Merriman's Memo
A Glimpse into Merriman's Menagerie
Enter Into English
We also delved into a new set of vocabulary words. We worked in small groups to define, discuss, develop a sentence with the topic of 'ninjas,' and create a movement to help our brains remember the words meaning. This was a fun kinesthetic lesson that allowed the students to work as thinkers, speakers, and group workers. With the vocabulary this week, we began to tackle informational/expository/nonfiction text. With this two week unit, we are working on author's point of view along with main idea, sequence, and cause/effect. With author's point of view, we discussed that how an author writes about a topic helps us as readers determine how that author feels. We listened to two short paragraphs about peanut butter. Through these paragraphs, we realized that in one paragraph, the author's point of view was that peanut butter was a good food to have/eat. In the other paragraph, we determined that the author was concerned about peanut butter because it causes allergic reactions. With this short exercise, we learned that how an author writes determines what we are readers learn. We then read "Kids to the Rescue!" which was an article about two young kids who heard about the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and how they decided to do something to help save animals. While reading this, we looked at how an author uses specific words to guide the reader to understanding his/her viewpoint. (For example, this author used words like 'what a mess!,' 'dark, gooey oil,' and 'harming animals' to show that the author was upset about the oil spill. We also looked at cause and effect, specifically how the oil spill affected the turtles in the gulf. We even had the opportunity to review text features (title, heading, photograph, caption, sidebar, and map). Finally, we worked in small groups to go back into the text to answer challenging text-dependent questions covering the skills that we worked on whole class.
Social Studies: The West Region
Next week we will be looking at the landforms that can be found in the West. We will be looking more specifically at mountain ranges, rivers, deserts, and lakes. We will start to work on reading informational text and pulling out the important details about the West. Once students pass their West identification of states/abbreviations quiz, they will then have a landforms of the West quiz. We will create that map on Tuesday.
Next week we will also read more about the history of North America; we will create a timeline of how North America came to be as it is today.
Kara Merriman
Wants: pencils and cap erasers
Email: merrimank@rcschools.net
Location: Christiana Elementary School, Shelbyville Highway, Christiana, TN, United States
In Other News...
I have begun gathering fun crafts for the season. Next week, we will begin working on creating winter ornaments during various times. These fun-filled activities are optional and designed to help develop our fine motor skills and creative side. I am looking forward to making these fun crafts with your kids.
Next week we will continue with reading and analyzing nonfiction. We will be reading about the whooping crane after we look back at how well we worked on the text-dependent questions in small groups.
The last day of the quarter will be a 2 hour day on December 18. We will hopefully have our ornaments back from The Pottery Place by then. That was definitely a fun activity that the kids enjoyed.
Dec. 17- Skate night
Dec 18- end of 2nd 9 weeks
Dec 21-Jan 5- winter break
Jan 6- students return
Jan 7- report cards
Jan 11-open library night
Jan 15- ROAR party