Weekly Update

Dear Families,

The warm Spring weather has finally arrived! The students are so excited to go out for recess now and it is great to have our windows open during the day so we can feel the warm breezes inside our classroom. Please keep in mind that our fields are still wet so appropriate, out-side shoes are still desired.

The students have finished their paragraphs in response to literature and are very eager to share them with you at conference times next week. If you did not receive a confirmation of your time slot, please contact me. Our next writing unit will be on Procedural writing as the students prepare for our Science Fair on May 26th between 5pm and 6pm. The students will learn how to write effective procedural pieces in class as we explore this exciting part of Writer’s Workshop together. The students will learn how to be very precise with the language as their writing pieces illustrate the step-by-step procedures for a particular experiment. Designing an experiment and creating a testable question with one variable are also components of this writing unit. More information will follow as web-sites with students resources, examples of projects and possible topics will be added to the wiki and blog. I will also discuss this assignment during our scheduled conferences next week.

The students are learning how to use our classroom Flip camera and we are very excited to share our first videos with you. Please check the blog periodically for more postings as the students learn how to record, crop, post and email these videos. Please view our videos of special shares, poetry readings and projects with our Kindergarten buddies as we assemble our “Be a STAR with Technology” poster. The students are also encouraged to use this incredible technological resource as we explore fluency in our Reader’s Workshop. Through recordings, the students are able to focus upon their prosody as well as look at their facial expressions and body language. We love this camera; it is a mini-stage for us inside the classroom!

Have a great weekend!
Regards,

Maria McCormack