Story Test

Today we reread Danitra Brown Leaves Town and practiced reading the poems in this narrative story for fluency.  The students did a great job of being loud, clear readers, and some of them even volunteered to read aloud from the front of the class.  Fluency will be one of our main focuses of our reading class this year.  Fluent readers are confident readers!

Our story test today included the Robust Vocabulary words that we learned yesterday, as well as a written extended response section.  I am always looking for complete sentences on written responses.

We will have a spelling test over Unit 3 on Friday.  The words this week were a bit difficult.  Please set aside some time to study at home.  We completed Spelling practice pages today in class to prepare for this test.

Spelling Lists

Spelling City Games

Danitra Brown Leaves Home

Tonight's reading story is Danitra Brown Leaves Town on pages 84-99.  This is a narrative poem, so the story is told as a back-and-forth dialogue between two friends.  One friend leaves for the summer, so their dialogue is told through letters from their vacation. This is a good story to oral read at home because of the smooth flow of the poetry.

eBook

We also practiced our story vocabulary words, and we completed a Practice workbook page over the vocabulary words.

Students received their new spelling words for the coming week.   Here's a link to the word list online.  We are on Unit 3. 

Spelling Lists

Spelling City Games

Today was a library day, so students have new books to read at home.  Books are due in two weeks.

Labor Day Weekend!

Today we read about Gertrude Ederle, a biography about a famous teenage woman swimmer of the 1920's.  We also worked hard on our "Magic Books" about Jackie Mitchell.  Here's a rare video movie that Babe Ruth filmed to teach children how to bat, and how hard work pays off.  The class enjoyed watching this old time short movie clip.

Babe Ruth Rare Video - "Just Pals"

Students received their new spelling words for the coming week.   Here's a link to the word list online.  We will be on Unit 3.

Spelling Lists

Spelling City Games

Tuesday is a WHITE day.  My Block 1 class has P.E.  No school on Monday.

Practice Makes Perfect

Today we practiced for our Unit 2 Spelling Test and completed workbook pages 9-10 in Spelling.

We practiced our fluency by reading The New Kid, a poem in our Storytown book.

We also practiced writing complete sentences as we identified character traits while creating a "Magic Book" project to go along with our Mighty Jackie story.

I have been working on AIMS fluency testing with the students (this consists of three passages -- one minute for each).  Please do keep in mind that there is generally a natural decline in words per minute following the summer break, but the goal is for your child's fluency to grow throughout the year.  Results will be sent home once our building has completed the testing.  Feel free to email any questions or concerns regarding fluency -- or any other questions -- throughout the year.

sdanforth@nlsd122.org

Story Test and Character Traits

Today we took our story comprehension and vocabulary test over Jackie Mitchell the Strikeout Queen.  We are working on creating character webs describing the traits that Jackie exhibited in this story.  We will be using these traits to write short descriptive paragraphs about Jackie.


Jackie Mitchell Song

Jackie Mitchell Biography Video


Our Unit 2 spelling test is on Friday.    Here are some spelling links:

Spelling Lists

Spelling City Games

Jackie Mitchell Story

Today we read Jackie Mitchell the Strikeout Queen on pages 58 to 70 in our Storytown book.  Rereading this story is tonight's homework.  The purple sheet is due back tomorrow.  Students enjoyed this biography very much, and we watched a short video of the story, including the clip that shows Babe Ruth being struck out "by a girl."  There's also a song that retells the story.  You can listen to these both by clicking below:

Jackie Mitchell Song

Jackie Mitchell Biography Video

We aslo learned the Robust Vocabulary words from this lesson and completed Practice workbook page 7.  Tomorrow's story comprehension test will include these words.

We also worked on our four sentence types as we filled in cartoon bubbles using different kinds of sentences.  Here's a game about the four types of sentences:

Sentence Games

Our Unit 2 spelling test is on Friday.    Here are some spelling links:

Spelling Lists

Spelling City Games

Sentences & Spelling Words

Today we reviewed the four sentence types and completed a review booklet which your child is bringing home.  Students also wrote a cartoon page using the four types of sentences.  Here are some songs, quizzes, and games that you can use to review the four sentence types at home.

Four Types of Sentences Song

The Sentence Song

 Sentences Instructional Video

Sentence Games


We practiced our Unit 2 spelling words and we completed Spelling workbook pages 7 & 8.  Unit 1 spelling tests were very good and are in your child's take home folder.   Here are some spelling links:

Spelling Lists

Spelling City Games

Block 1 completed reading the book Herbie Jones and we are starting Hank Zipper.

Block 2 is currently reading The World According to Humphrey.