The Week in Review

Spring Snow Flakes

Teachers find it necessary, at times, to review recess and playground expectations with their students. The fact that it was snowing at the time I decided to review playground expectations with the boys and girls in our classroom was, I assure you, completely coincidental :-)

READING: We practiced writing opinions in response to a prompt about a story by using examples from the text to support our thinking. To better accomplish that we used a new graphic organizer designed to help us order our thoughts. We used this new graphic organizer to help us answer opinion-related questions about our newest read aloud The Magical Ms Plum written by this year's Young Authors Day author, Bonnie Becker.

WRITING: Students began the writing process for their Young Authors Day stories with a letter to me pitching their ideas. Next, students used another graphic organizer to help them map out their stories paying special attention to the plot, problem and solution. I had a chance to meet with about a third of the students in one-on-one writing conferences to discuss their story maps. I was very impressed with the story ideas so far and the rough drafts that are already being written. Two students have chosen to write non-fiction books about a topic they are researching in class.

MATH: We finished unit nine in math focusing on multiplication and division in story problem situations. Specifically, we used multiplication and division in comparison problems, geometry problems (finding area), and multi-step problems. Students took their unit exam this week. Be sure to ask your child how (s)he did.

TALENT SHOW: Eastgate Eagles shared their unique talents with their peers at this year's Talent Show Assembly. Our very own #24 along with her younger sister delighted the audience with their Coloumbian-inspired dance routine. Other talents included bike tricks, piano playing, electric guitar rock-and-rolling, and comedy routines.