Week in Review--Weather/Seasons (part 1)

Our poem of the week was The Muffin Man. 

Writing:

-We continued to focus on writing How To/Informational books. We looked at non-fiction/informational books that authors have written and discussed what we liked about those books. We then put a basket of several informational/non-fiction books in our writing area to have as a choice in helping complete our own informational writing books by gathering ideas, learning new facts and recalling previous knowledge about certain topics.  

Math:

-We introduced addition stories this week. An addition story is a series of describing sentences telling a story using numbers, followed by an asking sentence that provides a description for a specific addition equation/sentence. For example…There were three frogs sitting on a log. Two more frogs hopped along with them. How many frogs are there in all? The students practiced coming up with the stories, as well as answering them. They did great!

Reading:

-We had TWO sight words this week-- “do, down”.

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

“Flip the Sound”

Have you ever taught your child a rule from the English language to then have them point out an example where it doesn’t work? Many words in the English language don’t follow basic phonics rules. For example, children learn that ch makes the /ch/ sound we hear in chip. However, this rule does not apply when decoding the word school. Children need to be given tools to use when reading so they are not stumped when common rules don’t apply. Flip the sound is a strategy good reader’s use when they come to a word that doesn’t sound right or make sense. Knowing the multiple sounds a letter or letter combination can make and being able to flip the sounds around is an essential skill.

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

1. When your child reads a word incorrectly, wait until he/she gets to the end of the sentence. Then, stop your child and ask, “Did the word you just read sound right?” Put your hand palm-down and flip your hand over while saying, “Try flipping the sound.”

2. Remind your child that when good readers use the strategy of flip the sound, they listen for a word they recognize. They then check to make sure that word makes sense in the sentence.

3. When sounding out words, review the different sounds letters make. Ask your child, “What other sound could that letter make?” Encourage your child to use the strategy of flip the sound to try different words until he/she is successful.

4. If your child is still struggling with this strategy, give your child the kinesthetic prompt of flipping over your hand as a quiet reminder to try the strategy.




Content:
We had a GREAT first week learning about Spring/Weather. It was perfect because our weather was anything but “normal” this week. Started the week off with nice warm weather, went right into a snow day full of snow and then finished the week off with chilly to warming up temperatures. We started our weather graph for our weather unit and luckily the sunny weather is in the lead! Fingers crossed spring time weather is right around the corner. We completed a weather flip book by drawing, writing and discussing different types of weather. We also read several books, one of our favorites being Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. We completed a predictable chart filling in what type of food we wish could fall from the sky and illustrated a picture to go along with it. We will continue our weather learning fun into the next week!