-A-Mile (Windermere service learning project led by Ms. Dobies)
October 3, 2014 - Hat day
October 6 through 10, 2014 - Hawk Walk for the Playground
October 8, 2014 - Ohio Reading Achievement Assessment (Please avoid scheduling absences on this date)
October 10, 2014 - Blue and Green Day: Show your Windermere Hawk Pride
October 13 through 17, 2014 - Collection days for Box Tops for Education
October 17, 2014 - Blue and Green Day: Show your Windermere Hawk Pride
October 17, 2014- Field Trip to Thompson Park (please email if you would like to volunteer)
October 23, 2014 - Fall picture retakes
October 24, 2014 - End of the first quarter
October 27, 2014 - No school, teacher grading day
Important 2nd Quarter Dates & Reminders
October 30, 2014 - UA Trick or Treating from 5:30 till 8pm
October 31, 2014 - Halloween party (extended lunch from 12 till 1:30pm, most students go home to change into costumes)
November 3 through 7, 2014 - First quarter conferences
November 4, 2014 - No School for Students, Teacher Development Day
November 5, 2014 - Progress Reports sent home
November 6, 2014 - Early Dismissal/Conferences at 11am
November 10 through 13, 2014 - Fall conferences
November 17 through 21, 2014 - District Gifted Screening
November 25, 2014 - Scarlet and Gray Day
November 26 through 28, 2014 - No School Thanksgiving
December 1 through January 9, 2015 - STAR Reading and Math Diagnostic Testing
December 3, 2014 - Early Dismissal/Teacher Development at 1pm
December 19, 2014 - Holiday parties 2pm
December 22 through January 2, 2015 - No School Winter Break
January 16, 2015 - End of second quarter
January 19, 2015 - No School Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 20, 2015 - No school, teacher grading day
Important 3rd Quarter Dates & Reminders
January 27, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home
January 29, 2015 - Early Dismissal/Conferences at 11am
February 2 through 13, 2015 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 4, 2015 - Early Dismissal/Teacher Development at 1pm
February 9 through 13, 2015 - Collection days for Box Tops for Education
February 16, 2015 - No School Presidents' Day
February 17, 2015 - Math State PBA
February 23, 2015 - English Language Arts State PBA
February 23, 2015 - AASCD
March 9 through 13, 2015 - PTO Book Sale
March 17, 2015 - 3rd Grade Musical
March 20 through 27, 2015 - No School Spring Break
April 2, 2015 - End of third quarter
April 3, 2015 - No School
April 6, 2015 - No School, teacher grading day
Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders
April 8, 2015 - Early Dismissal/Teacher Development at 1pm
April 9, 2015 - Spring Picture Day
April 13 through May 22, 2015 - District Writing Diagnostic Testing
April 14, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home
April 21 through 22, 2015 - English Language Arts State EOY
April 22, 2015 - Ohio Reading Achievement Assessment
April 24, 2015 - Kid Fest
April 28 through 29, 2015 - Math State EOY
May 1 through 29, 2015 - STAR Reading and Math Diagnostic Testing
May 9, 2015 - Wish Run
May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day
June 1, 2015 - Field Day
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm
June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home
