We made it through another week! It’s hard to believe that our first month of school is pretty much DONE! This week we explored and learned how to use lots of NEW computer activities and programs. We are quickly becoming masters of our Chromebooks!
Thank you to everyone who scheduled a quick chat with me about the Back To School presentation that was sent to your email. It’s not too late to sign up! I still have open spots next week! I’d love a chance to speak with every parent!
A LOOK INTO ROOM 8:
Reading- This week we worked on making connections to our text. We learned that there are 3 different connections (text to text, text to self, and text to world) that can be made while listening/reading a text. During our read alouds, we shared what the text made of think of and then determined whether our thoughts came from another text (text to text), an event that happened to ourselves (text to self), or if it was something that we saw or heard on the TV or other source (text to world). 
We also began looking at syllables, or units of sound, in words. We had a blast dancing along to “Clap it Out” and then applied what we learned on our computers on IXL.com!
Writing- We began our week with brainstorming ideas of things that happened to us after reading the story Shortcut by Donald Crews. Then, we chose one of our ideas and took a couple days to write and focus on ways to add visual/sound words to our writing to help readers visualize while the read. WHEW! We’re building some strong writers in Room 8!
Math- We continued our unit on skip counting by 10’s and 2’s and introduced how to skip count by 5’s as well. Students brainstormed items that are naturally counted by 5’s (fingers, toes, nickels, etc.), sang and danced while skip counting, and applied what they learned on 120 charts on paper and on the computer. Be sure to check out these sites for extra practice with skip counting! Number Bubble-Skip Counting Interactive Number Chart
Science- This week we wrapped up the last type of extreme weather in our unit, blizzards, and learned about meterologists and the tools that they use to measure weather. Students practiced using highlighters to underline key terms in an extreme weather booklet, which can also be used as a study tool for next weeks assessment (Wednesday, Oct. 2)! To wrap up our weather study, students worked on Google slideshow of pictures of extreme weather. We will get to apply our learning of extreme weather on our upcoming STEAM day, as well as review on Tuesday before taking our quiz.
A GLANCE INTO NEXT WEEK:
- READING: Making Connections
- PHONICS FOCUS: Diagraphs (ch, sh, th, wh) Initial/Final Sounds
- WRITING: Sounding Out Words During Writing
- MATH: Even & Odd Numbers
- SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: Extreme Weather/Christopher Columbus
UPCOMING NEXT WEEK:
- Monday, 9/30
- WHEEL RESOURCE: PE
- STEAM DAY: Half Day dismissal
- Homework packet due
- Wednesday, 10/2
- Extreme Weather/Weather Tools quiz
- Friday, 10/4
- Spelling Quiz
NEWS & REMINDERS:
- STEAM Day: Monday, 9/30 is an early release day for students. Our STEAM activity is from 8:00-9:30, early lunch from 9:30-10:00 in the room, then PE class from 10:00-10:40. Dismissal begins around 10:50.
Happy Friday! Happy Weekend!