Friday, March 22, 2013

Getting Ready for Third Grade!

We have been working so hard in reading all year!  We have been learning about what good readers do to understand and remember what they read.  Now we are applying all that knowledge and preparing for the STAAR test they will take next year in 3rd grade.  It is HARD work!  We will continue to work on this the rest of the school year.  Check out the strategies we use below.  Discuss these at home and use them when you do the reading homework for the week.
 
 
  We use this in class every week, so everyone should be very familiar with this!
(click the titles to download and print the pages.)
 
 




As we read through the questions, we label the questions so we know what they are really asking us and what we need to do to find the correct answer.  This is kind of new to us, and we are still learning the best way to use these. 
 
 
 
Ask your child about these strategies!
**What the students really need to remember is to take their time and read everything carefully.  They also need to PROVE their answers....find the evidence in the text so they can prove that it is cocrrect!

 
 

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Field Trip!!

We had a BEAUTIFUL day today at George Ranch! The educational program was great and I think everyone enjoyed the day!








Learning a little sign language!




Cooking cornbread over the fire. (It was yummy!)




Touring the pioneer home.



Making fire...the pioneer way!




Working with cotton to make thread.








We saw lots of animals and were able to pet them!








We were able to watch the cowboys at work too!













What a GREAT day!!




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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Research Project

This week we have been working on researching presidents.  The class had to work in groups to find important facts about their assigned president.  Then, they used an app on the ipad called, Type Drawing to add their facts to a picture of their president.  Today, I helped them add their picture to another app, called Fotobabble. This app allows them to narrate their facts. It was so fun! I think they turned out great!

Click the links below to view their research!

 




 







 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
These are the apps we used this week!
 
Type Drawing
$2.99
 
 
Fotobabble
Free!
 
 

Author's Purpose

Today, Ms. Stolle had the class sort different texts based on the author's purpose. They did a great job with this. You can quiz your kids on this at home too!












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Monday, March 4, 2013

What are we learning this week?

In Reading...

This week we are introducing Author's Purpose.

Essential Questions:

*How do readers identify the topic and author's purpose of a text?


*Why is it important to analyze the text and make inferences about the author's purpose?


Ask your child to answer these questions for you!


We will be learning that an author writes to -Persuade, Inform, or Entertain.

We use PIE to help us remember this!
 
 
 
Look for different types of writing at home and have your child sort them by author's purpose!
(Examples: newspaper adds, magazine stories, nonfiction texts, fiction stories, etc.)
 
 
 
In Writing...
We are writing how-to books.  This week we will choose our best how-to book to publish!
This is the prewriting form we are using in class:
 
 
 
These are the expectations for their published how-to story:
 
 
 

Friday, March 1, 2013

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Ms. Stolle shared some Dr. Seuss books with the class today. She also surprised the class with some Dr Seuss hats and posters to take home! Thanks Ms. Stolle!




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