Writers plan their Nonfiction writing

Students practice being an expert by telling about a subject/topic they know a lot about across their fingers.  This is the beginning stage of planning our writing.  If we knew 5 things about a subject, we recorded that subject on a brainstorming sheet to use later when we are ready to start making our own nonfiction books!  Ask your child to tell you something they are an expert on and watch their eyes light up as they teach you!

Phonics Fun

Students practice Phonic skills daily in the classroom in a variety of ways.  On this day, students refined their skills on short vowels by using Ipads.  Thank you Westwoods PTO for making this possible with the purchase of these Ipads over the last few years.  We LOVE them!

Representing Math Problems using pictures and number sentences to support our thinking.

Students explore a variety of strategies to solve story problems in the classroom for both addition and subtraction.  Students were grouped, given a problem, individually they solved the problem, then shared their thinking with their group.  Activities like these, give the students opportunity to revise their thinking after talking with their group!  Revising one's thinking is a life skill that students practice daily in the classroom by talking about what they know, listening to their peers, reflecting on what their peer said, then they decide to revise their thinking or help coach their peer to revise their thinking.  

Nonfiction comes alive!

Students shop for Nonfiction books to learn something new.  Be sure to ask your child what they have learned about in their reading today!

Writing Celebration

Students listened to their peers small moments.  It was amazing to hear the detail in their stories, the thinking, feelings, movement and itsy bitsy steps.  Hats off to this fantastic group of 1st graders writers who all took a risk and pushed themselves as learners.

Reading Celebration

CHEERS! Wednesday we celebrated the stamina we have worked so hard at building in our independent reading time. Students saluted their peers and congratulated each other on all of their hard work.  What does stamina look like in our room?  Eyes on the book, stay in one spot, students read the whole time, bathroom and drinks are closed, protecting out reading time by not interacting with others even when they try.  Can you believe that all 22 students can do that for more than 25 minutes?  Cheers to hard work and major accomplishments!

Our Learning is Messing

We launched our new reading unit today and the students worked together to sort a large amount of books into self created non-fiction categories.  Many problem solving skills were necessary by the participants to successfully create the task.  Students were faced with peers that didn't agree with their decision and they had to state their claim and provide their evidence for their thinking.  Listening to their peers, thinking about what they heard and responding appropriately were all skills orchestrated beautifully to support this enormous task to completion. 

We will explore text features this week, reasons to use non-fiction books in our everyday life, and how to adjust your voice when reading non-fiction text to sound like a narrator.        

Halloween Fun

We had a blast today!  Here are some photos from the fun!

Be a Dectective

Our theme for the upcoming month is "Be a Detective."  Ask your child what detectives do and how were they a detective in their daily work.  

Peer coaching in writing

Writers look to their peers for coaching with our check list for narrative writing.  Students are learning to read their writing as readers and make sure the story reads just what they were intending it to.

Another Perspective

Here is a great video that talks about praise.  A Study on Praise and Mindset

Find as many combinations as you can...

Students share their combinations of 10. The goal of this lesson was for students to show as many combinations as they can with pictures and number sentences.  Be sure to ask your child to show you how many combinations of ten they can find.

Sharing the Love of Reading

Mrs. Bocian's class joins us once a week and our students share their love for reading with a buddy.  Both sets of kids read books and share their favorite parts.  

Bullying Assembly

Students attended an assembly today that reminded us how we can support a bully free school.  5th grade students performed real life scenarios that could take place here at school.  Students brainstormed ways they could support others when they are bullied.

Thank You Westwoods PTO

THANK YOU WESTWOODS PTO!  We LOVE our new staplers and tape dispensers.    Our writing center is not congested and we are not worried about old staplers being jammed up and loosing valuable writing time.  Thank you for all that you do!

Move-a-thon fun

Students moved their bodies to raise money for our school.  A great time was had by all and many students concluded this fun event with a little dancing.  

Book Shopping for Just Right Books

Each week students shop for just right books to practice their newly learned reading skills.  Our rule of thumb is that if they get stuck 0-1 times, the book may be too easy.  If they get stuck 2-3 times, that may be just perfect.  If they get stuck 4-5 times, students should stop and think if they understand what they are reading because the text may be too hard.  These are great guidelines to use when reading books outside of school.

Being Brave

Students are brave by sharing their writing with their peers.  Here Ashley shared how she took risk and added emotion and thinking to her writing to "unfreeze" her writing.  

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Students work independently to figure out how much food the caterpillar ate on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  They are encouraged to use manipulatives or pictures to help themselves.  Next they create a representation of their learning on their paper.

Students then share their work and strategies with a partner.  This is their opportunity to appropriately challenge their partner's thinking and compare it to their own.  

Reading Group Fun

Students participate in reading groups (reading the same book, and working on comprehension skills), strategy groups (all students reading different books, working on the same type of skill) and reading conferences where students talk about their reading, books they chose and make goals for themselves.  

Fire Safety

October is fire safety month. Please be sure to check your fire alarms, and make an escape plan and practice stop, drop and roll with your child.  .

Perseverance

Habits of the Mind have helped students feel joy when they stick with a task and finally persevere.  

School Rules in Social Studies

Students make a "David" from David Goes to School and write the most important school rule to them.

Story Problem Representations

Students are learning how to solve story problems in math.  They retell the problem, gather manipulatives to represent the problem, retell the problem using the manipulatives to a partner and then record their thinking on paper using a number sentence/equation.