Reading:
In reading this week, we learned about characters in books. Each student brought in a picture of their favorite character from a book at home. We shared why they loved that character and what makes that character special. We learned that characters are the WHO in stories. Sometimes characters are people but other times they can be animals or even objects! All characters regardless if they are real or fantasy need to do something in the story, they talk, move and have a role in the story to be called a character.
We also learned all about the -an family. We built words in the -an family, we went on a word hunt where we chopped the sounds up in the word and found it in a pile of other -an words and we practiced rhyming with all of the words in the -an family.
We learned a new choice for Word Work this week! Roll A Word is a new option that students can choose to complete during independent Daily 5 work time. Students roll a dice and whatever number it lands on matches a word they then write on the page!
Our vocabulary words this week went with the story The Biggest Pumpkin Ever. We loved learning all about the words contest, discovered, hummed, fertilized, gathered and admired. On Thursday, we created a book in Book Creator to review two of our words. We learned how to change the background on the page, how to use the video tool and how to save a completed book.
Our new sight words: my, up
**Be sure to keep the white sight word cards from week to week and continue to practice all of them as new ones are sent home every week.
Our Poem of the Week:
iPad Fun:
Reading
- Pic Collage: Pic Collage is an app where you can put multiple pictures together in one spot. Students took three pictures of three different things and then labeled the beginning sound they hear in the word. They then saved the picture to the camera. We will be learning how to send these saved assignments and upload them to Google Classroom soon!
- Phonics Ninja: This week students played the game Phonics Ninja to practice letter sounds and blended letter sounds.
- Students also continued to practice Reading Eggs, EPIC and QR listening books.
Math
- This week students continued to practice 1,2,3 Ninja and Animal Math. Both apps have students practicing recognizing numbers, shapes, counting, patterns and more!
- Students also tried out using Book Creator and creating their own math journals this week. We will complete a few entries in our math journals as a whole group for a couple more weeks and then students will enter their own entries in independently.
Writing:
Writer’s Workshop has officially been launched and we are so excited! We learned all about how writer’s workshop time is set up. We always start with a whole group mini-lesson, the students then go write-write-write and we finish with a few students sharing what they wrote that day. Our first few lessons we practiced illustrating pictures, labeling pictures using beginning sounds and by the end of the week we were writing sentences using our sight words and beginning sounds for unknown words. We learned that if we are stuck and are not sure what to write about, we can use our “WHAT?” can we write about chart to help brainstorm ideas. We also learned that we can write wherever we want in the room that fits us best as a writer, where to find crayons that we might need and what to do with dull pencils! We are off to a GREAT start and I can’t wait to see where this group is headed with their writing this year!
Math:
Our math vocabulary word this week was subitizing. We learned that subitizing means to look at something and know it right away. We are practicing looking at various groups of objects and knowing how many are there without having to count out each one. We are practicing this idea in several different ways and one way we are practicing is by using dice, tally marks, ten frames and objects!
Students also learned two new choices to use during Math Daily 3! We learned all about sorting by shape, size and color. They are able to practice this skill at a Math by Myself choice. Another idea we practiced and added to a choice this week is counting out objects. When students go to Math With Someone, they can choose to count out links and add them to number cards!
Content:
This week was all about PUMPKINS!
- Monday--We celebrated great behavior for the first few weeks of school and had our first behavior celebration. Students who received 80% or above were able to participate in the bounce house inflatable obstacle course. Next behavior celebration will be raised to 85%!
- Tuesday--We painted paper plate pumpkins.
- Wednesday--We learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin.
- Thursday--We read the story Spookley the Square Pumpkin
- Friday--We completed a Popplet all about what we learned about the character Spookley and we made our own version of Spookley. We made pumpkins that were different colors and different sizes!
Social Emotional Learning (SEL):
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
This week’s SEL focus is all about having EMPATHY. We learned that empathy is a skill that anyone can build and in order to have empathy you have to be aware and respectful of other people’s feelings. We watched the first chapter in Class Dojo’s video series on empathy where Mojo is the director of a play and he gets very angry at the cast members and doesn’t treat them very nicely. We talked about how he should have reacted to his friends in the play when they messed up their lines. We read a story about a new student in school and how that student was nervous and sad about leaving her old home. She didn’t want to talk to anyone and even got angry at other people when they tried talk to her. All she needed was someone to listen to her talk about her feelings and we learned that sometimes it’s important to be a good listener for our friends and not always trying to talk to them, when maybe they need to tell us something important about their feelings. Another day we played an empathy game where we put ourselves in other people’s shoes by deciding how we think someone else would feel in different types of situations. We also read the story The Pout Pout Fish and learned how sometimes when people are sad, a nice smile or a hug can make them feel better!
A few discussion questions to talk with your child at home about this topic:
- What word describes how Mojo felt? Why did he feel this way? Name a time you felt like Mojo; why did you feel this way?
- How was Katie feeling in this video? Do you think Mojo knew how she was feeling?
- Ask a grownup in your life if they have ever felt like Mojo. How did they handle it?
PRACTICE AT HOME:
Have your child draw a picture and label the parts in the picture. We are focusing on keeping our illustrations free from scribble scrabbles and using shapes and real life colors when illustrating.
Next Week:
- In reading we will practice the Setting in a story
- In writing we will continue Writer’s Workshop writing sentences!
- In math we will learn all about patterns!
- Our theme next week is all about Community Helpers!
Important Dates/Information:
**Go to our classroom webpage if you want to see important dates on a calendar! I will update this classroom calendar as dates and events come about.
- 10/14 End of 1st Nine Weeks
- Week of 10/17-10/21 Parent/Teacher Conferences (PLEASE RETURN THE YELLOW FORM THAT WAS SENT HOME)
- 10/26--Grandparent Fair 10-11 AM (please complete the form and/or message me back on the event on text that I sent out)
