Week in Review--Owls!

Poem of the week!

 

 

Writing:

-This week in writing we focused on true stories by writing and illustrating 3 page books.

- We focused on a different part of the story for each page:  Who?  Where? What is happening?

-We continued to work on writing middle sounds in words when we added the writing to each page of our books.

Reading:

-Our sight words this week was the word “with” and “my”! 

-Please remember to practice your sight word flashcards each day as part of your homework. This week my was frequently confused with me.

-We continued our word work this week in class picking out the 2 words that rhyme.  We also practiced listening to see if two given words had same beginning sound or the same ending sound. 

-We also worked on blending parts of a word (onset/rhyme) together to help us get ready for word families.

-The CAFÉ strategies we worked on this week were

“Retell a story in order”

“Comparing and contrasting”

How can you help your child with the strategies at home?

1. Encourage your child to retell you a story including the characters—focus on the beginning, middle, and end

2. While reading together, talk about the characters.  How are they alike?  How are they different?  If there is only one character, compare and contrast that character to your child or a character from another book.

IPADS

-Our ipads are up and running!  The apps we used this week were Raz-Kids, QR readers, and ABC Magic.  These apps allowed use to read to self, listen to books on the ipad, and practice beginning letter sounds.  Despite on or two technical issues we had a successful week using our new technology.

Math:

-In math this week we talked about different ways to make the numbers 1 through 5 using “The Story of…”

-We manipulated chips into different combinations that equaled the number of the day.

-We “read” our examples like a sentence---

  3 and 2 make 5,  4 and 1 make 5, 0 and 5 make 5

-We reviewed 3D shapes and sorted pictures of real world items that are those shapes during morning meeting

-We practiced recognizing numbers 1-25 using flashcards each time we lined up to go to specials.

Content:

-This week we talked about nocturnal animals, specifically owls.

-We reviewed text features with a Weekly Reader about owls

-We labeled the body parts of an owl on a diagram.

-We made owl puppets that gave facts about owls using “Owls can…”  “Owls have…” and “Owls are…” sentence starters.

-We read several owl books this week.  Skills we focused on using those books were the character’s feelings, comparing and contrasting, and predicting.

October Homework Club!

 

Next week:

--In writing we will be working on adding detail to our pictures and choosing pieces to publish.  We will also star working on editing a piece of writing.

 

--In math, we will extend our knowledge different ways to make the number 1-5 using number bonds and addition number sentences.

 

--In reading, we will focus on making a mental picture in our head.  We will also start word families.

 

--Our theme next week will continue to be nocturnal animals, specifically bats.

 

 

Week in Review--Spiders & Halloween!

Poem of the week!

 

Reading:

-Our sight words this week was the word “come” and “me”! 

-Please remember that from this point forward your child will have two new sight words each week.  That means there will be two sight word pages for homework.  However, there will still only be sight word book.

-We did some word work this week in class that you can practice at home as well.  When given 3 words, we picked out the 2 that rhyme.  When given 2 words we listened to see if they had the same beginning sound or the same ending sound. 

 

-The CAFÉ strategies we worked on this week were

“Retell a story including the character”

“Analyze and evaluate a story character”

 

How can you help your child with the strategies at home?

1. Encourage your child to retell you a story including the characters—focus on the beginning, middle, and end

2. While reading together, stop and discuss the story character(s).  How are they feeling? Do they change throughout the story or stay the same?

Writing:

-This week in writing we labeled objects around the classroom to identify items we could write about in our journals

- We added the/a to those labels to help us when using those words in our writing (the flag, a chair, a computer)

-We continued to work on writing middle sounds in words by saying the words slowly like a turtle and stretching them out like a snake

-We received and practiced using a new writer’s checklist this week.  The checklist will help us remember to do all the steps of writing on each of our journal pages.

Math:

-In math this week we reviewed our 2D shapes and introduced 3D shapes.

-See if you can find some 3D shapes around your house: sphere, cube, cylinder, and cone

-We counted the flat faces of each 3D shape and the corners.  Then we sorted pictures by 3D shape and added them to our chart.

-We reviewed 2D shapes and then worked with a partner to sort by shape

-We constructed shape monsters on Halloween using 2D shapes to build our creatures.

Content:

-This week was all about Halloween and spiders. We talked about our prior knowledge of spiders using the words: are, can, and have to chart our ideas. 

-Then we confirmed the things we thought we knew by using a nonfiction spider book and facts from the internet. 

-We read several Halloween books this week.  Skills we focused on using those books were the character’s actions, the character’s feelings, sounds in stories, rhyming words, and predicting.

 

GRANDPARENTS’ DAY

-Our celebration was a huge success!  We had a great turn out for our special day.  Thank you to everyone who made time in the day to come be with us.  A special thank you to the parents who came and helped out run the stations and the parents who adopted a second kindergartener for the morning.

Next week:

--In writing, we will begin writing 3 page books that tell who, where, and what happened

--In math, we will begin to explore different ways to make the number 1-5 using addition with “The Story of…”

--In reading, we will focus comparing and contrasting characters in different books and two characters in the same book

--Our theme next week will be owls as we continue to explore and learn about nocturnal animals

--We will start using the iPads in class!!!

Week in Review--The Season Fall!

Reading:

-Our sight word this week was the word "am". Starting next week, we will begin working on two sight words per week until the end of the school year. Be on the lookout for two sight word pages for homework, two sight word cards to practice, but only one sight word book.

-The CAFE strategy we worked on this was the strategy:

"Retell a story in sequence. Beginning/Middle/End."

-As a beginning reader, we are just learning many new things when it comes to reading. We first begin with basic print concepts, to decoding words and comprehending what we read. Practicing the strategy of retelling a story only describing what happened in the beginning, the middle and end in the correct sequence helps students comprehend what they are reading or being read to. This skill is mainly focused on after they are read a story at first in order to practice the skill without having to focus on many other skills when reading independently. We discuss how when you tell a story to someone about something you did, you tell it in an order that makes sense. You wouldn't tell your friend about your day and begin with dinner, then breakfast and finish with lunch. You would tell them in the order the events happened!

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

1. Have your child retell a story from your own lives in a sequence. This could be a family trip to the store, how dinner is made or even your child's bedtime routine. Have your child go through each step in order from what happens in the beginning, middle and end of that situation.
2. While reading a story, stop after each point in the book where it changes from the beginning, to the middle and the end. Discuss with your child why each point is considered the beginning, middle and end. What makes you believe that the focus in changing in the story to notice it is now the middle and the end?
3. Have your child pick a favorite book from home that they love to read all of the time. Encourage them to retell a friend, family member or even a pet what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story!

Math:

-This week in math we said goodbye to a few of our choices in Number Work and Math by Myself, and were introduced to two new items! One for Number Work and the other Math with Someone! The two new choices are creating numbers 1-20 using pattern blocks and the second one is practicing counting with a partner using a stuffed animal.
-During our whole group mini-lessons, we focused on sorting by shape! Last nine weeks our focus was sorting objects by color and this nine weeks we are working on sorting by shape. The students will be able to practice this choice at a Math by Myself next week.

Writing:
-This week in writing we began the week by practicing writing middle sounds in unknown words. When writing these words we followed a chart that helped us remember to "say it like a turtle, stretch it like a snack and write the sounds you hear." The class loved this strategy because they were able to relate to the idea of saying it slowing and stretching it out. The main focus is to write the beginning sound, a middle sound and an ending sound. There should only be 3-4 letters written for a word when writing phonetically at the beginning.
-Another mini-lesson this week focused on using our word wall words. These words are made up of our sight words that we practice in reading every week. These words are words that should be written correctly every time. In order to practice writing these words, we followed a chart that helped us practice looking at the word, take a picture of the word, write the word and after writing the word check that you wrote the word correctly by looking back to the wall. We practiced this by choosing a word and using our hands to pretend to hold up a camera to take a mental picture.













Content:
-This week was all about the season Fall! We started the week off by filling in a chart of things that reminded us of fall, as well as things we already know about fall. One of the favorites was jumping in leaves! We also talked about carving pumpkins, eating apple and pumpkin pie and going trick or treating as some of our favorite things from this season!
-We continued the week by going on a leaf hunt around our school where we focused on finding different types of leaves. We wanted to find crunchy, soft, different shapes, colors and sizes to fill our bags! We then used those leaves to sort and describe what we found and created leaf rubbings with one or more of them! 

Next week:

--In writing, we will be focusing on labeling items around the room & learning about narrative writing.

--In math, we will be learning 3D shapes!

--In reading, we will focus on analyzing characters!

--Our theme this next week is all spiders and Halloween!

--This is my last week in the classroom. My maternity leave will begin next week. Mrs. Michelle Stevens will be taking the classroom over. I’m excited for the class to have such a wonderful teacher to love in my absence! 

PRACTICE AT HOME:

Have your child practice writing our sight words. Have your child pretend to take a picture of the word, write it down somewhere and look back to see if they got it correct! this skill will focus on being able to take a mental picture to help them remember what the word looks like!