Guest Readers

On Friday the students really enjoyed hearing two books read by a couple of students from Arlington Middle School. The students visited Parkwood as part of Duval County's Literacy Week.

Functional Writing

In our new writing genre, functional writing, the students will be expected to give directions on "how to" make or do something. They must provide all steps needed, in order, and with details.
Last week the students made a list of "Things We Can Do" in their writing sourcebooks. Today we worked together on a class "how to" project. We made S'mores in the classroom together. Then the students wrote the steps we followed. This will serve as their beginning piece for this genre. Beginning tomorrow, the students will be taught lessons that will teach them how to explain things even better. I was very impressed with most of these beginning pieces....check out Chloe's writing above.

Is It a Living Thing?

In this science exploration the students made predictions about what would happen to the seeds and gravel when water was added. They practice writing their observations for four days. Next in science we will move onto our animals unit.

Story Problems

The students have been working hard on solving story problems in Math Workshop. They need to decide if it is a combining (addition) problem or separating (subtraction) problem. Then they need to choose a strategy to use.