Sunday, January 26, 2014
Unit 4, Week 1 - Dear Mr. Blueberry / What is Science?
This week our Focus Stories will help us to answer the question: What kinds of things do scientists study? Our first story this week will be Dear Mr. Blueberry, by Simon James. This book falls under the genre of Fantasy. Over a school vacation, the main character, Emily, decides she simply must write to her teacher when she discovers a blue whale living in her pond. Her teacher, Mr. Blueberry, answers that she must be mistaken, because whales live in the ocean, not in ponds. Throughout the summer, Emily and Mr. Blueberry exchange letters, until Emily has a happy surprise to share with her teacher. In the process, Emily learns a lot about whales, and Mr. Blueberry leans even more about imagination, faith, and love.
Our Target Skills this week will include: blending phonemes, identifying medial sounds, pausing for punctuation, classifying and categorizing, identifying key details in a story, identifying the main idea of a story, and summarizing. We will also be focusing on the letter Ii, and its corresponding phoneme, /i/--both the long and short vowel sounds.
Letter: Ii
High-Frequency Words: is, of, many, how, so , where (Please continue to practice ALL of our high-frequency words at home!)
Oral Vocabulary (Dear Mr. Blueberry): information, perhaps, pleased, pond, spurt, travel
Selection Vocabulary (What is Science?): fossils, geodes, geysers, glaciers
Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover images and summary information!
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Sumner County Schools Closed on Wednesday, January 8, 2014!
Sumner County Schools will be closed Wednesday, January 8, 2014 due to icy road conditions remaining throughout the county.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Sumner County Schools Closed on Tuesday, January 7, 2014!
Sumner County Schools will be closed Tuesday, January 7, 2014 due to severe cold weather and icy road conditions remaining throughout the county.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Sumner County Schools Closed on Monday, January 6, 2014!
Sumner County Schools will be closed Monday, January 6, 2014 due to severe cold weather and the potential for icy precipitation in the forecast.
Unit 3, Week 5 - How Many Stars in the Sky? / What a Beautiful Sky!
This week our Focus Stories will help us to answer the question: What can we see in the sky? Our first story this week falls into the genre of realistic fiction. It is entitled, How Many Stars in the Sky?, and is written by Lenny Hort and illustrated by James E. Ransome. In this story, a little boy has trouble sleeping one night when his mother is away. He tries to relax by counting stars, but the more of them he sees, the more determined he is to count every single one. The boy soon discovers that his father cannot sleep, either. Together, the two of them set off on an unforgettable all-night journey of discovery.
Our second story is an informational text. It is What a Beautiful Sky! by Yanitzia Canetti. This book addresses the various things that we can see in the sky through photographs, from the many types of clouds, to birds, planes, rainbows, and fireworks. Our Target Skills this week will be blending phonemes, identifying medial sounds, word building, sequence of events, analyzing/evaluating, and pausing for punctuation. We will be reviewing our High-Frequency Words from this unit (come, me, with, my, you, what, are, now)--there will be no new words this week. We will also be reviewing our Focus Letters from this unit (a, b, n, and f). When we focus on the letter Aa this week, we will be working with its long vowel sound.
Letter: Review a, b, n, and f
High-Frequency Words: Review--come, me, with, my, you, what, are, now
Oral Vocabulary (How Many Stars in the Sky?): dazzling, distance, gazing, leaned, planet, and tunnel
Selection Vocabulary (What a Beautiful Sky!): beautiful, fireball, misty, thinner
Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover image and summary of How Many Stars in the Sky?.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Unit 3, Week 4 - Home for a Tiger, Home for a Bear / Turtle Splash!
Our Focus Stories this week will help us to answer the question: Where do different animals make their homes? Both stories fall under the genre of Informational Text. Our first text this week will be Home for a Tiger, Home for a Bear by Brenda Williams and Rosamund Fowler. Through this story, we will learn about the habitats of these and many other animals as we travel around the world meeting all sorts of creatures in their natural environments.
Our second story this week will be Turtle Splash!, by Cathryn Falwell. In this story, 10 turtles are sitting on a tree and whenever they are startled by another animal in the forest, one falls off into the water below! It is a great story to practice counting down. It also provokes discussion about nature and provides fun facts about the animals that the reader encounters throughout the story. Our Target Skills for this week are blending phonemes, identifying medial sounds, reading with expression, classifying and categorizing, identifying number words, determining cause and effect, identifying author's purpose, making inferences/predictions, and verbs in the past tense. We will also be working to identify the letter Bb and its corresponding phoneme, /b/.
Letter: Bb
High-Frequency Words: are, now (Please continue to practice all of our high frequency words!)
Oral Vocabulary (Home for a Tiger, Home for a Bear): burrow, desert, lodge, patient, shade, soaring
Select Vocabulary (Turtle Splash!): idle, lounging, scampers, timid
Thanks to www.amazon.com for the cover images and summaries!
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Unit 3, Lesson 3 - A Zebra's Word / What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Our Focus Stories this
week will help us to answer the question: How do animals use their different
body parts? Our first story is entitled A Zebra’s World, written by
Caroline Arnold and falls under the genre of Informational Text. With this text we will follow the development
of a baby zebra to its maturity.
Our second story this week is What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. It is
also an Informational Text. In this story, we will
explore the many amazing things animals can do with their ears, eyes, mouths,
noses, feet, and tails.
Our Target Skills this week are blending
phonemes, final sound recognition, reading rate, using context clues,
identifying author’s purpose, utilizing text and graphic features, and
recognizing capitalization and punctuation.
We will also be working to identify the letter Ff and its corresponding
phoneme, /f/.
Letter: Ff
High-Frequency Words: you, what (Please
continue to practice all of our High-Frequency Words at home!)
Oral Vocabulary (A Zebra’s World): daily, herd, muscles, pattern, several, and
usually
Select Vocabulary (What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?):
belongs, capture, nasty, and sensitive
Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover images and text summaries!
Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover images and text summaries!
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