What We Learned This Week
Word Study
We worked on syllabication and closed syllables (and open syllables in comparison). We learned syllables have one vowel sound. Hence, the number of vowel sounds in a word represents the number of syllables. We know which letters are vowels (a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y... and sometimes w thanks to the Welsh) and which are consonants. Students should know that all words in the English language contain at least one vowel. We learned anchor words for short vowel sounds and know to mark them with a breve (small u shaped mark above the vowel to indicate it is short).
a says
ă apple
e says
ĕ egg
i says
ĭ igloo
o says
ŏ octopus
u says
ŭ umbrella
We further explored
a sounds by looking at sounds when
a precedes -
w or -
ll (e.g., awesome, all, etc.). This vowel sound is marked with a caret (^).
I introduced closed syllables, syllables which are "closed" by consonant and make a short vowel sound, e.g., cat, hit, etc. These are distinguished from open syllables, syllables which are "open" (end in a vowel) and make a long vowel sound. Being able to distinguish between open and closed vowels helps with decoding (reading unfamiliar words) and encoding (writing unfamiliar words). It's what makes reading non-sense words possible, e.g., Dr. Seuss.
We also focused on nouns in parts-of-speech and began categorizing them as people, places, and things to help draw attention to them and support our decoding (understanding parts of speech is essential to using context clues to decode unfamiliar words) and vocabulary development.
We learned four new vocabulary words, which I'm happy to say, were used by students frequently this week during class discussion and writing: prepare, drought, fragile, spectacular.
Reading & Writing
I focused on strategies for determining main ideas of passages. Students are practicing using the 5 W's (who, what, where, when, and why) to form main idea summary statements. Students have learned that "who" is not always a person, but simply the subject of the selection (e.g., Eleanor Roosevelt, the light bulb, the weather, etc.). Students must have a who and a what in all main idea sentence and are encouraged to include the why preceded by "because." When and where are not always important, but should be included if they are present in the article. Determining why takes comprehension to a higher level as it is rarely explicitly stated in a text, but must be inferred instead. Students are learning to identify the topic sentence as it often states the main idea. These skills are also being linked to writing.
Good writing should include the 5W's and have a clear topic sentence. We finished our persuasive essays on why we should vote for each author for student council. This has given us a lot to work with. The most consistent focus areas are in convention (indenting, complete sentences, capitalization and punctuation). Most students are producing sufficient writing and have good content. Students have been catching errors by reading their writing aloud, and are focusing on run-ons.
Math
We continue to discuss place and value and have introduced the following focus areas in numeration:
- Creating the largest possible number given four numerals (e.g., given 4, 5, 0, 9 record 9,540). This is particularly challenging when asking students to determine the
next biggest number (9,450). Most students will write 5,940.
- Reading big numbers (numbers up to thousands) by reading them in groups of threes (between the commas) just as we would read any number that goes to the hundreds (which most students are secure in) and thinking of the thousands' place comma as a last name.
- Continued rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. We also began using rounding to help us estimate (e.g., If Carla wants to by a shirt for $28 and a coat for $73, she can round each to the nearest ten, $30 and $70 to estimate she will need $100 for both purchases.) This is also very helpful in mentally checking for the accuracy of multi-digit summing and subtraction.
Students took the STAR math assessment this week using iPads. This is a norm referenced screener to help determine instructional focus for students and identify students who may need additional support.
Science
Linda Pettit visited us on Wednesday from the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation district to teach us about soil types and erosion. Students observed that vegetation and mulch slow run-off and filter impurities out of the water.
Steve Cothrel, Superintendent of Parks/Forestry at City of Upper Arlington, visited us on Thursday in preparation for our Thompson Park Tree Trek field trip. Mr. Cothrel shared common Central-Ohio trees and tree identification.
We took our first field trip to photo document the Thompson Park Tree Trek. Many sincere thank you's to all of our generous volunteers. I sincerely appreciate your time and assistance in making this trip such a success. We were honored to be able to help label the different species of tree in the Magnolia Grove and the Tree Commission Grove. Student photos will be uploaded soon on the Thompson Park Tree Trek blog. Click on the link below to visit.
We have one more face to share with you that your student may see in our classroom. We're fortunate to have so many professionals supporting our students.
Ms. Mayhan
Occupational Therapy
Important Dates and Reminders
Please make sure your student wears gym shoes on B and E days.
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.
Visit the link below to learn more about Science Sundays at The Ohio State University. These are great student appropriate science experiences.
Important 1st Quarter Dates & Reminders
New dates and times are indicated in red.
September 2 through 26, 2014 - STAR Reading and Math Diagnostic Testing
September 19, 2014 - Black and Gold Day: Show your support for UA's homecoming
September 17, 2014 - Constitution Day - wear Red, White and Blue
September 22 through 26, 2014 - PTO Book Sale
September 26, 2014 - Wacky hair day
September 26, 2014 - Fall Family Fun Night from 5 till 7pm
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
