Reading:
In reading this week, we learning all about the strategy “Read With Expression”. When learning about this strategy we practiced reading in a boring voice and in an exciting voice. A few tips when practicing and learning this strategy are good readers who read with expression do the following things:
(1) They change pitch. Expressive readers make their voices go up and down. They go up at the beginning of a sentence and down at the end (up slightly if it ends with a question mark). They also go up and down to differentiate the words of a speaker (often high in pitch) from those of the narrator (usually lower). Changes in pitch often help readers understand where different ideas begin and end.
(2) They change rhythm. Expressive readers speed up and slow down when they read. They also take appropriate pauses—big ones at the end of a sentence, smaller ones in between, after commas, and also at logical points like phrase and clause boundaries. Changes in rhythm often help readers understand how small parts of sentences combine to create a complete thought.
(3) They change volume. Expressive readers say some words louder than others. In general, little words are said softer than more important words. Changes in volume are often used to create emphasis.
(4) They change tone. Sometimes readers use a soft, warm voice; sometimes their voice is cold and hard. They do this to communicate different feelings—soft and warm usually means nice, calm, or even sad; hard and cold can mean scary, angry, or excited.
To kick off our learning of this week’s word families we watched a video that had us reading and learning new words that end with the -unk and -ump sounds. We built words in both families, we went on a word hunt where we chopped the sounds up in the word and found it in a pile of other -unk or -ump words and we practiced rhyming with all of the words in each family.
Our vocabulary words this week went with the book The Biggest Valentine. We loved learning all about the words envelope, mischievous, lopsided, Valentine, edge and doiley.
Our new sight words: that, with
**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
- Book Creator: For our first iPad round this week we learned wrote a book about all of the things we love using the app Book Creator. Students were able to choose to write all of the things they love on one page or spread them out across several pages. The only requirement was to make sure they have their name, an illustration, words and recording.l
- Pic Collage:: We used one of our favorite apps this week to create digital Valentine cards. We took a template from the Pic Collage Kids library and added a picture of ourselves, wrote a persons name who it was for and added stickers!
- Reading Eggs/QR Books: Third round all students completed lessons in Reading Eggs and/or listened to stories on “tape” using QR codes inside picture books.
Math
- Book Creator: This week students used the app Book Creator on their own by adding a journal entry of the activity number of the day! We have been doing number of the day as a whole class since the first week of school and they are now experts and are able to do this on their own! They rolled a dice to find their number, wrote the number, the number word, drew the dice, tally marks, number of shapes and number line! They finished the activity by recording their voice explaining their thinking and what they did with the number of the day.
- Popplet Shapes: We practiced drawing shapes this week and students in iPad math time continued to practice those skills using this app. They took a picture of the shape and then used the pen tool to draw the shape.
Writing:
Writer’s Workshop this week, was continuing to work on our information writing. We are full swing into our planning pages, books and publishing them into Book Creator and Google Classroom. We also learned that if we are ever stuck and having trouble coming up with a topic to write about, one place we can look is in a basket with our science books. We practiced using a science book this week to read and learn about a topic and then in our own words write a planning page, book and publish our writing!
Math:
Math this week we learned all about the vocabulary terms line. We used our yard line this week when talking about drawing shapes we talked about which shapes headlines in which shapes did not. We completed several activities practicing drawing shapes. We started off by drawing all of the shapes and then one day focusing on just the shape hexagon. We learned a couple of new strategies on how to draw that shape successfully. It is a tricky one! we also added new options to math by myself and number work where students are practicing drawing shapes. One of the options they put shapes together to form a picture and illustrate that picture a second option they roll a dice and whatever number they get they draw the shade that goes with that number.
Content:
This week was all about valentine's Day and love!
- Monday--We decorated our valentine cans.
- Tuesday--We celebrated Valentine's Day with our Valentine's party!
- Wednesday--We wrote a list of things and people we love on a large heart.
- Thursday--We took the heart and added it to a teddy bear craft!
- Friday--We had so much fun completing another STEM activity! This activity had students in charge of creating a rocket ship using toothpicks and gummy hearts. The object was to make a rocketship a specific height that would sale to a loved one.
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 was learning about COMPASSION. We started the week off by reading the story Rude Cakes. This story told us about a group of cakes who never used their manners, never share and always think about themselves. They came up against the cyclops friends who are the opposite of them and there was a great lesson learned! We continued the week by watching a video where the character always wants to try and fix his friends problems, until one day his friend had a problem he couldn't help and fix. It was a great learning moment for all of us to discuss how he handled it. The next day we discussed a series of pictures with a partner and told our own version of a story and shared with the class. It was neat to hear all of the different interpretations of the pictures. We finished the week off by hearing a scenario that went along with a pair of shoes and put ourselves in that person’s shoes and sharing how we could help them feel better. It was a great week and we are looking forward to learning all about confidence next week!
A few discussion questions to talk with your child at home about this topic:
-Has there ever been a time where you struggled to help someone with a problem, even though you really wanted to be able to help?
-Has there been a time where you were having a problem and someone helped you?
-What could you do if there was a situation that a friend was having that you weren’t able to help?
PRACTICE AT HOME:
Have your child find one more or one less than a number! Challenge yourself and go above 20!
Next Week:
- In reading we will focus on reviewing “Author’s Purpose”
- In writing we will continue to write Information Writing.
- In math we will work on “capacity and temperature”
- Our theme next week is all about Presidents!.
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.
- 2/20--President’s Day NO SCHOOL
- 2/24--ABC’s of Ag Field Trip...no chaperones needed
- 3/3--Movie Night K-2
- 3/10--End of 3rd Nine Weeks
- 3/13-3/17--Parent Teacher Conferences
- 3/27-3/31--Spring Break NO SCHOOL
