Dental Hygiene Presentation

Today three presenters from the UCONN Oral Health Association came to talk to us about dental hygiene. We learned what kinds of things help our teeth and what kinds of things can hurt our teeth. We also learned how to brush and floss.

Animal Research

As we've studied informational text this week students have become animal researchers. We learned about the different animal groups and now students are hunting through books to find information about one group's characteristics, food, habitat, and other facts. The main focus for this project is learning to use informational text-features to learn new information, and practicing research skills. We will continue to deepen our understanding of both of these skills in the next step where we research and write about one kind of animal. 

Science Fair

Tonight was the Science Fair and Invention Convention at Southeast! It was wonderful to see so many students who worked hard on creative and thoughtful projects. Congratulations to Brynn, Joseph, Oliver, and Maria who had projects in the fair from our class. They were fantastic!! Thank you to families who came to support the science fair and who helped students come up with these excellent projects. 

Book Buddies

This week our third grade book buddies worked with us on writing responses to our reading. After reading a book together, buddies considered a variety of questions about the story and reflected by thinking about heir favorite parts and if they would recommend the story to others. This mini book review helped support our work in writers workshop as we learn about opinion writing and reviews.

Opinion Writing

Did you know that first graders have LOTS of opinions to share? Over the last three weeks we have been working on opinion writing! We began by creating short lists of our favorite things, choosing the best item on the list, and writing about why we believe it is the best. We learned that opinion writers state their opinion, provide lots of reasons, include details, and write an ending by restating their opinion. This week, we've begun the more complex work of writing reviews. Students are thinking about movies, restaurants, and toys that they know a lot about. Then, they're reviewing them. We're learning that review writers want to persuade their audience and usually try techniques like writing catchy introductions, including important information about their topic, and comparing their topic to others. 

Non-fiction Text Features

This week we have been studying non-fiction text features as we get ready for our next unit on animals. In the coming weeks we will dive in to non-fiction texts as we study a variety of animals. As their culminating project, students will research and write about an animal of their choice. This week we practiced using glossaries, diagrams, and charts to learn new information while reading non-fiction texts.