Moss Teaches

Viewing: narrative writing

May 28

May 28, 2019

Finishing May in 209

The school year may be wrapping up, but that doesn’t mean that we’re slowing down in room 209!  Here are some updates on what we’ve been working on:

Reading

This is the time of year when I administer the spring round of DRAs to students in order to get an updated reading level for students.  I’ll be sure to share your child’s spring reading level so that you can help to match your child with just-right books during the summer.  Remember, your child doesn’t have one single level and, instead, has a range of just-right levels.  There are many factors that an impact the suitability of texts, including familiarity with the topic, character voice, the sequencing of events in a text, etc.  Also, several weeks ago, students started bringing home black and yellow book bags (pictured to the right) with just-right texts from school.  While they’re still encouraged to enjoy their own books from home, using this book bag helps to ensure that they are coming home with a book that’s appropriate for their own level when reading at home.  I’ve enjoyed getting to discuss with students the books they’re reading and enjoying at home!

Writing

This year, we flip-flopped our expository writing unit and narrative writing unit in order to take advantage of some teachable moments earlier in the year.  So this spring, we’ve been working on narrative writing.  Our guiding idea has been the thought that “Writers write about what they know.”  Our lessons have been based on this idea, including activities that brainstorm experiences based on feelings, descriptions, etc.  Some time ago, students wrote a narrative story without any pre-teaching.  We called this the “cold write” story.  This allowed me to see what skills I needed to focus on, and it is allowing us to focus more on how to improve a story through revising and editing.

Math

We’re just finishing up our unit on geometry.  The homework from late last week served as a review for the unit assessment, and I’ve enjoyed working on this unit in class.  We’ll soon start our final unit, which focuses on measurement and data.

Social Studies

A million thanks to you for your donation of a dry erase globe to celebrate teacher appreciation week!  As you may have seen on Twitter last week, we have been working on latitude and longitude, and the globe was a great tool for illustrating this abstract concept!  We also took a few minutes to make you a special thank you video, as you may have seen online.

Science

We’ve been learning about plants and animals in class.  The bulk of our study has focused on how animals use their senses to survive.  Students learned about sensory processing by experimenting on how they perceive sensory input, and they extended their learning by working with mealworks.  We learned about how otters stay warm in icy cold waters, and students worked to build their own insulated containers (based on how otters use a later of air to stay warm).  In the coming days, we’ll shift to learning about how plants also have specific parts that are needed in order to survive.

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Feb 9

February 9, 2018

Character Change, Fractions, Movie Day, and more!

Hello, families!  Happy Friday!  It’s been quite busy week in room 209, in spite of Wednesday’s snow day and Thursday’s delayed opening.  Here are some updates:

  • Students are working to complete a draft of their stories.  This week, Mrs. Poi, Mrs. Lyons, Mrs. Consalvo, and I have been conferencing with students about their planned “skeleton” for their stories.  We’re making great progress with this, and I’m excited to see the variety of stories kids are developing.  This week, we began working on adding details (launched by their Tour Your Home homework project this week), and next week, we’ll continue this work.
  • We are finishing up our work with examining how characters change within stories.  We’ve enjoyed three non-traditional texts for this mini-unit: the book/song Puff the Magic Dragon, a Macy’s commercial from last winter, and an animated short called Lily and the Snowman.  Students began by organizing their information in a graphic organizer, and then they’re using their notes to craft a short answer response outlining how the character evolved during the story.  We’re also in the midst of enjoying the novel Number the Stars, following our outstanding residency, brought to us by the Hartford Stage, and made possible by the PGS PTO! (THANK YOU!!!)
  • Students are finishing up their assessments following the long division unit.  We’ve now started our fractions unit.  We had a fun launch to the unit by exploring fractions by way of enjoying Hershey’s bars.  This week, we worked on identifying and interpreting fractions.  Next week, our focus will be on finding equivalent fractions.  I’ll try to put together some videos to help them with the different skills.
  • We’re finishing our science unit on waves.  This was a FUN unit!  Ask your child about how the eye perceives light waves (color, black and white, in the light and in the dark), how lasers work, how amplitude and frequency affect sound, and more!
  • We’re wrapping up our study of the southeast region next week.  We started this many weeks ago, and your children have been working on learning states and capitals as part of their spelling words.  In the coming week, we’ll learn more about the southeast region, and will move into the midwest region.  On Monday, they’ll receive a study guide for states and capitals and map locations, in preparation for the assessment on Friday.
  • Did you hear?!  The kids have been working very hard on following directions, treating everyone with respect and kindness, and showing whole-body listening.  After earning 25 points a few weeks ago (and enjoying some celebratory popsicles), they’ve now earned another 50 points and have chosen to have a movie day.  Barring any unforeseen snowdays, delays, or other schedule changes, we’ll have this on TUESDAY. I told the kids that it’s connecting to something we’re learning about in class but that it was a surprise.  (I think many concluded that it was going to be an uninspiring science video.  I promised them that it’s a very famous, popular movie (G-rated, of course, families), and that I was confident that they’d enjoy it.  Be sure to ask your child about it on Tuesday evening!  (And ask them how it’s connecting to what we’re studying!)
  • Love is in the air!  Valentine’s Day is on Wednesday.  We have a fun celebration planned, thanks to the hard work of our room parents.  We’ll also be doing a special cooking activity throughout the day (rescheduled from our ill-fated holiday party that we had to cancel).  Students are welcome to bring in valentine cards for their friends, but I ask that if they choose to do so, they bring in one for everyone.  They’re encouraged to bring in a bag or box from home to keep their cards.  For privacy reasons, I won’t post a list of names here.  But I did just post one on Google Classroom, so if you need it for valentines, feel free to have your child login there.
  • I will be out on Thursday for a district curriculum meeting, and I may be out on Friday for jury duty (if I end up having to report).

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