Informational Text Features

This past week in Reading Workshop students learned about various Informational Text Features.  We are focusing on identifying these text features and understanding how text features help us become stronger readers. This week we have learned about: captions, types of print, table of contents and photographs. Below is a photograph of our anchor chart and examples of completed work in our Informational Text Feature Books. This week we will continue to learn about new text features.

Our Week in Review 3.21-3.25

Arctic Animals Informational Writing

This week our Wonder of the Week is:  How Do Arctic Animals Survive the Cold?  On Monday students brainstormed how they believe Arctic animals survive the cold. Students then logged onto their blogs and wrote about their thinking.  On Tuesday students went to their friends’ blogs and responded to their thinking. Yesterday was Wonder Wednesday, students found out the answer to the Wonder of the Week.  During the Wonder reveal every student has a piece of paper at the rug to take notes.  Today students will use their notes to go back to their original blog and add their new learning.  Below are some photographs from our note taking session today.  Be sure to check out your student’s blog and read all of their great new learning!

Ice-Cream Party

Informational Text

On Tuesday we began a new unit of study on Informational Text. To begin the unit of study we brainstormed everything we knew (our schema) about Information Texts.  Below is what we know.

What We Know About Informational Texts:

• Tells you true information (help you learn something)
• Tells you about a specific thing (topic)
• Tells you about things that have happened in the past
• Shows you real photographs of things in the past and things that are happening right now
• Teach you about something, which is different from other books which tell you a story
• Can give you information about history
• Have a Table of Contents
• Don’t always have to have photographs they can have paintings or drawings
• shows you the timeline of things in the past
• Tells you about how things live
• Usually labels go with a diagram

On Wednesday we read the fiction story The Grouchy Ladybug.  We discussed the elements of a story: characters, setting, problem and solution.

On Thursday we read the non-fiction story Ladybugs.  We discussed the elements of a non-fiction story.  Many of us had great schema (prior knowledge) about non-fiction text features. 

On Friday we compared the The Grouchy Ladybug and Ladybugs.  We discussed how the two books were different and the same.  After our mini-lesson students received their very own Informational Text Notebook.  Students began working in their notebook and completed a table where they compared the same two books independently.

Scavenger Hunt!

This week in math we went on a scavenger hunt! We were looking for items to use as unit of measurement references. We were looking for objects that were 1 inch, 1 foot and 1 yard. Below is our Measurement Reference anchor chart. We have also added photographs from our scavenger hunt!

Hot Shot All-Star

Our Week in Review 3.6 - 3.10

Parent Program

Heather Kelly the behavioral Specialist at Union Memorial School is coordinating a Nurturing Parent Program at Union Memorial School this spring. This Nurturing Parent program is geared towards improving communication with your child, developing empathy, practicing self care for parents and empowering your family. It will be on Thursday evenings from 5:30-7:30 at Union Memorial School and running for 14 weeks. It will be starting on Thursday, March 17th. The is a FREE program. Call or email Heather Niquette at: (802) 498-0607 or Hniquette@pcavt.org.

Our Week in Review 3.3 & 3.4

Dance Party

We were very excited for school today, we all worked so hard we earned a dance party!

Alaska

Today we began our Alaska unit of study. We began the unit by brainstorming questions we have about Alaska. Each student brainstormed questions with a partner and then shared out. Below are the questions we will work on answering over the course of our unit.

I wonder if they have mountains in Alaska? (Gunnar)

Is the lake or the ocean frozen in Alaska? (Trinity)

I wonder how many sculptures they have made in Alaska? (Elsie)

I wonder how many animals are in Alaska? (Nyachido)

I wonder how many people live in Alaska? (Liam)

I wonder how cold it is in Alaska? (Alaina)

I wonder how deep the snow is in Alaska? (Zach)

I wonder if Alaska has a national celebration? (Giada)

I wonder what the Northern Lights look like? (Naomi)

I wonder what Alaska capital is? (Ariana)

I wonder if Alaska has cactus? (Kallie)

I wonder if it is hot or cold in Alaska?  (Kaleb)

I wonder how many people live in Alaska?  (Jackson)

What do the do in the summer in Alaska?  (Jayden)

I wonder if Alaska has coffee? (Jayda)

I wonder if Alaska has snow? (Emily)

I wonder what kind of weather Alaska has?  (Saya)