Monday, November 25

Wow! What a work day!  Today we focused on writing to a prompt.  We all pretended it was the real ISTEP Writing Session, just so we could get a feel for how we would do.  I saw a lot of progress, and I saw a lot of ways we can improve.  We will keep working on!

Tomorrow we will have a Read-In during Literacy Block.  I will provide the hot chocolate and popcorn, and the students are allowed to bring pillows, small blankets, and even stuffed animals.  What ever will make them comfortable as we spend the morning reading.

Note: Feedback and Data Binders were not sent home tonight because several students need more to to complete their test.  Results will go home Monday after Thanksgiving break.

Only those students who did not complete more than a page for last week's "I'll always Remember" prompt have homework.

Wednesday, November 20

We are really making progress with  identifying the main idea, supporting ideas, and details. In class we have been focusing on finding Main Ideas (P1), Supporting Ideas (P2) and Details (P3) in articles and writing prompts.  The students are are quickly working their way to being independent at this skill.  Tonight's homework is a great chance to practice.  We collaborated on the article Botanists.  They should practice with the article Land of Ice and Snow. Use Botanists as a model if you get stuck.

Monday, November 18

Model Planning Page

We worked our buns off today!  REALLY!  As always we had a lot of fun doing it.  Today we focused on planning a writing. We went step by step through the process.  I modeled each step and then guided the students as they planned their own writing.  They did a wonderful job!  As you can see we used a hamburger model for our planning.  Because of this, we laughed an joked about buns ALL DAY LONG! It was wonderful!

We also updated the literacy portion of the Feedback and Data Binder.  Be sure to check out the data!  We made lots of improvements in making inferences last week and our data shows it! If you want a sneak peak of what we are working on this week, check out our Week 15 Literacy Link.

Friday, November 15

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Today, we had planned on reviewing our opening and closing sentences for our ISTEP writing practice, and then writing our stories over the weekend.  After a quick review of the planning pages, we decided we need a lot more practice planning the story before we work on writing it. So I want to let you know, I let the kids off the hook this weekend.  I told them not to write there story over the weekend.  We will work on it more next week and they will be writing for homework next week.

Hope everyone has a grand weekend.

Thursday, November 14

Tonight is the READERS ARE LEADERS night at Needham Elementary. Come to hear community leaders read great books. Then stay for dinner from 5-7:30. Cookie dough orders will also be distributed during this time.

Tomorrow we will have the a week 14 assessment. It will cover the following learning objectives:

• Making inferences
• Picking apart a prompt and planning your writing
• Vocabulary (not spelling) of the Lesson 6-7 list.

For tonight's homework, students are supposed to finish their planning page. (They are not supposed to write the story.) Tomorrow we will review their planning page, and discuss good opening and closing sentences. They will get to write their story over the weekend and we will share them on Monday.

Wednesday, November 11

Today was a work day.  The students worked on unfinished business from last week.  They worked on our new Spelling and Vocabulary Packets. They worked on making Flashcard Foldables to help us study.  They worked on reading Young Hoosier Book Award books, and of course reading books at their lexile. While they were working so hard, I was finishing up individual writing conferences with each student.  It has been inspiring to sit with each child as they read their writing and have the opportunity to discuss their writing skills with them.  We have learned a lot from each other during the process.

Tomorrow will be another work day.  We will continue to focus on making inferences and writing to a prompt.  I am really excited about the improvement I am seeing in both areas.

Tomorrow is also Learning Continued and Readers are Leaders night.  If your student wants to stay for Learning Continued, I must have a signed permission slip.  Cookie dough orders can be picked up during Readers are Leaders night from 5-7:30.

Tuesday, November 12

Tomorrow will be Team 33's book fair buying day.  If you want your child to purchase books, please send their money in a sealed envelope with any specific directions you want them to follow.

Another proud member of the
Behavior Clip Hall of Fame!

This Thursday is our 2nd Learning continued session.  If your student wants to stay for Learning Continued and has not yet filled out the LEARNING CONTINUED form, please send it in right away.

The new word part list, LESSON 6-7 Vocabulary and Spelling,  is now posted. I am very impressed with how the students are doing with studying and understanding prefixes, suffixes, and root words.  There efforts are showing on the weekly assessments, and will show when it comes to high stakes testing.

We are realizing an area of weakness is making inferences.  We reviewed the Week 12 assessment today.  Most students did not do well on the reading portion, which was based on making inferences.  The good news is we can get better.  As I modeled how to find the clues in the text, I saw light bulbs flashing on in many students eyes.  We will keep working on making inferences along with writing to a prompt this week.