Weeks Ending March 24

 As always, we've been busy in Room 204.

Reading-Students read an informational text Life on the Ice. They identified the main idea and practiced differentiating the main idea from the details. This always prove rather challenging for eight year olds.
Common Core State Standards
How you can help at home: Young students often confuse the details with the main idea. They have a difficult time separating the two. Young  students can usually locate small details. The trick is to see how these small details relate to one another in support of a main idea. What do they have in common? What are these small details mostly about. This video found on YouTube provided helpful visuals to illustrate the differences between main idea and details.Watch the video with your child to reinforce the learning.

Writing- Students continue to work on detailed story maps to assist them in drafting narratives for Young Authors day. Students are focusing the efforts on describing a main character who faces a challenge or a problem that is resolved after three overcoming at least three obstacles. Students will begin drafting their stories this week using their story maps as a guide. As an aside, weekly spelling tests are postponed for the time being as we concentrate our efforts on our YAD stories.
How you can help at home: Ask your child to retell his or her story to you. Ask questions about the problem and solution. Pay special attention to the sequence of events. Children often do a better job writing a narrative if they first tell the story out loud to themselves or to a good listener. By telling their stories multiple times to willing listeners, your young writers will find it easier to commit their ideas to paper.

Working collaboratively on a class book. Students used this project to practice using story maps to
plot their own stories.

Math- We practiced solving comparison story problems using comparison bar graphs. We model the comparison bar graphs after math mountains enabling students to identify whether a total (sum) or partner (addend) is missing. The math mountains help students understand the relationship between numbers in an equation. They practiced writing different equations using the same number family. They used this knowledge to help them identify an equation that matches the situation in a story problem. With the understanding that the same set of three numbers can be written into multiple equations, students become more flexible in their mathematical thinking. If the equation that matches the situation proves too challenging to solve, students can use one of the alternative equations for  the same set of numbers.

Common Core State Standards
 How you can help at home: Give your child an equation adding or subtracting triple digit numbers. Allow your child to teach you about math mountains. Student love being the experts, and by teaching you about math mountains they are reinforcing the idea for themselves. Race against your child. See who can come up with 8 different occasions for a math mountain. 

MISC: A few weeks ago, we welcomed Miss E. to our classroom. Miss E. is #4's big sister. She attends a local high school and is spending a few hours a week in our classroom as part of her own  plans to pursue a career in education. She has been a wonderful helper in our room. This week, she is assisting with writing conferences. She is meeting with students one-on-one as she helps them brainstorm ideas for their YAD stories. Last week, she created a template for our official "Cursive Writing Permits and Licenses." As students finish their lowercase bookets, and pass a cursive writing exam, they are given a permit to write in cursive. They will be fully licensed cursive writers when they finish their capital letter booklets. Ask your child if (s)he has received his or her license.

Miss E. delivers the weekly spelling test.

Twin Days

Students, for one DOJO point, leave a comment summarizing the main idea of Young Authors Day story. For example, "My story is about a fat cat named Oliver overcome his own insecurities in order to get along with his obnoxious neighbor."