Gobble Gobble!

Have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! 

Enjoy the break and time with family! 

Rest up and we will see everyone back on Monday!

Visitor from afar!

We had a special visitor today visit us at Westwoods! Jack (Chen Xin Yang) is an exchange student of one of our staff members, Mrs. Bank. Jack lives in Hong Kong, and came to speak with the students about his experience in China. We have been learning a lot of new and interesting content surrounding Ancient China so the excitement level about connecting with someone from the Chinese culture was large! 

Jack translated English to Chinese, wrote different characters in the Chinese language, and also told the students what life was like in China. Students were amazed with the differences in our two societies, but also found many similarities to their own lives. 

Very cool way to begin the wrap up of Ancient China!! 

WMS concert

Today we had musical visitors from West Middle School!

They performed a variety of different instruments to create interest when fifth graders are ready to enter sixth grade at WMS. A lot of second graders are already finding the instrument that perks their interest for when their time arrives!

The voices of the choir musicians were also part of the ensemble! 

Students were very engaged!

McNitt Notes

Thankgiving Week
NO SCHOOL Thursday (Nov. 26) & Friday (Nov. 27)
School resumes Monday, Nov. 30

Homework & Spelling
Due to the short week...
* There will not be any homework packets coming home this week. Instead I will be sending reading fluency pages individually for students to do at home each night. Last week the students read Spaceship Adventures, this week they will be receiving an informational passage along with comprehension questions on the back. These will be due back to school on Monday, Nov. 30. This way students can get another full week of fluency practice, while watching their growth from Monday to Friday.
* There will also be a couple different take home activities throughout the week from our Unit 3 skills workbook for students to do.
* No spelling this week! We will start back up with spelling on Monday, Nov. 30.

Scholastic Book Orders
DUE: Monday, Nov. 30
This came home Friday in your child's communicator. Please take a look through the three magazines to see if you would like to purchase books. If you are doing online orders, you may place an order whenever you like before or after the Nov. 30 date.
Class activation code is HFPT3
Thank you!

Daily Blend Smoothies
Tuesday, Nov. 23
Students will have a chance to make their own smoothies in a bike powered blender!This event is provided to Westwoods by the Daily Blend and the Westwoods PTO. Ingredients are: Libby's Pumpkin Pie Mix, Banana, Apple Juice, Cinnamon and Frozen Green Apples. If you are concerned about an allergy, please let a classroom teacher or the office staff know.

La Senorita Gives Back!
Tuesday, Nov. 24

La Senorita Gives Back Fiesta is giving Westwoods Elementary 20% of their sales! If you can attend please bring one of the “tokens” that were sent home last week and show it to your server. Everything on your bill will be counted for the 20% donation. You can also purchase La Senorita gift cards and earn a 20% donation to WW. Eat lunch and/or dinner at La Senorita on November 24, 2015 between 11:00 a.m. and midnight.

WINTER IS HERE!

Now the cold and snow have arrived please make sure your child is coming to school dressed for the weather. They will be outside before school, along with two recesses throughout the day.They may store an extra set of hats and gloves in their locker if needed as well.

Chrysler Drive for Kids Assembly
Tuesday, Nov. 24
Check presentation!

Winter Carnival
FAMILY FUN
If you are out and about and would like to purchase an item for our classroom basket our classroom theme is Family Fun!

What STUCK with you?

We have a new board in our classroom!

Students are often asked after lessons to identify what was the critical information learned. What was the big idea learned that will help build onto further learning?

Each student now has a sticky note pack in their desk for this purpose. After lessons we talk about what STUCK with students. Meaning, what was the critical information students were to gain and learn within each lesson. We don't always post this on sticky notes. Sometimes we verbalize it, share with a neighbor, or write it on our goal pages. When students write down their ideas on sticky notes, it gives me a quick assessment of student learning, and a clear and quick visual of where each student is within each lesson or unit.

We have also used this to model math problems - where might some students get stuck? Students also have explained to me why we do Six Minute Fluency or other programs in our classroom. What sticks with you as to why we do certain routines in our room? What is the most important information you gain as a learner?

Everything we do in our classroom has a purpose, and I want to make sure they are understanding the purpose and learning from it.

The Magic Paintbrush

Continuing our discussion on Ancient China, one of our recent stories was a Chinese Folktale titled The Magic Paintbrush. 

Ma Liang is a poor orphan who dreams of becoming a famous painter, but does not have a paintbrush to paint. In a dream one night, the young artist is given a magical paintbrush. He goes on to amaze onlookers as his artwork becomes real and leaps from the paper.When news of this spreads, the young boy finds himself at the hands of the emperor, whose interest in the paintbrush is driven by greed.The emperor commands the boy to paint him a room full of riches. Ma Liang knows in his heart that it would not be right to paint such a thing. Instead, he paints a tree of gold on a solitary island in the middle of a sea. He paints a boat for the emperor to travel to the island, and he paints wind to fill its sails...and more wind...and more wind. The emperor is blown away, learning the lesson that those who rule and paint with greed in mind don’t deserve.

Each student was given a piece of paper with water colors. They were to imagine that they had the magic paintbrush. Whatever they painted would become real! What would be something you would like to have that could become real?

Students painted some very creative ideas! 

More pets, castles, endless amounts of books, large bowl of chocolate pudding, more stars in the sky, parts for their bike, etc.

The next day, we wrote about our paintings!

Students met with a partner to chat about their paintings and ask questions to expand their ideas about why they painted what they did. Those ideas were used to begin their drafts. 

Why did you paint that picture with your magic paintbrush or what would you have Mai Liang paint you? 

Why? Students followed with complete sentences to give reasons for why they painted their pictures. 

These will be coming home soon. However, first we want to enjoy them in the classroom to share with one another. We will be creating a museum of Mai Liang inspired paintings and writing for students to show, and and for others to walk through and view. 

We get to celebrate our writing and continue our conversation connected to Ancient China!

Spelling Bees!

This past week we began Unit 3! Our reader Bedtime Tales from Unit 2 has concluded and now we are moving into a new reader with Unit 3 titled Kids Excel. This book is written as a magazine, with all stories written as articles. However, all characters in Kids Excel are fictional, so we are are reviewing the genre of Realistic Fiction. 

One of the stories we had more of an introduction conversation about was The Spelling Bee. Before we read The Spelling Bee, we checked everyones prior knowledge about the even of a spelling bee, by creating a KWL chart:

K: What do you already Know about spelling bees

W: What do you Want to know about spelling bees

L: What did you Learn about spelling bees

Students were very curious about what happens at spelling bees and had many questions they were hoping to get answered. The L (what was learned) was only after one part to a two part story. 

Part one: The Spelling Bee

Part two: Then There Were Two

 

Little Change...

Reading Fluency
I have modified the homework just a little. You will see coming home today a new type of reading fluency activity, to replace the one paragraph passage. The new passages give more of a challenge, with added activity and a whole lot more engagement to commit to throughout the week. The other bonus this fluency has is that is similarly related to Six Minute Fluency that we do in the classroom. Which means directions on the necessary process are not included, and instead the students can teach you an aspect of their day that they are now bringing home. They will only need your help to time their fluency for one minute and to also identify words read incorrectly. The students should be able to take care of the rest! 

I ask that they try to do this each night. They have a small chart to fill in each read, to record total words read correctly and incorrectly for Monday through Thursday. Today students jumped to see if there last read could be Friday morning before they come to school...of course!! 

There are also three comprehension questions on the back that students need to answer with complete sentences and return each Friday. 

There are two columns on the graphing chart, to record and track results. The first column above the assigned passage is their first read (Monday). The second column is their last read (Thursday - or Friday). This is a record for the students to keep at home. The graph does not need to be returned to school. Just the fluency passage/comprehension questions.

Spelling

New spelling words including r-controlled sounds are coming home.

/er/

/or/

/ar/

The story Kids Excel, that is mentioned in the spelling note, will be coming home Tuesday night instead of Monday night.

Thank you for all your continued help and support at home!!

Ancient China

We have moved across the continent of Asia from Ancient India into Ancient China.

Together as a class we created our own maps of Asia. This helps students use their map skills and to also use as a resource to locate the different regions we are in, and to also follow where we are moving. We also have a globe in our classroom to see the connection of Asia to other parts of the world!

Our first lesson focused on the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers.

We covered topics such as:

The Yellow River with silt

The Yangtze River and the rice fields

Farming along the rivers and in the rice fields

Chinese inventions

Ancient Chinese city settlements

Ask your child why the Yellow River is yellow?

Why is the Yellow River called the "Mother River" and "China's Great Sorrow?"

What name did the area along the Yangtze River get due to the fertile soil?

 The lesson to follow was on the Ancient Chinese form of paper, writing and calligraphy

Topics we discussed included

Chinese characters

Understanding the writing system used in ancient China and today

Writing on bone, hemp paper, and bamboo writing tools

Learning about inventor Cai Lun (invented a form of paper)

The Chinese printing workshop

Calligraphic Art

Ask your child if it was easy for Chinese to get copies of books? Why or why not?

Next lesson to come...A Chinese folktale The Magic Paintbrush

Book Reports

In the classroom we have been working tirelessly on our writing plans! We continue to work on narrative writing, using our readers to create book reports. Stories we have read are summarized and retold through our books reports in sequential order. Students are recalling characters, setting, plot, and moral (depending on the genre). 

They began by planning and laying an outline for what their paper will include. 

Students use their plan to then create drafts. This is where they use their writing goal pages to ensure they have all elements added into their writing, and to continue strengthening the structure of their writing.

 When their drafts are complete, an editing check-sheet is provided to use as a tool to edit the work they have done. This time, we added in an extra edit with a peer. Peer review! Students were paired up to exchange drafts, where their partner read through their work using the same editing check-sheet to give their help and support. This gave their paper another pair of eyes, with new and different ideas and helpful hints to improve their writing. 

LOVE those papers that have arrows, side notes, sentences crossed out, and carrots added! Shows the hard work of revising!

In addition, we learned that many authors from some of our favorite books edit their writings MANY times before turning it into a final copy! We used these authors as mentors when we thought our writing was done. 

Reading Time & Story Maps

Students are working their way through Unit 2: Bedtime Tales, where they are quickly approaching the end.

One part of unit two skills, is reading time with new stories and comprehension activities as part of many lessons. Students apply different phonics skills learned in lessons leading up to a variety of stories where those concepts would apply. My introduction to the stories reminds students of these learned concepts pointing out different examples, but also letting them read through new texts to practice independently while strengthening their reading ability.  

We are learning many elements within fictional tales. After each story, one practice for comprehension is to complete a story chart (like above). They review setting, characters, plot (beginning, middle and end), and occasionally moral, along with recognizing the different genres for each story. Students try this individually at first, then get with their reading partners, while always ending with a whole group conversation filling in the chart together. This gives me the opportunity to see how students do independently where I can listen to their level of fluency and where they are applying learned reading skills and strategies. It also shows where some students could be struggling, to then further assist. At the same time, I also get a peak at what students are interpreting on their story maps for the setting, characters, plot, and sometimes moral.