January 16th

Reading
This week in reading I have been pulling students to read to me one-on-one to determine their reading levels. This helps me know where to instruct them during our reading group time.  Because I have been pulling kids the class has been working independently during literacy time, and they are doing a wonderful job working hard and getting all of their work done!

We continued our study of folktales this week. The kids worked comparing traditional folktales to fractured folktales. They loved looking at all of the different adaptations of the stories.

Writing a retell for the fairy tale for the week

Writing
To go along with our folktale reading each student wrote their own fractured folktale. They each chose a folktale to write their own adaptation to. It was so much fun to read how creative they all were with their stories! They also got to create a cover to go with the story. We are going to make them into a class book, so look for that at our February conferences!

Illustrating a cover for the fractured folktales

Math
This was a tricky week in math! The kids learned 2-digit subtraction with borrowing (64-27).  We used the poem, "more on the floor, go next door and get 10 more" to help remember that you can't do 4-7, so you have to go borrow from then 10's place.

This is a hard concept so we practiced using base-10 blocks, then did problems as a class on whiteboards before students tried independently. Because this is such a tricky concept we will continue working on it throughout the rest of the year (along with double digit addition!).

Working hard on 2-digit subtraction!

Social Studies
We wrapped up our landforms/mapping unit this week. The class finished researching different types of landforms, and then they created their own island with at least 4 different landforms on it. They also practiced creating a map key to help make their island.

Our next unit is Weather starting up next week!