On Tuesday, we began our study of vocabulary words from our class novel. The students learned how to compete in a Dictionary Dig. They enjoyed racing to find the words first and hae a chance to win a sticker.
This week, we have reviewed several aspects of reading fluency. On the first day, we talked about expression. I read aloud a picture book with minimal words but lots of opportunities for expression. The students noted how punctuation, font size, and even illustrations can guide how to read a text. They enjoyed practicing reading with expression by partnering up with an Elephant and Piggy book.
The next day’s lesson was about accuracy when reading – not substituting words, skipping them, or mispronouncing them. They enjoyed listening to a partner to catch any mistakes.
Today we talked about our rate of reading and tried to do some speed reading! Next week, we will introduce what it means to read smoothly.
We also kicked off our first creative writing project. Students read several examples and then drafted poems all about themselves. The kids enjoyed pulling out their laptops today to begin typing their final drafts. Look for the poems on display at Parent Night.
In social studies, we took a pretest about geography to see what students already know about continents, countries, capitals, and more. Then we labeled and colored a world map with the names of the seven continents. We also learned a catchy song to help us memorize them. You may have heard it!
In Morning Meeting this week, we have played games of Agreeable Corners, where they take a stand about various opinions, the middle name game, and more. They shared about favorite foods, things they’re looking forward to, and pets. They also set a goal for their school year which we will revisit on Monday.
We celebrated Thomas turning double-digits this week, and we had a LS assembly in the dining hall to go over some procedures and our mission. Also, this morning, the K-5 students cheered for all of our 8th graders as they paraded through the school.
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