I am so proud of the work our children are completing at Baldwin that I wanted to share some of it with you!
Ms. LeBlanc's students completed some research on spiders and then wrote some short reports on their assigned spider. This was a homework assignment, which gave parents an opportunity to help their child do some primary research and then write in complete sentences. I am very proud of the work this class turned in and shared with their peers. Ms. LeBlanc's kindergarteners showed so much pride in their work and truly are experts on spiders.
In first and second grade, the students have been learning to use the writing process. They planned a first draft by generating ideas for writing, developed drafts by sequencing ideas through writing sentences, revised drafts by adding or deleting words, phrases or sentences and published and shared with others. The students in Ms. Brady's class wrote their own personal narratives. A personal narrative is a story about you, written in 1st person (I, me) and about one small moment. These are displayed in the hallway by their classroom. Many of these personal narratives have "voice" and are very creative. These personal narratives covered topics such as, "the circus," "my first Texas Baseball game" and "My trip to Yellow Stone National Park." All of the stories are very interesting and I have learned so much about these second graders.
In Mrs. Lerma's and Mrs. Tapia's first grade classes, the students wrote expository and procedural or work-related text to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for specific purposes. The students in these classes also did some research on spiders and they wrote informational text to share with others. Their reports covered many aspects of a good research project and they used some excellent first grade writing skills.
In Mrs. Lentz's first grade class, the students spent some weeks working on writing "small moments." The students read mentor texts to see how published authors stretch events in their stories, Mrs. Lentz modeled with her own writing and then the students each wrote several stories of their own. The students in this class chose one of their stories to publish and then edited their story. They met with their teacher in a writing conference to learn a little about revision and finally the students read their stories to an adult volunteer who typed it up for the students. The stories are now bound and hanging on the board right outside Mrs. Lentz's classroom. These stories are unique and show how much our children have learned about writing.
Today I observed, Ms. Seitz's Kindergarteners writing in their math journals. They had to listen to the math story the teacher shared and paint a picture in their minds. The students then took that picture and drew it in their notebooks. The students then had to write the number sentence that matched the math story the teacher shared with the class. Wow! there are some amazing mathematicians in Ms. Seitz's class.
In Mrs. Fuller's class, the students were discussing what Veterans' Day means to them. They learned that a Veteran is someone who loves their country and may have fought in wars to protect our country. The students learned the different Armed Forces the veterans may belong to such as the Air Force, the Marines, the Navy, and the Army. One student shared that he had seen the aircraft carrier "The Lexington" in Corpus Christi. The teacher shared photos of the aircraft carrier on the innovation station. Mrs. Fuller's class was very excited to be learning about Veteran's Day and our country.
A couple of reminders: On Thursday, November 10th our Baldwin Choir will be having a Veterans' Day Program in the cafeteria at 6:30 p.m. Please join us for this concert to honor our Veterans. Also, don't forget that Friday is a student holiday. Your child has the day off from school.
Roaring with Pride,
Dr. Peña