Welcome!

Let’s Explore ReadyGen 2016

What are the students in our school learning about in reading?

Our Kindergarten students are reading “Where is Home, Little Pip” and “A House for Hermit Crab”. The theme for Unit 1 is Living Together: This is Home. Kindergarten students will learn to identify characters, settings and major events in stories. In writing these students will write a story using a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event around an animal coming and going from its home. An important goal for kindergarten students is to recognize the importance of “home” to every living thing.

Our First Grade students are reading “Stellaluna” and “Dragons and Giants” The theme for Unit 1 is “Connecting to Our World”. The first grade students are learning to retell stories including key details, using sequence of events, and setting. In writing the first grade students will write a narrative that describes a relationship between two characters.

The First Grade students will also explore a variety of informational texts while asking and answering questions.

In Second Grade our students are reading about “Understanding Communities” while reading “ Friends Around the World and “ The House on Maple Street” Unit 1 is Understanding Communities. These scholars are learning about the relationships between characters, as well as characters’ point of view. Finally, they will learn that relationships matter in a community. In writing, these students will be expected to write a compare- and – contrast paragraph about two of the communities they read about in the selection, “Location, Location, Location”. These students will develop their own opinions and also recognize the differences between rural and urban communities.

The Third Grade students are reading “The Case of the Gasping Garbage” and “Thunder Cake” These students will be able to show how a character’s motivations affect the sequence of events in a story. They will be able to use character’s dialogue, feelings, and sensory details to explain that the sequence of events in a story lead to a solution. As writers these students will understand that characters’ actions impacts the sequence of events in a story. As learners, the third grade students will be able to show how close observations help to understand and know characters and actions.

Our fourth grade students are reading, “Porpoises in Peril”, as well as “Mary Anning: The Girl Who Cracked Open the World”. The theme of Unit 1 is Examining the World Around Us. During this unit the fourth grade students will be able to identify and analyze the point of view, features and text structure of narrative nonfictions texts. As writers these students will complete a short investigative project about a scientist or researcher who made a difference. They will then write a biographical spotlight about their subject. As researchers these students will learn that a system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

Our fifth grade scholars are reading, “Washed Up”, “Pale Male and Rain Forest Food Chains” around the theme Depending on Each Other. As readers these students will understand that themes in literary texts are developed through the characters, setting and events. In writing these students will write an informative essay that describes one of the environments they about in the selections.

All classes from Kindergarten through 5th grade have completed or will soon complete the first unit of ReadyGen.

Math Curriculum News

What are students at PS 306 learning about in math class?

It is so important that as a school community we know what is going on in our colleagues’ classrooms. Here is a little information about what is happening in math on each grade level.

Our kindergarten scholars have just finished up counting and writing numbers to 5. They are now focusing on comparing numbers 0 to 5. Next up for he is counting and writing numbers 6 to 9.

The first graders are working on addition and subtraction concepts. They will soon be learning strategies to help them solve problems beyond basic facts like, doubles, doubles plus one, making ten, and many many more.

Second Grade is exploring numbers to 1,000. They are looking at how to use and understand the base ten number system. Once they have that down, they will move on to addition and subtraction.

The third grade classes retaking a deep look at multiplication. They have lots of new vocabulary to learn, such as product, array, and factor, as well as facts to commit to memory and strategies to use.

Our students in the fourth grade have just completed their unit on multiplying by 1-digit numbers and will now begin exploring multiplying by 2-digit numbers. They are learning lots of new strategies, like partial products and area models.

The fifth graders are finishing up a unit on dividing whole numbers by 1- and 2-digit divisors. Along with different strategies for solving problems they have also explored the meaning of remainder and how answers to questions can change when interpreting remainder. The group will

then turn their attention to adding and subtracting decimals of all sizes.

CURRICULUM RESOURCES:

Literacy:
PEARSON REALIZE
This is Pearson’s newest learning management system that gives 'digital natives' the learning experience that they have come to expect. It is the online destination for standards-aligned content, flexible class management tools, and embedded assessments that deliver rich data instantly to teachers.

MYON
MYOn Reader is a kindergarten through eighth grade literacy program that includes a broad selection of digital books that incorporate multimedia features to get students engaged in reading; it also includes reporting and assessment features so that teachers can keep track of student reading habits and performance over time. Using information about students' interests and reading skills, the program recommends books for students to read on a computer or iPad.

Math:
GO MATH!
GO is an app available for smartphones and tablets from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (the Go Math! publisher). It is for Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade students and contains a full year’s worth of math topics and skills. Kids get to go on amazing adventures with lovable creatures and learn math! The basic version is free and in-app purchases are available.

ST MATH
ST Math is game-based instructional software for K-12 and is designed to boost math comprehension and proficiency through visual learning.ST Math incorporates the latest research in learning and the brain and promotes mastery-based learning and mathematical understanding. The ST Math software games use interactive, graphically-rich animations that visually represent mathematical concepts to improve conceptual understanding and problem- solving skills.