Hello Parents:
Time for another update from ELL class. The weeks go by so quickly. I can't believe it's been over two weeks since my last update! The weather has certainly taken a change. The students have been enjoying the beautiful blanket of white snow. Many of the students have been telling me that they will be visiting relatives and friends over Winter Break. For those of you who will be traveling, I hope that you enjoy your time away and have safe travels.
Here are our latest activities:
Kindergarten students have been discussing snow and winter activities. They have read three books called, Bundle Up, The Snowy Day, and Let's Make a Snowman! They have discussed winter clothing, winter activities and how to build a snowman. They have been working well with partners and in small groups.
First grade activities have included talking about sports and the beach. We've read books entitled, Sports Day and What Do You See at the Sea? We have done lots of vocabulary work in our journals and also completed graphic organizers about these topics. This is a group of hard workers!
Second grade students have completed some activities which align with their classroom reading stories. We have talked about the life of a tree, interesting facts about trees, and have also diagrammed a tree! We have also talked about how things change over time. Lots of great learning going on in this group of students!
The third grade students have also completed some assignments that align with their classroom reading stories. We read and discussed the story, Pepita Talks Twice, which explains the importance of speaking two languages. The students completed an extended response question relating to this topic in their journals. They also got to be actors this week! The students chose parts in a play about Red Riding Hood and acted them out in front of their other classmates. We then read another story and the students compared and contrasted the stories' similarities and differences. It was an exciting week for third graders!
The fourth grade students have been working on a couple of different things. They read a book entitled, Beaks and Wings, which aligned with their classroom story, Nights of the Pufflings. They completed a semantic web about birds. They also completed an extended response question about Nights of the Pufflings in their journals. They shared their answers aloud for oral language development and then to end the lesson, wrote a summary of the first book. Their writing skills are improving! This week, we have started learning about the Southeast region of the United States. We are using wonderful National Geographic books to learn about this topic.
Finally, the fifth graders have been working on vocabulary development along with reading, writing, and oral language skills. We continue to work on parts of speech and last week we focused on adjectives. We took a short break from our adjectives packet to read the classroom story, Island of the Blue Dolphins. We completed a vocabulary activity with this book and also an extended reponse question for writing. The students shared their answers orally. This week the story, Everglades, was introduced. We have discussed the vocabulary words for this story and completed a Frayer Model. We briefly read the story and will continue to complete acitivites for it next week.
The fourth and fifth grade groups have been doing "popcorn" reading. This is a fun way to read a story. Ask your child what this is. (We are not eating popcorn!)
As always, if you have any questions, please call me.
~Mrs. Bennick
