Week One in Room 301

Hi, everyone! We are off to a great start!  Students are working hard and bringing lots of enthusiasm to the classroom each day!  Just a couple highlights for you from our first week in Room 301:

• Math: We started our first unit: Understanding Number.  We are working hard to establish understanding of place value up to trillions at the moment!  We are also spending time at the beginning of each class reviewing multiplication facts. Students are encouraged to devote time to practicing their facts at home, as well.  
• Language Arts: We launched the first and second chapters of the Daily 5: Read to Self and Listen to Reading!  We are working on developing independence in our reading habits and building stamina.  I am reading "The Breadwinner" by Canadian author Deborah Ellis to students.  It is one of my favorite books and tells the story of a young girl growing up in Afghanistan during the years of the Taliban's control.  You can read more about Deborah Ellis here. We also worked on couple "get to know each other" projects, including a paper "Facebook Profile" assignment and a neat word project using Tagxedo.
• We also had our first test of the year!  It was a "True/False" test that helped everyone get to know the teacher!  Here's a sneak peek:

Coming up this week:

• We will take a look at "Multiple Intelligences" to develop an understanding of how one another learns best and relates to others.  We will take a survey that will will help me learn each student's preferred learning style.
• We will begin our first Science unit: "The Diversity of Living Things".

Looking forward to meeting everyone on Thursday evening!  The BBQ begins at 5:30pm!