Friday, October 10, 2014

Week in Review--FIRE SAFETY

This week's poem was all about our eyes and the things our eyes can do!
 



Reading:

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

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

 “Identify the Setting”

When we read the story elements are an important part to make the story complete. When students focus on the setting of the story they focus on where and when the story takes place. Having the ability to identify and describe the setting helps students comprehension of other story elements from characters to main events and problem/solution.
 

How can you help your child with this strategy at home?
 
1. When reading a story, watching a television show or movie, discuss the setting and how the setting sometimes changes throughout the story.

2. When discussing the setting, encourage your child to go into detail instead of just saying “inside” or “outside”. Be specific as to where inside or where outside the setting is exactly.

3. Ask your child to describe another setting that would make sense in the story if the author put another section to the book.











Writing:

-I have enjoyed working with the different writing groups for the past two weeks. Each group has a different focus during their independent writing to work on. I have seen so much progress when it comes to writing, it makes me excited to see continued progress the rest of this year.

-We began a chart that we will continue to add to throughout the year called “When I’m done…I’ve Just Begun!”  This chart helps the students add more detail to their pictures and writing in order to build stamina and make a complete piece before moving on to the next one.

-We also focused on how to draw a setting with your writing by using shapes, lines and various colors!















Math:

-This week we opened up our last choice during daily 3 math called “Math with Someone”. This choice is very similar to “Read to Someone” during the daily 5 reading block. The first activity at this choice is a game the partners play called “shape race”. This game has the students take a picture of shape, they identify the shape and count the number of sides on the shape. After counting the sides, they move their chip that many spaces on the game board! We also put a new choice into the “Number Work” option where the student takes a deck of cards, keeps them turned upside down, turns one card over one at a time and reads the number when turning it over. Once the student has identified the number, they count out that number of math manipulatives.

-We also created our "You Can Count on Me" board. Each student counted as high as they could for me in the past week for report cards. I recorded how high they counted and we placed their math magician on the board near that number. The goal by the end of the year is to make it to 100! We have 5 students who have already made it to 100 and are our class "Math Magicians".










Content:

-Our focus this week was on fire safety. We started the week off by reading many books and focused on three important words STOP-DROP-ROLL! We completed a book with vocabulary words that geared around fire safety, those words were fire truck, fireman, matches, fire hydrant and ladder. We discussed what made those items important when it comes to fire safety. We finished the week off by making a fire truck using our favorite shapes that we have practice during math time!





















Next week:
 
--In writing, we will get writing partners, talk about using words other than “I like” and beginning/ending sounds.

--In math, we will practice counting objects 0-20.

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

--Our theme this next week is all about COMMUNITY HELPERS!  Don’t forget to complete your child’s “I’d Like to Be” paper!


PRACTICE AT HOME:
Have your child find sight words around the house in various books, magazines, newspapers, on TV or even when you are out at a restaurant or a store. These words are important for your child to master because they are found everywhere!