Welcome back after a gorgeous vacation filled with snow and sunshine! Omegas are gearing up for our study of island cultures. We will spend some time this week reviewing text structures that can assist readers with finding information (table of contents, index, glossary, titles, heading, subheadings, bold-faced and italicized words, and pictures and their captions). Omegas will also review some basic non-fiction text patterns: main idea and supporting details, cause and effect, and comparison and contrast. We will also work more with using context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and distinguishing between fact and opinion. It is my goal to finish our non-fiction review just before it's time to start research. While Omegas are reading for information and collecting facts, literacy lessons will be individualized and directly related to what each student needs in order to be successful in his/her display. Spelling will continue as normal.
We will continue with weekly friendship group lessons. Over the past couple of months, Omegas learned about put downs, assertiveness, repairing relationships, and the need for clear communication. Our lessons this month will focus on communicating without words- body language and tone of voice. If you have any concerns, questions, ideas, or suggestions, please chat me up.
Learning activities for the cultural display begin Monday with Fran's presentation on the universals of culture. Tuesday Nari will present on the relationship between culture and the environment. My presentation on Wednesday will focus on native populations, migrations, and immigration. Joni will present on Thursday (topic TBA), and we will brainstorm topics for the display on Friday. Monday we will pick topics. It would be great if books could start coming in on Wednesday. Be on the look out for updated display requirements in your mailbox.
In our spare time, we will continue moving forward with our mapping unit. Last month we began preparing for our cultural study by learning about maps and globes. How are they different? What are all the lines for? We walked around the SH property with my gps unit marking waypoints for a future mapping project. At this point, we are going to scale back and step back a little. We'll start getting our hands dirty with mapping by making a map of the classroom. During this project, we'll work with scale, relative location, and map keys.
Other dates to be aware of are:
Board Meeting, Tuesday, March 3
Open House, Tuesday, March 10
Community Meeting, Tuesday, March 17
1/2 day due to teacher inservice, Tuesday, March 24
no school due to teacher inservice, Wednesday, March 25
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