Writer's Workshop: How to Books

Our first and second graders have recently finished publishing their How to Books. The How to Book is our first experience with writing procedural writing pieces. The purpose of procedural writing is to explain to your reader how to do or make something. Some examples of procedural writing include recipes, science experiments, manual instructions, and of course How to Books!

During this unit our students focused on writing clear steps, using transition words, and writing fantastic introductions and conclusions to hook their reader! You can hear one of our student's published How to Books below.

Reader's Workshop: Identifying Author's Message

In reading, we have been learning to identify the author's message, or lesson,  in personal narratives and fiction texts. Identifying the author's message is a challenging task, which often relies on our students' drawing inferences. Inferential thinking is a higher order thinking skills which requires our students to read between the lines. When our students determine the author's message, when it is not explicitly stated, they must look for clues in the text, reflect on their personal experiences, and draw conclusions.  We have been making excellent strides in this area.

You can watch a video below to see one of our student's reflecting on the author's message from the text The Invisible Boy and how we can apply this lesson to our own lives. Watch your child's Easyblog to see their reflection coming soon!

Ready for the Holidays!

Math: 3 Dimensional Shapes

In math, the second graders have been learning about two dimensional and three dimensional shapes. We have been exploring, comparing, and contrasting the characteristics of different shapes. Watch the video below to see some of the three dimensional shapes that one of our second graders have built. 

Looking Good!

Writer's Workshop: Personal Narratives

After completing our unit Authors as Mentors, our first and second graders took everything they have learned from Ezra Jack Keats and Angel Johnson and applied it to creating a final published piece. 

You will be able to see your child's published story posted in the hallway early next week. Please stop by and leave a post-it comment. As I'm sure you have already heard, our second graders were thrilled to publish with their MacBooks for the first time! Please watch the video below to see a sneak peak of one of our student's published stories!

Reader’s Workshop: Visual Reflection

Recently during our readers workshop, we read the book, Under the Lemon Moon. In this fictional text, the protagonist Rosalinda is awakened one night to discover a man stealing lemons from her beloved lemon tree. After the theft, the tree begins to die. Rosalinda seeks advice from friends and family as to how she can heal her tree. Rosalinda learns a lesson of forgiveness and generosity, from La Anciana, while healing her tree. 

Sour Grade 1 and 2 students were asked to make text-to-self connections and identify the author’s message during the read aloud. After the read aloud, our students created a visual reflection that portrayed their connections and what they identified as the author’s message.

Please watch the video below to hear one of our student’s reflections for the book Under the Lemon Moon. Your child’s reflection can be seen on Easyblog.