This week in my classes...
Reading: We will be focusing on how authors structure non fiction writing. The types include fact and opinion, cause and effect, main idea and supporting details, problem and solution, and sequence. If we as readers can determine how a passage is organized, it can be of great help in locating the information we need. We are using Time For Kids articles in class to get us started. In addition, we are reviewing what we learned last week about non fiction text features. The students should have brought home homework on Monday that is due Thursday. Since it's reading, and they have to read to find the text features, I told them that whenever they work on it, they can count it as their 20 minutes of nightly reading.
Tomorrow, the students will be given a reading log to keep up with the many books they read throughout the year. It is meant to be for awareness for parents, students and teachers alike. We can use this as a tool to see how long our kids take to finish books, what genres they choose the most, and what level of reading they are choosing for themselves. Periodically I will alert them to when I will check them. They should keep the form all year in their BEE binders. I will replace forms that are filled up.
Writing: We continue to do lessons each week on grammar that we then apply to our writing pieces. Last week we started an expository piece covering the recess rule we thought was the most important. We are working on adding supporting details to that this week. In addition, we continue to look at "Wondrous Words," which are sophisticated words we find in our reading. I post them in the classroom and we pull from them to do Wacky Wednesday journal writing. On Thursdays, I will begin having students copy the five we use during the week so that you can discuss them together.
Finally, in Social Studies, we are finishing our culminating activity on our study of Texas regions. The kids are working diligently in groups to teach us about their assigned region. Once we get them recorded, I'll be sure to email them or somehow make them available for parents to see.