In Literacy this week we read several great stories in which characters were from a different part of the world. We had a lot of great discussions about culture and traditions within each story. Students compared the texts and made connections to themselves and their families. All the stories we read were realistic fiction, we discussed why they would be considered realistic. Some of the skills we worked on were identifying the character, setting and events. We also continued to work on how author's use words to help us visualize or get a better picture in our heads.
In Writing we introduced the writing process. Students have learn that before we write we must plan our writing. We then moved onto the drafting stage. I modeled both the planning and drafting stages for students. They are currently working on a personal narrative of their own. Today we had a mini lesson on spelling. Many students get stuck on spelling while writing so we learned three new strategies to help us. The first strategy is to write all the sounds that they hear in the word. The second strategy is to write part of the word that you know how to spell. Finally the third strategy is to think of other words that might belong to that word family to help you spell that word. They have been working very hard.
In math we continued to learn more strategies for addition and subtraction. We teach several different strategies because not every child learns and thinks in the same manner. Students will hopefully choose the strategy that best works for them. I can already see improvements with their addition and subtraction timed practises. Thank-you for you help at home! Next week students will have their first math test, probably on Thursday.
In Social Studies we started discussing communities. We read and learned a song about what people do in communities. People live, work, play and solve problems in communities. You may have heard your child singing the song we learned, it's hard to get that song out of my head sometimes and I've heard them all singing it from time to time.
Have a fantastic weekend!
