Friday, January 31, 2014

High Interest Nonfiction Books


This week we will continue our study of nonfiction. We are really enjoying reading our nonfiction texts. Unfortunately, we don’t have a large amount of high interest nonfiction books in our class library. We are asking for any nonfiction book donations to keep our students engaged. We have found that students really enjoy these DK Readers. They are high interest nonfiction books with lively illustrations and engaging age-appropriate stories. We really appreciate any donation! :)

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Hard Work Pays Off

Today, our school got a visit from Adrian Peterson, Georgia Southern alum and former running back for the Chicago Bears. 

He came to share his message with us to strive to meet our goals.  We were able to hear his amazing story with a great message that includes his family and parents, hard work, and how a very difficult speech disability only motivated him to fight harder to reach his goals in life. 

His book, "Don't Dis My Abilities" is inspiring and full of hope. 







Synthesizing

Today we learned about synthesizing-when our thinking changes as we read. We read Animal Dads and students were shown the process of synthesizing with this nonfiction text. We first previewed the book by looking at the title and picture on the cover to predict what the book was about. As we read a few pages, our understanding deepened which caused our thinking to change some. We used examples from the text to support our thinking. Students then read through their nonfiction books to put together their new learning about their topic.



Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Flips, Turns and Slides

Transformations are flips, turns, and slides.  

A flip is when a shape or object is flipped across a line and faces the opposite direction. This makes the object appear to be reflected in a mirror. 



A turn is when a shape or object moved from its original location to a new location like the hands on a clock. The move happens on a fixed point. Neither the shape or the size of the object changes when the movement happens. 


A slide is when an object or image moved to a new location.  Neither the shape or the size of the object changes when the movement happens. Think of a person on a slide - they move locations from the top of the slide to the bottom, but nothing else changes about them. 


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Stopping and Jotting with Nonfiction


This week we are continuing our study of nonfiction. Students are learning about places that are worth stopping and jotting in their nonfiction texts. Check out our students during independent reading time jotting down their note worthy findings! We sure are learning a lot! Great Job Class!