Balloons Over Broadway

This is my favorite FALL book! We were able to identify so my nonfiction components! The genre is Literary Nonfiction.  It is told in the format of a story, but its about a true person/events.  The nonfiction text features inside are labels, diagrams, and an author's note.  The text structure is chronological because the events were in sequential order, with temporal words and dates.  If you're looking for a new book to add to your library at home, I highly recommend this one! Tony Sarg didn't just stop when he created the "puppets" of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  He continued questioning and improving his work, which we all enjoy watching to this day.  I know I'll be looking for the newest floats this Thursday!

Salutations and Closings

We have been reviewing capitalization rules the past couple weeks! Students wrote me letters to practice capitalizing salutations, closing, beginning of sentences and proper nouns.  I responded to all of their letters and shared with them on Google Drive.  When we get back from Thanksgiving Break the kiddos will learn how to log in to Google Drive, read a shared document, create their own document, and share it!  While you're out and about this weekend have kiddos find capitals and explain the rule for capitalization... Here's a cheat sheet for you =)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Kid President has got the right idea! I too, am thankful for clouds in the shapes of things and dancing. Here is our school newscast from today :)

How do Magnets Push and Pull?

Number Sense and Measurement

We have been very busy mathematicians lately!  The past few weeks we have been reading and writing 3 digit numbers and locating them on the number line.  If you're looking for something to practice at home, students can count by 10s all the way to 1,000.  This will help them understand the place value of hundreds, tens and ones.  Some of the ways we can represent 3 digit numbers are:

372 = 300 + 70 + 2 = 3 hundreds, 7 tens, 2 ones = three hundred seventy-two

We began our study of customary units of length measurement this week!  We began measuring with nonstandard units (cubes) and transitioned into inches today.  We tried to estimate objects that were about 1 inch and student were able to check their work and explain if the object was more than or less than an inch.  We will continue to study feet and yards and comparing units of measurement.

Nonfiction

We began our study of nonfiction by reviewing 3 different types of nonfiction: Biography, Reference and Literary Nonfiction. Here is a chart describing the different genres:

When reading at home, students should be able to identify the nonfiction books they are reading by these criteria.  They should also be able to explain how they know.

Nonfiction is everywhere!  Books, magazines, newspapers, articles, menus, recipes, cereal boxes, you name it!  One of the major component of nonfiction reading is text features.  They are everywhere!  If students skip over text features when reading they will miss out on a lot of important and interesting information that will help deepen their understanding of nonfiction.  Here is a chart with a lot of examples of special features author's include to make their texts more informative and interesting:

Go on a nonfiction scavenger hunt and try to find as many of these features as possible! 

What Do Objects Move?

What happens to the motion of a ball when you blow on it?
Motion: When an object is moving.  When a dog is moving, it is in motion.