Autumn is in full swing. We've been decorating for the season. We spent an hour on Tuesday and Wednesday creating. There were no limits, and when you visit you will see the wide range of designs, mostly for Halloween. Your kids want craft day every day! A couple of boys have been trying to rig a bat on the ceiling near the door that will swing down when the door is open. They tell me that the time spent on this is worthwhile since it is an engineering problem.
Memoir writing is nearing completion and I'll include some in the student work section, so be on the lookout for those. One of the writing assessments this year is a memoir, which your kids will do next week.
We've begun social studies and we are looking at the early settlers to Jamestown and Plymouth. Roanoke is a fascination for kids. Ask them about it. One focus now is reading informational texts. For years, they have heard about text features (captions, charts, maps, photographs, drawings etc.) and how they help the reader. Now I am asking them to consider what they can learn from the text feature and then, what questions come up from that. These questions help focus the reading and provides something to look for as they read. It's so helpful for a reader to have some background knowledge. It makes learning the new material easier. Studying the text features helps give kids some information before even reading, getting them ready to read. Conversations with you can help, too. Upcoming topics include, The Mayflower Compact, The 13 Colonies, and setting up government in these early colonies.
Memoir writing is nearing completion and I'll include some in the student work section, so be on the lookout for those. One of the writing assessments this year is a memoir, which your kids will do next week.
We've begun social studies and we are looking at the early settlers to Jamestown and Plymouth. Roanoke is a fascination for kids. Ask them about it. One focus now is reading informational texts. For years, they have heard about text features (captions, charts, maps, photographs, drawings etc.) and how they help the reader. Now I am asking them to consider what they can learn from the text feature and then, what questions come up from that. These questions help focus the reading and provides something to look for as they read. It's so helpful for a reader to have some background knowledge. It makes learning the new material easier. Studying the text features helps give kids some information before even reading, getting them ready to read. Conversations with you can help, too. Upcoming topics include, The Mayflower Compact, The 13 Colonies, and setting up government in these early colonies.
Here are some photos showing part of our study of the prefix ad (meaning to, toward or add to.) Your kids made these cards with definitions, part of speech and synonyms written on the inside and then shared them in small groups.