Happy New Year!!

While I had a great Winter Break, I was so excited to get back to work to see the children!!

Over the next three weeks, the students in my reading class will be working on a research project incorporating reading and writing lessons with our social studies unit. This will be done, for the most part, in school.

Students will select a state to research. They will then work in small groups, that will meet with me regularly, to read about the state, extract appropriate information and then write about the state and present the information to their classmates.

This morning the students listened to the book I Wonder Why Zippers Have Teeth and began identifying things they wonder about regarding different states in our country. Then the students were shown the graphic organizer they will have to complete as they read about their selected state. We began discussing the graphic organizer by defining the idea of geographic characteristics.

In math we explored division by taking the whole and making "groups of". For example, take 24 divided by 6, the students needed to count out 24 beans and make groups of 6 until they ran out of beans. Then they counted the number of groups they could make to find the answer. There is a worksheet for homework.

Following PE, lunch and indoor recess we continued reviewing the graphic organizer for the state research project by defining the ideas of climate and natural resources. Then the students chose the state which they will research.

After that, I began teaching the usage of apostrophes. I identified the two situations in which they are used (contractions and possession) and then gave examples of each. This concept will be explored further, in class and in the spelling packet, over the next two weeks.

With that said, the new spelling packet was handed out today. It is due next Friday, January 13. There will not be a reading log assignment this week.

At the end of the day we went to a presentation regarding our school science fair. The students will be bringing home packets today that explain the process, expectations and rules. Please look for it!

We also selected our star student for the trait of responsibility.