Reading and Spelling Homework Week 5

Just a quick note.

Reading: All children should have class reading books by this Wednesday. Some will be on their second book. They will keep the books for about a week. Over this time they can read it in different ways. Read the pictures, read the words, retell the main points of the story. Keep reading sessions short and fun - 10 minutes. Take turns reading a page or line each if it gets too hard. If things really start to fall apart - tired children, tired parents etc, just have fun and share a story book.

For the group who were reading Marcus and the Wind (Junior Journal story), our focus was on identifying the main characters, setting, the problem faced by Marcus, and how the wind helped to solve his problem.

Spelling: Our word of the week is fan, something I've been using a lot lately. Keep up the great work encouraging your child to practise rhyming words. The practise is really starting to pay off. Many of the children have made great improvements in the number of words they can write. I'm also seeing the benefits in our writing sessions.

Science and Inquiry Learning - Worms

On Thursday we learnt stuff about worms.

 We shone light on the worms and saw if they liked it or not. 

The small worms ran away but one big one didn't. 

We think some worms don't like light and some do.

Story by: Zara, Trilby, Griffyn, Samuel, Benji, Ella, Christian, Reuben and Mrs Arnold 

Reading and Spelling Homework_Week 4 Term 1

Reading
Our reading programme is ramping up this week - maybe not quite full speed ahead, but second gear at least. This means most children should bring home a reading book this week. I only send home books once we have finished reading them in class.

When your child brings a book home, encourage them to read it in different ways e.g. read the pictures, read the words (focusing on smooth reading with some expression) and retell the story. Of course, you don't need to do this all at once. Keep your sessions short (10 minutes max) and revisit the story over the week.

If your child doesn't have a reading book from class, have them choose a 'Good Fit' book. These books can come from home, the public library, or the school library. Note, we will be going to the library again on Wednesday.

Spelling

It was exciting to see several children increase the number of words they could write in 10 minutes last week. I'm looking forward to seeing their scores again this week. Having a library of rhyming words helps children develop their writing fluency. And the faster they get their ideas down on paper, the less chance of those wonderful ideas being lost.

This week our word is rat - lots of possibilities for rhyming there. As well as the obvious three letter words, encourage your child to think of four and five letter words.

Remarkable Writing

Last week we used this lovely image to inspire our writing. Our aim was to use WOW words to describe what we saw. WOW words are literally words that make you go Wow! These can be great describing words (a deep, dark forest), great action words (shrieked, sprinted) or great nouns eg. forest, wood. We ended up with some great stories. Check out this sample of our Remarkable Writing. 




A girl lived in the woods, She was beautiful her dress was outstanding. She met a cute, cuddly, fluffy, small bear. Then the trees came alive! They were surrounding her and the bear. The girl said "this is scary." But then the bear scared them away. By Gus

A long, long time ago there was a king and a princess. Then the king was dead and the princess ran into the deep, damp forest. The princess met a bear. The bear helped the princess. By Leo

Once upon a time in the deep, dark woods there was a cute snuggly bear and a beautiful girl. I was walking through the woods. I didn't know I was snuggling a bear. I shrieked and I ran away. By Luciana

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess and she lived in a castle. She ran away, She ran into the scary forest. She met a fluffy bear. She fell into a puddle of sticky mud. The bear helped here up. The bear shook the girl's hand and they lived happily ever after. By Bella

Friday Fun

We were scheduled to have Circle Time to discuss our Class Treaty this afternoon, but we took a small detour into some co-operative learning and social development. While I was finishing with a reading group and marking our handwriting, this wonderful structure began to develop on the mat. More and more children joined in, using our maths blocks in new and wonderful ways. The imagination, conversations and teamwork were amazing. At the end everything was sorted and packed away into the correct containers.

Well done, Rua! You are living the words of our treaty...we are Responsible, Respectful and Safe

Mathletics

By now you will have seen the newsletter about mathletics which the children took home yesterday. You may have also noticed your child has a mathletics username and password in the front of their homework notebook. We've been learning how to log on to mathletics at school. You and your child can also log in at home. We will be using mathletics for some independent activities in class and as extra practice at home. Eventually I will be able to set tasks for the children to do based on our learning. At the moment just explore and watch this space...

Reading Homework - week 3, term 1

Over the last two weeks we've focused on our independent reading. We've been using The Daily Five to increase our reading stamina.

This system teaches the children how to choose books that are suitable for them, how to find a good place to read, and how to get started straight away.

This week encourage your child to choose a book at home using the IPICK Good-Fit books method shown below. Over the week they can 'read the pictures', 'read the words' and 'retell the story' with you.


IPICK Good Fit Books

I select a book and look it over, inside and out
Purpose - I choose a book that is suitable for the purpose (in this case something I want to share)
Interest - I chose a book that interests me
Comprehend - Do I understand what I am reading?
Know - Do I know most of the words?

If I can say yes to these questions, this is a Good-Fit book for me.

Our Class Treaty

We've been developing our class treaty over the last few weeks. First we watched a funny video of Class Rules from the Minions and read 'The Tree House Treaty. Then we thought of some rules we would like in our class. The children had lots of wonderful ideas. Many talked about being 'bucket fillers'. This is something they learnt about in Rawhiti last year, so we talked about ways to fill buckets. We grouped our rules under the headings 'Responsible', 'Respectful' and 'Safe'. Finally we 'signed' our treaty with some paper doll artwork. We will continue to revise and develop our treaty over the year.

Our Amazing Crystal Flowers - Science

On the first day of school we did some amazing science. First we put borax into hot water. 

Next we stirred the borax until it dissolved.

Then we put fake flowers in the borax and water. 

At the end of the day we took the flowers out of the containers. They looked amazing. They were more beautiful than jewelry. 

Safety Note for Parents and Caregivers

We used this experience to talk about the importance of exploring with our eyes only. Borax crystals look a lot like sugar (or salt) and are tempting to taste. It's important the children understand they shouldn't do this. We also talked about washing the borax solution off our hands. It's an alkaline solution which can irritate with prolonged skin contact.

Spelling Homework

Hi Parents and Caregivers

Your child should have brought home his or her book-bag and homework notebook tonight. We are starting spelling homework this week and will start reading homework next week.

Spelling Term 1: This term we are focusing on building our writing vocabulary so we can get our ideas down fast. Each week we will have a new Word of the Week. Your child's challenge is to find, or think of, words that rhyme with this word and list them in their book. During the week they can practise writing these words in a list and in sentences. We will check our progress on Friday by seeing how many words we can write in 10 minutes.

Bookbags: If your child has a book-bag at home could you please send it to school with their homework. This wasn't on the stationery list, but many will have them from last year. If they don't have a bag they can use a plastic bag.

Leeanne

Welcome

Welcome to Rua's Class Blog. We are are a Year 2/3 class at Pukerua Bay School and this blog is intended to update parents, friends and whanau on all the wonderful happenings in our classroom. Come and join us on our learning journey, both in the classroom and as we launch into cyberspace as fledgling bloggers.