Thank you volunteers for your help on the zoo trip. We couldn’t have done it without you. The weather couldn’t have been better, the animals were active, and we had a great time. I’m working on posting pictures and will let you know when they are up, so that you can check them out.
For Monday:
Halloween costumes should be brought to school in a bag. That will help ensure that all parts of the costume make it safely to and from school, and ready for your evening events. We will change into the costumes after specialist, followed quickly by the parade. Our treats and any other activities will be after the parade.
Also, if you go to Winslow for trick – or – treat, look for Blakely teachers helping at Mora from 5:30 – 6:15.
Reading:
We have been practicing the “ee” sound, and will be practicing the “ing” word pattern next week.
Our focus reading strategy has been predicting and inferring. We have been continuing to read through different genres. This week we have been reading “Toys Go Out”, as well as continuing “Stuart’s Cape” (which we began on our field trip). Both books have given us lots of opportunity to practice predicting and inferring, as we think about the reasons behind a character’s words and actions, and what might happen as a result of the characters’ choices. We have found that humorous books are also a great way to stretch our skills of inferring.
Writing:
This week we wrote animal research books using our good fit books and our online research tool “Pebble Go”, accessible through the library website. We also started our animal posters inspired by our trip to the zoo. We practiced writing “facts” and learned about how they are different from “opinions”. Next week we will be choosing a “seed story” from our journals, added some story detail, and practiced the writing process by doing a little bit of editing before creating a final draft.
Math:
In math this week we have been sorting and graphing, using our knowledge of animals to help us. We have also been practicing doubles facts, and will be using that knowledge next week to help us quickly solve related facts. If we know that 2+2=4, we can figure out that 2+3 must be one more than 4. We call these doubles neighbors.
Science:
Our brassica is growing, and we have planted rye grass and alfalfa, as well as the tops and bottoms of root vegetables, so we can see how other plants grow.
