How do you help 19 first graders distinguish between lox and locks? We had a cream cheese, bagels, and lox party! Everyone knew the difference between lox and locks after eating smoked salmon. I was most impressed with the number of children who were willing to try something they had never eaten before and how many really liked the strong flavor.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
New Units of Study
Happy New Year
We are fast at work on many new units of study. In Writers Workshop the children have been introduced to COPS (capitalization, organization, punctuation, and spelling). This week we focused on two parts of punctuation; sentence enders (. ! ? . . . ) and middle of sentence (, - " "). Next week we will venture into the land of organization which primarily focuses on handwriting and spacing, both huge topics when you really break each one down.
In Readers Workshop we are beginning to read and discuss books in a series. This week we have discussed how to determine the main character and then get to know them by determining their strengths and weaknesses as a person. Next week we will begin to look at the secondary characters since they reappear in the series and using what we know about them and get a voice in our heads for these characters.
Our new theme unit of study is entitled World of Difference. Williston Schools has adopted the curriculum from the Anti Defamation League - World of Difference Institute (http://www.adl.org/education/edu_awod/default.asp) and our lessons seek to help participants: recognize bias and the harm it inflicts on individuals and society; explore the value of diversity; improve intergroup relations. Currently we are having a lot of fun with our names! Our 2nd grade mathematicians are focusing on whole-number operations. We are bumping up our strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems by using two 3 digit numbers and beginning regrouping for subtraction. We will begin multiplication, a right of passage for these folks, by introducing array models. Every day is packed full of fun and learning!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
