What We've Been Learning ....

In Reader's Workshop we have been learning about character traits, or adjectives that describe the characters in our story. We've really been trying to find evidence, or proof in the story for each trait. We also have learned about SCHEMA and how we all have different schemas. We use our schema everyday to help us understand the world around us. Our schema is what we already know (our background knowledge). Our schema comes from what we eat, smell, taste, feel, hear, see, and experience. Our schema is what we store in our brains & we add to it each time we visit a new place, read a new book, and experience different things.

In Writer's Workshop we have been working on improving our personal narratives. We tried a new strategy this week to help us think of a fantastic small moment story that others would enjoy. We practice thinking of FIRST TIMES that we did things or visited places, or saw someone. Our 'first time' small moment stories were memorable and fun to share with each other.

In Math we have been working on our addition and subtraction with regrouping. We also have been reviewing place value. We are excited to be starting a new unit all about Area.

In Social Studies we just finished up learning about landforms. We will soon start learning about where famous landforms are in our country. It has been exciting receiving postcards for our Postcard Exchange Project & finding where each postcard came from on our map of the U.S.A. We have been singing and practicing the 50 States Song to help us learn the names of the 50 states! Anyone who memorizes it by December 16th will be invited for McDonald's Lunch Bunch with Mrs. Kartsimas!!!!

Our class is working HARD towards our classroom goal of reading/passing 500 A.R. quizzes! As of today, we have passed 487 quizzes! We are SO CLOSE. This week we all worked on creating an individual A.R. goal and a date we want to reach it by. Keep up the great work!!!!

Remember to log-on to IXL at home each night & on the weekends to practice your math skills and unlock those prizes!

Speedy will be going home with Dominic this weekend! :)
Enjoy the snow that's coming on Saturday.....