Ms. Vanderwel's Room

This week in ELA, students learned about “Y in Disguise!” We discovered that when the letter y comes at the end of a word, it can make the long /i/ sound (as in fly or my ) or the long /e/ sound (as in happy or funny ). Students practiced listening for these sounds, sorting words, and building words with this spelling pattern. We also worked on reading words with ending y sounds during our small group and whole class activities. To support our learning, we enjoyed reading several books from the Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold . Students loved following Fly Guy’s silly adventures while listening for words that contained the “Y in Disguise” spelling pattern. The stories gave us many opportunities to practice our decoding and fluency skills while enjoying lots of laughs together. In writing, we began exploring fiction and non-fiction text features . Students learned about the differences between fiction and non-fiction books and discussed ways we can tell them apart. Working in gr...

We had a full and engaging week of learning in our classroom! Here's a peek at our week! In English Language Arts, students learned about the three sounds of /ed/. They discovered that we add /ed/ to words to show past tense, meaning something has already happened. We practiced using the three sounds: /d/ after a voiced sound /t/ after an unvoiced sound /id/ after the letters t and d Students worked on listening closely to determine which ending sound to use. Video Link In writing, we focused on friendly letters. Students learned why we write them, who we might send them to, and how to properly format them. This connected perfectly with Support Staff Appreciation Week. Students wrote thoughtful letters to members of our school community, including lunchroom supervisors, educational assistants, our secretary, and our custodian, to express appreciation for all they do. In math, we began exploring patterns. Students learned how to build, describe, and label patterns using letters (suc...