Leaf Collections

Our first science unit was about plants. Although we have since moved on to our study of animals and animal habitats, we are following up our plant unit with a study of leaves since Autumn is a great time for making our leaf collection books. Students were asked to find leaves that fit a list of descriptions such as orange, tiny, pointed, etc. They do not have to know the type of tree. We are just learning about the differences in leaves and hopefully having fun as we explore our world. Students also make use of their writing and language skills as they write a sentence about each leaf in their booklet. They are due Friday, October 24. We will share our leaf booklets and leaf knowledge with the first grade classes as we read our books to them. Our second graders remember being read to last year!

This was our week to assess students in reading skills. Each teacher worked with each student individually to listen to them read, make predictions, answer questions, retell orally, or summarize in writing about the story they read. We look for reading fluency by observing rate, expression, word accuracy, and phrasing. Errors are evaluated to determine types and stratigies used. We use this test to determine specific ways we can meet the students' needs in upcoming lessons. We also use the information to determine their reading level for finding books that are on their instructional level for small group work with a teacher in guided reading. In addition, we use the information to guide work with even smaller groups of students for RtI (response to intervention)which gives students who need more assistance extra time with an adult working on specific skills over an extended period of time to try to bridge the gap from where they are performing to where they need to be at this time. Students in our class used the time when they were not being tested to use the internet to discover answers to questions about spiders, made a glittery web, and spider for their web, wrote a retelling of a book they read in "spider web" fashion, and read and took Accelerated Reader tests on the computer over books they read. They are trying to earn lots of points to turn in at the Accelerated Reader Store at the end of the quarter. If you would like to donate items for the store, we would appreciate anything you could send. Suggested items are: tiny toy items, microwave popcorn, cans or bottles of soda, candy bars/wrapped candies, small stuffed animals, balls of all sizes, and just about anything you could think of that a grade 1-3 child would like would be good for our store. No guns, knives, or swords, though. Just send them to school to Mrs. Dokka, our reading specialist teacher, labeled for the AR store. She and her team of helpers will set a date for the store, set it up, and have parent helpers run it during the day scheduled. Thank you!

Our P.T.O. Halloween Parade and Contest will be Friday, October 24 from 5:30-6:30. Please come to see the wonderful costumes! We'll parade through downtown and back to Whiteside Park if you'd like to come out to see us.