Week in Review--Fairy Tales

Reading:

-We had TWO sight words this week-- “make, play”.

-The CAFÉ strategy we worked on this week was the strategy.

“Tell a Connected Story Using Pictures”

Retelling the story is a comprehension strategy used to help readers recall what is happening in the story. It involves telling what is important in the story without telling too much. The most effective way to teach retelling is through modeling and practice. Model this strategy for your students and then allow them to practice.

How can you help your child with this strategy at home?

1. Introduce the Retell Rope described on the ready reference guide in the back of the CAFE book. This strategy provides a visual and kinesthetic reminder for children to help them focus on the strategy being learned.

2. After a brief reminder on what it means to be a good listener, allow students to practice this strategy by sharing a retelling of a story with a partner. Partners should listen to the retelling carefully, prompting with questions about the characters, setting, problem, events, or solution if needed.

3. Make this strategy fun by allowing children to use small props or puppets when retelling their story









We practiced our syllables this week during our second mini-lesson. Each day, the students brought in something special from home for us to practice our syllables. We brought in a favorite stuffed animal, a picture and our favorite candy from home and each day counted out the syllables of each person's item.

Math:

-We focused on subtraction this week. We used math manipulatives to complete subtraction problems that take away one or two items at a time. We also discussed the different vocabulary that comes with a subtraction problem….minus, take away and equals.

Writing:

-We began the week by taking a post-test writing sample on writing a narrative or a “true story” about their life. I will go over the pre/post-test writing samples with you at our parent/teacher conferences.

-We also took the pre-test on writing a “How To” or “Informational” writing piece before we begin our Unit 3 writing.

-We learned about proper nouns and why they get a capital letter no matter where they are found in a sentence.  

Content:

We spent this week studying various types of Fairy Tales and the elements found in most of them. We found that most fairy tales have characters who are either princes, princesses, animals who can talk, fairy godmothers and evil characters like witches and dragons. We also found that they are make-believe stories that often include a LOT of magic and enchantment. The problems that arise in the stories are always solved in the end because we also realized that most every story begins with “Once upon a time… “ and ends with “And they all lived happily ever after.” We wrote about our favorite fairy tale characters, created our own fairy tale story and even dressed up as favorite characters from movies or books!