Reading:
-Our
sight word this week was the word “I”!
-The
CAFÉ strategy we worked on this week was the strategy.
“Retell
Familiar Stories”
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. There are many ways to enhance
learning for the strategy of retelling, here are a few:
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.
Math:
-This
week in math, we focused on our numbers 1-5 at the beginning of the week, 6-10
in the middle of the week and practiced with all of our numbers 1-10 at the end
of the week. We learned rhymes to go with each number to help us recognize, as
well as write the numbers. We will continue to practice with these numbers and
up to 20 throughout the rest of the school year. We also practiced counting as
high as we could as a class. We made it to 34! By the end of the year we will
make it to 100!
Writing:
-This
week we started practicing writing the both the uppercase and lowercase letters
in the alphabet. We will continue to practice writing these letters until we
have completed all 26! Before we independently go out to practice the letters,
we watched a video created by Have Fun Teaching for each letter of the
alphabet. The class enjoyed dancing, singing and doing the motions for each
letter before going to write them on their own!
-We also completed our first writing prompt for the school year that will be graded and then compared to a post test writing prompt at the end of our first writing unit. This first prompt was "Write and draw about something you love." We first brainstormed a list of things we love to give the class an idea of what to write/draw about. Then they went back to their seats and got started writing and drawing! I am excited to see the progress each student makes when it comes to writing after we complete our first writing unit!
Content:
-We have continued our learning into our second week of school. This week we focused on a theme of “Getting to Know You”. We worked all week on getting to know our new friends and what makes them special. We shared our names, favorite animals, favorite colors and an “ALL ABOUT ME” bag. We learned that a lot of students like cats and cheetahs, the color red and have wonderful families who they love to share and talk about!
Other:
-We started a new "sign in" page at the beginning of our day. Each student has to "sign in" as part of their morning job/routine. This is allowing for extra practice writing each student's name. Some students are already experts at their name, but everyone can always use practice!
PRACTICE AT HOME:
Have your child write his/her name AND practice their
lunch number! You can also start to quiz your child on numbers you see around
the house (remote control, toys…), while driving (speed limit signs,
billboards…) and encourage them to count as high as they can without skipping
any numbers! The goal is to be able to count to 25 by the end of the first nine
weeks.
Next
week:
-In writing, we will continue practicing a different
letter of the alphabet each day until we are through all 26 letters!
-In math, we will focus on shapes all week!
-In reading, we will continue to practice building
our stamina for Read to Self and start a new choice, Work on Writing.
-Our theme next week is “ABC’s”.
