Banyan Newsletter
October 22, 2009 Issue 4
Partner Reading
We have been closely examining the guidelines to a successful reading partnership. Each day, the students practice these partnership skills and share what is working well for them. Partner Reading Guidelines: Partners...
read. Our first tool is using picture clues to figure out unfamiliar words.
•Sit shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip
Writing Workshop Banyan writers thought about how writers gather their ideas. Writers think about memories, things they like to do and things they observe. Each student recorded one memory, one thing they like to do and one observation. Then, writers picked one idea and added to it. They used a red pen and added two new sentences to what they had already written. Next, they began detailed drawings to match their words.
•Find a spot and stick to it •Don’t interrupt other partnerships •Share the reading •Take turns making decisions (There is no boss in a partnership.) •Make a plan for their reading time
Word Work
We continued to meet in small groups to work on specific reading strategies and skills. We wrapped up our discussions on warming up to read and previewing books. We began talking about our reading tool box and how we build stories as we
The students learned a new word tile game in which you change one letter each time to change one word into another. These fun and challenging games are called word chains. 1
Snails
Snail Investigations Banyan scientists investigated what snails like to eat. Last week, we tried mixing corn starch with water and the snails loved it! We even put some mixture on our hands to feel their mouths moving on our hands. It was so interesting to watch them eat and to figure out how they eat. We watched from under the plexiglass to see the mouth movements. We revisited our “I wonders� list and decided to investigate if moisture helps them come out of their shells. The kids designed an investigation. They placed two snails on a tray that were completely in their shells. Then, they sprayed one snail with 4 squirts of water and left the other snail dry. We discovered that the snail that was squirted with water came out of the shell and moved around more than the snail that was dry.
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Math We finished our unit on counting and combining numbers. These young mathematicians continued their work on story problems and adding numbers together. We finished the unit with an assessment. We began our new unit on 2D Geometry! The children are so excited to explore shapes and designs! Shape Exploration
Students used software on the laptops. They used a program linked to our math unit to free explore with pattern block shapes. This helped to reinforce the names of shapes and the identification of shapes. Pattern Block Counts
Students used a fixed number of blocks to design a shape and record the number of each block they used. They recorded their design with paper pattern blocks.
Pattern Block Fill In
Students used pattern blocks to fill in a specific shape. They recorded which blocks they used and how many of each. The students also recorded the total number of blocks they used. They recorded their design with the paper pattern blocks.
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