Forty-Ninth Day of School

In Social Science, we learned that all children learn arithmatic, but children may learn it differently in different countries. We also learned that all children love to play at recess, but it will look different in in other places (tested). Additionally, we learned that a custom is a way of doing something specific to a group of people.

Forty-Seventh Day of School

In Social Science, we learned that kids all over the world go to school. How they get there, may be different, but when they are there, they learn about their language and math (tested). This lesson will be continued.

Reading logs are due tomorrow.

Forty-Fifth Day of School

In Health today, we discussed making mistakes and what we can do when mistakes are made.

We will likely take our next Math Test on Wednesday.

Forty-Fourth Day of School

Today we began discussion of  the last of our tested concepts in Social Science. We will be comparing and contrasting concepts across time and space. For example, we will examine educational practices/circumstances in the past and the present. We will also take a look at how education practices and circumstances differ as a result of culture and geographical location. We will also compare transportation, construction, and commerce.

Forty-Third Day of School

In Writing, we have been examining some procedural-informational texts as an introduction to our new unit. Today we brainstormed lists of subjects we felt we knew enough about in order to teach someone else. Our next step will be to take the pre-unit assessment.

As soon as available, a template for the writing unit will be sent home for parent's writing.

Grades for the Math Fall IAB Exam have been posted to Schoology for those wishing to know how their child performed. Two students achieved a rubric score of 4.

In Science tomorrow, we will explore and decide which form of matter it is based on its properties.

Thirty-Ninth day of School

In Writing today, we reviewed spelling strategies for our editing process. We will soon take our Narrative Writing Assessment.

Thirty-Eighth Day of School

In Writing today, we edited for the first time using red pens. We circled words which were spelled incorrectly and looked for missing periods.

In Health, we learned about healthy ways to express feeling, especially anger.

We also reviewed some concepts in Science and Social Science.

Thirty-Seventh Day of School

In Writing today, we took blue pen in hand to work on the revision process. Recall that, in revising we take our writing from simply having all of the necessary elements to a richly voiced narrative with sensory details. Our process is here.

Thirty-Sixth Day of School

In Writing today, we added closing statements to our narratives.

Please note: three new posts to this blog were added today.

At-Home Assignment #1

Every year Room 11 has the tradition of electing a class president. This supports the government portion of our Social Science standards. Those students interested in running for Room 11 Class President 2019-20 will work on a speech at home to be delivered to the class on November 5, 2019. Speeches will be filmed using chroma key technology and saved to flash drives.

Students who would like to have their videos edited, will make sure they are not wearing any shade of green or yellow in any part of their outfit.

On this day we will also try to film our expert interviews. Those students wanting their interviews to be edited will also need to remember not to wear green or yellow on that Monday. Please review these questions from an early post with your child. Your child should 

be able to ask and answer each of the following:

1. Who was Roberto Clemente?
2. Where was he born?
3. What was he known for?
4. What kind of person was he?
5. What did he want to do?
6. How did he die?
7. How was he honored?

Sometimes we even have time to read our October stories on film to make a third chroma-key film.

Conferences

The first round of conferences are complete. It was nice meeting all of the parents and reassuring knowing that all of the children go home to nice and caring families. A few parents requested the following information be posted regarding Text Reading Comprehension (TRC) Levels.

Students at the level of:

• A, B, or C, need to be able to
•  retell a fiction selection including the beginning, middle, and end.
• tell the main idea supported by 2 details of a non-fiction selection.
• D or E, need to be able to answer basic who, what, where, when, and how questions.
• F need to be able to
• tell how what a character is thinking/feeling by what they say or do for fiction.
• compare and contrast ideas in a non-fiction selection.
• G need to
• tell how characters change over time as well as state the theme or lesson.
• be able to classify/categorize and make connections
• H need to identify and utilize text features.
• I need to draw conclusions from the pictures and text.
• J need to identify the problem and the solution.

A child should be at the level of J when entering 2nd grade. If you click on the letters B-J (not I) in the above list, the links will take you to detailed information (from the state of North Carolina) for each level.

Math Test Results

Of the 20 students taking the Chapter 1 Math Test, 15 passed with an adjusted score of 15 or better. The high score was 27.

Thirty-Fifth Day of School

Today in Writing, we added the transitions to our narratives. To meet the standard, each first grade narrative should have at least two transitions. On Monday, we will construct our closings.

In Engineering, we took the marshmallow challenge. The focus of the lesson is to work through the engineering process. The steps of the process are:

• Ask: What's the problem? What are the constraints?
• Brainstorm: What ideas will best solve the problem?
• Construct a plan
• Develop a prototype
• Evaluate, then circle back to 'Ask'.

Thirty-Fourth Day of School

In Writing today, we drafted the sentences for the events in our narrative. Tomorrow we will add transitions.

Fingers crossed, we will get to our engineering project tomorrow.

Thirty-Third Day of School

In Writing today, we did double duty with 2 lessons. The first lesson was drafting our setting. The second lesson was quick-sketch/planning our narrative events.

Thirty-Second Day of School

In Writing, we explicitly quick-sketched (planned) our when, where, and who (in that order) onto our setting page. Tomorrow, we will staple the event pages onto the back and quick-sketch our happenings.

Our Math test will likely be on Thursday. Tomorrow we will take home the unit opener pages (vocabulary, readiness, and the cut-and-fold) for Chapter 2.

Thirty-First Day of School

In Science, we observed a collection of liquids and generated a list of properties (tested)
 while learning a few few descriptive vocabulary words: bubbly, clear, opaque, transparent, translucent, and viscous.

We will take the Chapter 1 Math test next week.