We only lost one friend from the homework club this week, so we currently have 20/24 students in the Sept. Homework Club. One more week until our September celebration. I hope all 20 kiddos will stay in the club. Our spelling scores improved slightly! We had a class average of 13.5 out of 15 (last week our average was an even 13). We are moving in the right direction!
Last week we finished taking our beginning of the year assessments which help guide my instruction for the year. We also worked on a problem solving strategy called "Make an Organized List" (which you saw in the homework packet). We have so much fun using our new Promethean Board to act out these problems. We spent a lot of time on place value and the superstars became experts in expanded notation. (3,000+200+10+5=3,215) We enjoyed reading a fable in our Reading Street text called What About Me? We also had a blast trying to use all of our amazing vocabulary words whenever we got a chance.
We are absolutely LOVING James and the Giant Peach!!! They often BEG for just one more chapter when I close the book for the day. Things just really began to get exciting now that James and his new friends are about to start their adventures. Each day I ask a student to go home and illustrate the chapter we just read and bring it in to share. I love seeing their imaginations come to life on the page!!! Visualizing what we read and hear is a very important comprehension strategy. We are working on a plan for all of these beautiful pieces of art.
The Superstars are authors! We continued work on our Best Part of Me project. Each student planned and posed of their picture to accompany their writing piece. I CAN NOT WAIT for everyone to see these! They are turning out so beautifully!!
Last week, we focused on responsibility. We read The Little Red Hen Makes Pizza to see how being responsible can benefit the whole group.