Tall Tales

I love teaching tall tales because they take us on an adventure! They also teach us a lot about American history. We are learning how tall tales began in the 1800's as campfire stories and as a way to entertain. Here are some facts about tall tales.

Most tall tales are about pioneer heroes who lived during westward expansion. 

They contain a character with super human qualities.

They are exaggerated.

The main character sometimes has an animal that also has exaggerated qualities. 

Tall tales are a type of folktale.

We are making charts and taking notes on these features this week. Each child will be choosing their favorite tall tale and making something at the end of this week. Check back for updates!

These are the books we are reading this week, along with charts we made as we discussed the story. The kids came up with most of these tall tale features and descriptions from the story on their own. I was SO PROUD!

 

Multiple Representaions of Place Value

We had an incredible turn out at Open House tonight! I am thankful to have such wonderful and supportive parents. I loved talking with each of you. Please don't hesitate to contact me anytime you need me. 

This week in math, we are continuing to explore place value. Last week we learned to represent numbers with base ten blocks. This week, we are learning that we can show numbers in more than one way. For example.. You can show the number 57 with 5 tens and 7 ones, 57 ones, 4 tens and 17 ones, 3 tens and 27 ones, etc. We do this to help build mental math strategies that will be needed for addition and subtraction with regrouping. 

Here are some action shots of us using base ten blocks and drawings to show numbers! 

Communities

With our Me on the Map Social Studies unit, we are learning where we are in the world. This week, we drew a diagram showing ourselves in the middle and expanding through our neighborhood, town, state, country, and the world. Next week, we will complete a model booklet showing where we are on the map. We will begin learning about the types of communities (urban, suburban, and rural). Read the study guide on the back of the newsletter to get ideas on how to reinforce learning at home! 

Fables

We have been reading fables this week and taking notes on their characteristics. We have learned a few things about fables that your child will need to know.

Fables....

Are a type of fiction folktale genre.

Always have talking animals.

Have characters who learn a lesson, called a moral. 

Were mostly written by a man called Aesop. 

Folktales, like fables, were written long ago and were first stories that were told and passed down from generation to generation. (We have discussed how long ago, families didn't have the technology that we have today, so they told stories for fun. This is how folktales began.)

Below are a few of the fable titles we have read this week. 

Place Value

This week we are learning all about place value (ones, tens, hundreds and so on). I want everyone to know these two very important things...

1. Place Value is the position and value of a digit in a number. The position, or place, where the digit is located in a number determines its value.

Example - In the number 58, 5 means 5 tens or 50. 8 means 8 ones or just 8. 

(You will see these types of problems on homework this week!)

2. A digit is any single number 0-9!!!! 

Place Value is so important in helping us make sense of addition and subtraction, so please.. Study Study Study!!!  

In this example, 64 is represented with place value blocks. We are working with place value blocks in class all week to show our numbers. 

Owl Moon - What do you hope for?

After reading the beginning of the story Owl Moon with Mrs. Linkous, we decided to finish the book later in the day and do some writing in response to the story. Each child keeps a reader's response journal where we keep our responsive writing, as well as notes on books we read together in class. Here are some general story elements we found together. 

The question we used for our writer's response was "What do you hope for and why?" We talked about what hope is and how we all hope for different things that are special to us. 

Growing Writers

One of my favorite parts about teaching 7 and 8 year olds is watching them grow into incredible writers. It always amazes me what they can do by the end of the year. We are starting to set up our Writer's Workshop. We will be focusing on the third CCSS writing standard dealing with personal narratives for the first 9 weeks. I am taking a writing class this year myself, so I'm excited to bring back what I'm learning and apply it in our classroom. Writing is one of those things that can be uncomfortable, sometimes even for us grown ups. I'm trying to teach our class this year that the ideas and stories we have for writing are already there in our minds! We just have to learn to pull them out. We all have great stories to tell! 

We had a great writing lesson this week on how to begin getting ideas for our writing. Mrs. Linkous came in to teach a lesson, and we had so much fun! I was so so SO impressed with everyone's writing! Mrs. Linkous read just the beginnings of Owl Moon and Whistle for Willie. She showed us how the authors began their stories, and we inferred where and how the author's could have gotten the ideas for these stories. Then we started writing some stories of our own!