MAP testing done, done and done! :)

                                                       How much did you like the book???

 Last week as you know a majority of our week was spent MAP testing.  We had a special reading party with the book, “The Polar Express”.  The students were allowed to wear their pajamas, they needed a fun outlet during all that testing!  I also thought on Thursday after we finished our final MAP test, the kids were very deserving of a ONE SONG DANCE PARTY! 

Check out these kids, they are the best! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! Hehe...I have to extend a gracious THANK YOU to the parents who volunteered to help with our crafts!

 

 We were able to get all of our crafts done in one hour thanks to the help of the parents stepping up to the challenge of running their own craft center!  The students loved it and are sooo excited to give their gifts to their families! 

 This week in school, we have been working really hard on using descriptive words to make sentences better.  When describing different things we can use our senses to helps us come up with words.  What does the thing look like, taste like, smell like, sound like, feel like, what does it make you feel like?   Instead of students writing in their journal, “I like cake.”  We are working on writing “I like chocolate, pink, round, yummy cake!”  That sentence is a little extreme, but we are trying to add at least one descriptive word to each sentence. 

We are still working away in Guided Reading groups.  Working on “I wonder…” statements, as well as, “This makes me think of…..a time in my life when….or another book…or a movie….or anything that it reminds the students of.”  Getting the students to think about what they are reading is huge.  Any text to life connection they can make is fantastic!  We have also been focusing on IDENTIFYING and DESCRIBING characters, setting and major events of a text.  I always ask the students to give me their answers in complete sentences!  Complete sentences are my favorite! 

Math centers are still going strong too.  I am so excited for the break, I plan to revamp some of our Math centers.  Our math scores on MAP testing were outstanding, so there is some “proof in the pudding” that our guided math system is working!  However, I am so excited to take students to the next level with their math skills second half of the year.  Some of the students have began analyzing numbers.  Looking at number 24 for example, and being able to tell me that there are 2 groups of 10 that really equal 20, and 4 ones that equal four.  We are just introducing this concept.  The students have been “racing” Mrs. Kressin to see who can sort out a specific number of building cubes (say 38) into the correct groups of tens and ones.  Some students are not ready for place value yet, and we are working on gaining that solid foundation of addition. 

We reviewed greater than, less than and equal to this week, but took it up a notch.  Now instead of just saying it, the students are now writing their own numbers and symbols.  For example, the student were given two numbers and they needed to correctly label it with the >,<,= symbol.  Students would have to fill in the blank and then “read” what it said.  Students would write something like 5>2, and then read to the class, 5 is greater than 2.   After the students have sorted all the problems in the room.  We read through them in the class and make sure they were sorted correctly.  Students got so good at this, that the second time we practiced they got them all correct!   There were over 30 different problems they had to correctly label and sort!  Awesome!!

We started some of our Holiday celebration today and I got some great pictures!!!  I am going to wait to post all of the holiday pictures and videos together though.  I hope we have school tomorrow! 

Keep reading on www.raz-kids.com !!!!  Click on the link, then go to student login.  Then for Teacher Name it is: ovkressin, click on my name.  Then click on your students name and read away!!! :)