This week

Please read my previous post about making connections in reading.

Here is a description of our week: 

Math- This week we worked on rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. We also added and subtracted two and three digit numbers. The students are getting very excited as I have told them we have one more week of place value then we can start multiplication! :) 

Reading-  Our story this week was Meet an Underwater Explorer by Luise Woelflein. This story is about an underwater explorer named Sylvia Earle who shares her story of what life is like as a marine biologist. She is having set diving records, tested new equipment, and headed an all-woman science team that lived on the ocean floor for two weeks.  With this story we looked at what it would life underwater would be like. We also took a deeper look into the story to find main ideas and supporting details in the text. Looking at which pieces of information the story was mostly about and supporting that one idea with other information from this nonfiction text did this.

Writing- This week we used pictures as writing prompts. The students are working on their creativity. 

Science-The plants are growing rapidly. They are being pollinated with bee sticks and starting to use their petals and grow seed pods. Mrs. Clark is reviewing the parts of the plant, and their uses as well as the parts of the bee. 

Mrs. Jodie Yuska

Making Connections

Reading is a big part of your child's learning and a life long skill they will need. I am going to try and gradually share with you some strategies we practice at skill that you can take part in at home also.

The first strategy I am going to introduce you to is called, “Making Connections.” This means students connect their background knowledge to the text they are reading.

The Purpose of the Strategy:
Readers comprehend better when they actively think about and apply their knowledge of the book's topic, their own experiences, and the world around them. Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis in their book, Strategies that Work (2000), state that, "When children understand how to connect the text they read to their lives, they begin to make connections between what they read and the larger world. This nudges them into thinking about bigger, more expansive issues beyond their universe of home, school, and neighborhood."

How to help your child use this strategy:
To help your child make connections while they are reading, ask him/her the following
questions:   What does the book remind you of?  What do you know about the book's
topic? Does this book remind you of another book?

Mid-September Cool down

Please make sure your child is always dressed for the weather. As a parent myself, I know it is hard to always have a chance to catch the weather report, but with the feeling of fall in the air, it is important your child brings a jacket or coat to school everyday. We will let them know if they don't need them in the afternoon, but morning recesses are a bit chilly.

 

Today our class earned all of our “brownies” on our Brownie Point board. The goal that was decided on was an extra recess being able to bring a toy from home. This recess will be in our classroom. I have told the students they are allowed to bring a toy/ electronic of their choice, as long as it is not or could not be considered weapon. However, what comes to school with them is what goes home with THEM. I will be taking inventory at the beginning and end of the school day.

Tomorrow we will also be traveling (walking) to the Granger House to watch the Red Cedar Orchestra perform. They have a great interactive performance with the kids. It is usually just kind of a tight fit. :)

Book orders have been shipped. Our UPS tracking number is 1ZV4569F0317705328 

Here is a description of our week: 

Math- We are continuing to work on 2 and 3-digit addition skills and will start with 2 and 3-digit subtraction tomorrow. This is a great way to practice the place value skills we previously learned.

Reading- Our story this week was Animal Fact/ Animal Fable Seymour Simon. This story invites the reader to guess whether common notions, such as “ crickets can tell the temperature with their chirps” are true or false. The author goes on to discuss the fact or fable behind these beliefs. This week we explored the differences between fact and opinion.

Writing- This week we discussed writing complete sentences using, who, what (action), when, and where. For example, Mrs. Yuska danced on Saturday in her living room. :) Students also took a pre-assessment about letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. I will plan on sharing this information with you during conferences in November. 

Science- Everyday I take a sneak peek into Mrs. Clark's classroom. I miss watching the little plants grow. IT IS SO EXCITING! Everyday, your child will be measuring and writing observations they see about the growth and changes in their plants. This week they discussed the seed leaves (smooth leaves at the bottom) and true leaves (the rigid leaves they grow further up on the stem).

Mrs. Jodie Yuska

A Short & Sweet Week

I hope everyone enjoyed their nice long weekend full of beautiful weather. My weekend extended an extra day, as I had to take my fifteen- month old to the doctor for shots and she had a reaction. During my somewhat "unplanned" day off, or at least unannounced to the kids, they read Mrs. Nelson is Missing. To go along with the story, they had a writing activity that stated, "Mrs. Yuska is missing! Where could she be? Create a missing poster for Mrs. Yuska and write a story to tell what you think happened to her!" These were the best stories I have read in a long time. I went from being abducted by aliens, to taking a vaction to Texas to ride a bull, to becoming a Jedi and fighting the force. A lot of kids placed me in outer space. I am not quite sure what to make of that! :) Plus, a few had me kidnapped by either Mr. H, or dragged off to Mexico. My favorite reward was 100 years worth of chocolate. I told the kids I would turn myself in, for that! :) I love how creative your children are. This is one of the best parts of my job.

As for the rest of the week, here are some of our highlights:

Math- We continued to look at place value with ones, tens, and hundreds. Next week we will add the thousands place and start to add and subtract 3-digit numbers. A challenge in the past has been to determine the expanded form of a number (ie. 345 would be 300+40+5=345). This year the kids have done amazing and I will be creating a bulletin board of facts over the weekend.

Reading- Our story this week was Lon Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China.  A Chinese version of the famous tale, this story teaches the important message of triumph of courage and cleverness over evil. Dramatic illustrations that incorporate techniques used in ancient Chinese panel art make this selection even more interesting. Strategies we looked at with this story was comparing and contrasting other versions of Little Red Riding Hood and analyzing character and plot, as well as determining the moods used to tell the story.

Writing- We completed our last "free response" activities for a while. We read "The Crocodile's Toothache," "Jimmy Jet and his tv set," "Ickle me, Pickle me, tickle me too," and ""Spaghetti." All these poems are written by Shel Silverstein.  Enjoy! :)

"The Crocodile's Toothache"

The Crocodile
Went to the dentist
And sat down in the chair,
And the dentist said, "Now tell me, sir,
Why does it hurt and where?"
And the Crocodile said, "I'll tell you the truth,
I have a terrible ache in my tooth,"
And he opened his jaws so wide, so wide,
The the dentist, he climbed right inside,
And the dentist laughed, "Oh isn't this fun?"
As he pulled the teeth out, one by one.
And the Crocodile cried, "You're hurting me so!
Please put down your pliers and let me go."
But the dentist laughed with a Ho Ho Ho,
And he said, "I still have twelve to go-
Oops, that's the wrong one, I confess,
But what's one crocodile's tooth more or less?"
Then suddenly, the jaws went SNAP,
And the dentist was gone, right off the map,
And where he went one could only guess...
To North or South or East or West...
He left no forwarding address.
But what's one dentist, more or less?

-Shel Silverstein

"Jimmy Jet And His TV Set"

by Shel Silverstein

I'll tell you the story of Jimmy Jet --
And you know what I tell you is true.
He loved to watch his TV set
Almost as much as you.

He watched all day, he watched all night
Till he grew pale and lean,
From "The Early Show" to "The Late Late Show"
And all the shows between.

He watched till his eyes were frozen wide,
And his bottom grew into his chair.
And his chin turned into a tuning dial,
And antennae grew out of his hair.

And his brains turned into TV tubes,
And his face to a TV screen.
And two knobs saying "VERT." and "HORIZ."
Grew where his ears had been.

And he grew a plug that looked like a tail
So we plugged in little Jim.
And now instead of him watching TV
We all sit around and watch him.

"Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too"
from the book "Where the Sidewalk Ends" (1974)

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too
Went for a ride in a flying shoe.
"Hooray!"
"What fun!"
"It's time we flew!"
Said Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle was captain, and Pickle was crew
And Tickle served coffee and mulligan stew
As higher
And higher
And higher they flew,
Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too,
Over the sun and beyond the blue.
"Hold on!"
"Stay in!"
"I hope we do!"
Cried Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle too
Never returned to the world they knew,
And nobody
Knows what's
Happened to
Dear Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.



and last but not least....

"Spaghetti"

Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,

Up to my elbows—up to my face,

Over the carpet and under the chairs,

Into the hammock and wound round the stairs,

Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,

Making the sofa a mad mushy mess.

The party is ruined, I’m terribly worried,

The guests have all left (unless they’re all buried).

I told them, “Bring presents.” I said, “Throw confetti.”

I guess they heard wrong

‘Cause they all threw spaghetti!

Science- Mrs. Clark has been discussing the parts of a plant and how a seed is like a suitcase (ask your child to explain!) :). They have discussed parts such as the roots, stems, leaves, and how the flowers turn into seeds. A few days ago, they even cut open oranges and apples and graphed how many seeds were found inside.

Assessments- a lot of our beginning of the year assessments are finally coming to an end. Your child had their DIBELS assessment this past Thursday morning. A new component of this test is a retelling section. In the past a student has simply been asked to read as fast as they could and we determined their rate. Last year we added a DAZE, comprehension in sentences component and this year it is a retelling. For this new section, your child had a minute to retell everything they could remember that happened in the passage they read during their one minute DIBELS timing. I am sure I will get a chance to report out scores in a few weeks. I haven't even seen how our class has done yet! :) I am anxiously awaiting.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I am looking forward to watching Iowa State win on Saturday! :) I just had to throw it in, one can wish right?!?!?!?

Mrs. Jodie Yuska

It's been a busy and HOT week

With the hot weather we have taken a lot of water and bathroom breaks and even a few popsicle breaks (thanks Gretchen!). I think the kids all enjoyed computer lab in the air-conditioned library this afternoon! I have pushed a lot of information towards their little brains this week and overall they have responded really well. I can't wait to dive in full speed to 3rd grade materials.

This is some of the things we have been working on this week:

Math- We finished up a review of one digit addition and subtraction facts. Yesterday we moved on discussing place value using the ones, tens and hundreds. These lessons will continue through next week. A letter explaining place value was sent home to all 3rd grade families in brown envelopes this week.

Reading- This week we read ∫The Little Painter of Sabana Grande∫ by Patricia Maloney Markun and illustrated by Robert Casilla. This is a story about a boy who has a desire to paint. After his teacher shows him how to create paint Fernando is determined to make something special. He then discovers he has no paper. He convinces his parents to let him paint the outside walls of their adobe house, since the walls are smooth and white like paper. While he is painting the neighbors admire his beautiful drawings, and request he paint their houses as well. On Thursday when it was 92 degrees in our room, we cooled off by painting our own "adobe brick". Here is the house with the "thatched" roof we created. More pictures can be seen under the "student work" tab.



Writing- We continued to work on free response this week. Two of the poems we used were "Smart" by Shel Silverstein and "Last Night I Dreamed of Chickens" by Jack Perlusky.

∫Smart∫

My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!

And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes -- I guess he don't know
That three is more than two!

Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!

And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!


And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head--
Too proud of me to speak!

- Shel Silverstein


∫LAST NIGHT I DREAMED OF CHICKENS∫

Last night I dreamed of chickens,
there were chickens everywhere.

They were standing on my stomach,
they were nesting in my hair,
they were pecking at my pillow,
they were hopping on my head,
they were ruffling up their feathers
as they raced about my bed.

They were on the chairs and tables,
they were on the chandeliers,
they were roosting in the corners,
they were clucking in my ears.

There were chickens, chickens, chickens
for as far as I could see...
when I woke today, I noticed
there were eggs on top of me.

Jack Prelutsky

Science- Mrs. Clark introduced seeds and the parts of a seed inside and out this week. Next week they will plant and start to watch their Brassica Rapa plants develop.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful extended weekend. Enjoy the cooler weather in the forecast! :)

Mrs. Jodie Yuska