Hard Work

We have just finished our first full week! Ms. Elliott's class has been working very hard! 

This week in reading we focused on identifying the character and setting of a story. We have read The Twin Club, a story from our textbook, and Flat Stanley a book study during RTI Reading. I taught the kids how to act like CRAZY PROFESSORS and dramatically act out a summary of the story. Ask your student to summarize a story using their crazy professor skills. You will see quite a show! 

I am very excited to get my students involved in our book studies this year. Each week we will focus on one short chapter and complete some fun activities to go along with the book. This week, we read Flat Stanley. Your child was able to make their own Flat Stanley. This very "flat" young boy is known for traveling around the world because he is so flexible! We will be sending our classroom Stanley off to Lexington in a few weeks! We identified the character traits of Stanley by creating a Twitter page! Well kind of...

We discussed how Stanley felt, where he was going, and what he might be thinking. Then, we tweeted about it! Here is @FlatStanley twitter page. We had some very clever tweeters! 

A couple student responses: 

"AHH! I am so flat!"

"Yes! I'm out of this tree #freedom"

We have also been working on many skills in math! Odd and even numbers, place value, and addition! One of the many games I am excited about showing my students is one they really enjoyed, Super Speed Math. Students are paired with a partner. They have one minute to answer as many addition facts as they can. They record their stopping spot on their test paper (I sent a copy of these home today, green sheet of paper). I reset the timer and the next partner goes. If a student misses a problem or is having trouble, their partner will "help" because they are looking at the answers on the back! I love this game because it teaches foundational math skills that our kids are going to use FOREVER. It is different than most timed math quizzes because it is not a quiz at all. Our kids are trying to beat their own personal records! There are five levels to Super Speed Math. When students finish the addition facts, they move on to level two, subtraction facts. Please allow your child to practice their math facts at home when you have time! Asking them questions out loud is much more beneficial than writing problems on a piece of paper for them. It is also a lot faster : )

These two girls broke their records on the second try! Way to go! 

Ask your child to show you how to play Super Speed Math. It will be worth it! 

Today in math we reviewed odd and even numbers by playing memory. You can tell that I love group/partner work! 

Everyone is quickly getting into the swing of our normal schedule. Next week we will begin centers and our regular reading and math rotations. I will be creating a post this weekend about our star homework challenge! 

Have a great weekend!