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Monday, October 13, 2014

Subtraction Stories

There was a lot separating happening during Math Workshop. We had a great time with some of our favorite storybook characters. We learned that separating stories have clues that tell us to subtract. Students used Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons to act out subtraction his subtraction story! Pete is class favorite! We saw what the matching equation as each button popped off and rolled away.
The kiddos also had a great time acting out Five Speckled Frogs with hand puppets. 



Schema

We learned that schema is everything we know about a topic. We talked about how our brains work like file cabinets. When we read or listen to a story our brain "pulls that file" or topic and immediately begins to use the information we already know to help make sense of new info. For example....we read a nonfiction book about pumpkins. As soon as we identified the topic (pumpkins), we began using our pumpkin schema. It was interesting to see the wide variety of background knowledge. 
The seeds show our schema! 

After sharing each other's schema, we then read the book. We put our new learning on the leaves and found that we had we can use our schema to help make sense of new information. Our schema grows as we read, read, read!

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Building Our Reading Stamina

Students have worked really hard building their reading stamina! We have reached 8 minutes of solid reading time. What makes this so special is that they worked together as a class! When we build stamina, we read books that we can read, on our own. Students learned that when we read, we will build up our reading brain a little at a time...just like a weight lifter would or a runner. This called for a celebration! A reading celebration! Students wanted to read with their shoes off and use the special pointers. That's exactly what we did!