Week in Review--Mo Willems

**I was not at school on Friday, so I did not get video of the class doing their poem. I am sure they did an excellent job though! :)

Writing:

-We began our “normal” routine during our writing block of time called “Writer’s Workshop”. This is a time where the teacher starts off with a mini-lesson teaching a specific focus strategy to the class and then the students go write and practice this strategy while the teacher works with students and then we finish the time with a share of 1-3 kids’ writing. This week our focus was on labeling a picture using beginning sounds!

Reading:

-Our sight word this week was the word “and”!

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

“USE THE PICTURES, DO THE WORDS/PICTURES MATCH?”

An important accuracy strategy that good readers use to help gain meaning from text is to use the pictures and ask “Do the words and picture match?” Pictures help to confirm that the words being read make sense. Illustrations can provide hints to help students decode a word. Using the pictures is a necessary strategy to help children prepare for other strategies they use as they become more developed readers. Many times beginning readers feel they are “cheating” when they look at the pictures. It is important to model the effectiveness of using pictures to help decode words and to gain meaning so children feel comfortable using this strategy and know it is “okay” to use the pictures when reading.

 

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

 

1. Start with beginning reading books that only have a few words on the page. The pictures give clear support for figuring out the meaning and the words.

2. Cover up the words on a page and have your child “read” the story to you by “reading” the pictures. After your child tells you what happened on the page, uncover the words and read the page. This supports the idea that pictures can help tell the story.

3. When reading a picture book with your child, spend time modeling how you look at pictures, maps, and graphs. Talk about your thinking so your child can hear your thought process. Be sure to model how you stop while you are reading to look at the pictures to help you gain information about what is going on.

Math:

-This week in math we began our “normal’ routine of using Daily 3 Math. This type of program is similar to our reading format where the teacher begins the math block with a mini-lesson focusing on one or more of the standards and then the students move to working independently at a choice “Math by Myself, Number Work or Math with Someone”. We have not introduced the third choice yet. During the independent work time, the teacher is able to pull small groups or work one on one with students focusing on math skills!

CONTENT:
 
This week we focused on a specific author named Mo Willems. We found after reading just one of his many books that he is very funny and his characters made us laugh. We then continued to read his books throughout the entire week. We watched a video where he talked about why he wanted to become an author/illustrator and what we need to do every day in order to help ourselves become better writers. We finished the week off by making one of our favorite characters from his pigeon books…the pigeon out of a toilet paper roll and construction paper!




 

Next week:

 

--In writing, we will move from labeling to writing an “I like” sentence using beginning sounds. 

--In math, we will focus on recognizing numbers 0-20.

--In reading, we will focus on ending sounds, learn new vocabulary words and a new CAFÉ strategy!

--Our theme this next week is all about PUMPKINS!  We will be going on our first field trip to a pumpkin patch on Wednesday, September 24^th!

PRACTICE AT HOME:

COUNTING, COUNTING, AND COUNTING! I began testing and working with students on counting this week and the goal by the end of the first nine weeks is to make it to 25 or higher!