Folktales

In reading this month we have been studying folktales. We began by reading different stories about Johnny Appleseed. We studied him by identifying his character traits and his actions during his lifetime. We have begun to explore other common folktales. Today we read one version of Jack and the Beanstalk. In the story they describe Jack as kind, hard working, and brave. We used evidence from the story to support each of these character traits. Tomorrow we will read a different version of Jack and the Beanstalk (called Kate and the Beanstalk) and use a Venn Diagram to compare the two stories. 

Fall Star Students

We've had lots of star students this fall! Each month teachers at Southeast choose 2 or 3 students who have been showing respect, responsibility, or safety. These students get to celebrate by having a special lunch with Mrs. Rodriguez. Congratulations to the following students: 

September: Brynn, Sakan

October: Max, Anna, Abigale 

November: Megan, Cordelia, Evan

Way to go! 

Perfect Attendance

The first trimester is over and today we celebrated students who had perfect attendance! In our class Jeffrey, Prakriti, Ben, Evan, Anna, and Dahlia received a perfect attendance ribbon. Great job! 

Turkey Trot: Southeast's Thanksgiving Community Walk

We had a great time today at Southeast's Turkey Trot! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy the days off with family. I will be writing some overdue posts about what we've been up to in the past couple weeks over the weekend. :) 

Make the Sum

Today we played a new game in math called Make the Sum. The game is great for practicing basic addition facts. Students use a deck of cards with numbers 0-10, and choose a target number between 5 and 10. Partners then take turns drawing cards from the deck and laying them next to the draw pile. As students draw cards and lay them out their job is to find pairs that add up to their target number. If they find a pair that works they take both the cards and keep them. The game is over when the whole deck is gone or there are no more matches that can be made. Whoever collected the most cards wins! This would be an easy game to play at home to practice basic facts using a regular deck of cards. You would simply have to assign cards as 0 and 1 and remove the other face cards. 

Scarecrow Fest

We had a great time today building our scarecrows! Thank you to all of the volunteers who really made it great, and to all who were able to send old items in. We use this event to talk about teamwork and it really wouldn't have worked without each volunteer, each student's ideas, and each item that was sent in.

Small Moments Writing

Our writer's workshop is in full swing! We have entered the second week of our Small Moments unit. In this unit students practice narrative writing by telling true stories about their lives. Some key parts of this unit have been understanding the writing process, telling events in order, and zooming in on one small moment to tell a great story. This week we are focusing on bringing our stories to life. Today we learned that writers bring their stories to life by "unfreezing" their characters and making them talk and move. We worked together to revise one of my own stories and add some actions and dialogue. You would be amazed at the amount of writing these young authors are doing each day. They are full of stories to tell! The class has worked together to build some charts that help us remember what we've learned about writing. Take a look at some of the things we've worked on below! 

Sharing in Class Meeting

One part of each day's class meeting is sharing. This is a time for students to practice speaking and listening skills with each other. Today we shared about our weekends with partners. We used some of the skills that we've been working on when we partner shared: we said at least two sentences about our topic, we listened carefully, and we asked respectful questions to each other. After partner sharing a few volunteers shared out what they did this weekend. Then we played a game called Who Remembers which tests our listening skills. As students share I make notes and then I quiz the class on what was shared. We have some great listeners in our classroom!