Apple Week!

Apple week was a success! We examined our apples and came up with words to describe the way they looked and felt. We also read about Johnny Appleseed and made our very own apple tree with Johnny’s help and placed 10 apples on the tree! To finish the week off we had an apple tasting with the different colors of apples, applesauce, apple pie, caramel apples and apple juice! Thank you to all of the families who donated items for our apple tasting. Be sure to have your child show you their tasting page to see which items they liked and which ones they did not.

                 

(Insert child's name) picked 10 apples with Johnny Appleseed!

Week in Review!

Reading:

-Our sight word this week was the word “we”.

-We practiced the reading strategies “Name the Characters” in a story. When we read, we often recognize common elements of a story that include plot, character, setting, and theme. We use these elements to help us infer what will happen next. As readers, when we identify and understand these elements, we store this information to help us remember and comprehend what the story is about. Literary elements work together to form the story and make it interesting. We learn literary elements separately, but we combine them when reading to give us a better understanding of the story. It is important that children specifically look for these elements as they first learn them. It is through  exposure and practice that readers become good at using these elements to comprehend text.

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

--When reading a story with your child, discuss the
character. Begin by asking your child who or what the story is about.

Math:

-This week we continued to practice number recognition 1-20, counting and naming and describing the 2D shapes.

-The red math folders were sent home on Wednesday. The math pages inside are beginning of the year math activities that are to be completed with your help/guidance. Return this folder before or by the last school day in October. I will send the next round of math activities to be completed at home the following month.

-PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE numbers 1-20! J

 

Writing:

 

-We introduced our specific writing goals this week. Each child knows all of the areas of writing we have introduced and are practicing but each student has a specific goal on the board that he/she is to focus on when they are writing. The goal is a writing strategy that will help them progress in their writing and become better writers!



Poem of the Week--We Can

WHAMMY!

One of our new fun Friday activities is to play the game WHAMMY! We have started off by putting Popsicle sticks with each of the letters A-Z written on them. We go around the circle and students take a turn to pull a stick out of the red cup. They say the sound the letter makes on their stick, if they get the letter correct they get to keep the stick! The object of the game is to have the most sticks at the end, however there is one stick in the cup that says "WHAMMY". If a student pulls that stick out he/she has to put all of the sticks back into the cup! It gets quite hilarious as the anticipation builds to see who will get the WHAMMY stick!

Number Recognition & Counting 1-10!

Today we practiced our numbers 1-10 by using our floor number line. The first part of the lesson each student had a chance to take a bean bag and toss it on the correct number that was called out. The second part of the lesson, each student had a chance to walk the number line and count out loud the numbers as he/she stepped on them! We are having fun learning our numbers!

Weekly Poem--Down by the Station

Mini-Lesson on Beginning & Ending Sounds

We have been focusing a lot on beginning sounds in words, as well as indivdual letter sounds so far this school year. Today, we began to also look at the ending sounds in words. We focused on four different words...ladder, jeep, wagon and moon. We looked at the beginning sound, said the sound and made the signal and then did the same thing for the ending sound in the word. We then pointed to the beginning sound to match the picture to the sound and also did the same for the ending sound. This is a pre-reading strategy that will help students when they are practicing the strategy match the picture to the word.

Vocabulary Words

During our 90 minute reading block we have added in a mini-lesson focusing on specific vocabulary words found in one of our books that we also read to focus on other reading strategies. For example, this week we are reading the story Building With Dad. When we first read the story today, we focused on the reading strategy "Main Idea in a Story". Later on in the reading block we went back to the book and focused in on six specific words found in the story and discussed the meaning behind those words. We will refer back to these words throughout the week. Each week, we will get a new set of vocabulary words.

Music & Movement Fun

During our music and movement today we listened to a song that gave us different directions on what to do...the options were walking, galloping, tip-toeing, running, skating and hopping!

Whammy!

We played our first round of a game called WHAMMY today! Every Friday we will play this game during our second round of Daily 5. Each student takes a turn to pull a stick from the cup. At the beginning of the year, the sticks have all of the letters of the alphabet on them. When a student pulls the stick out he/she says the letter sound on the stick. Later in the year we will have sight words and CVC word families in the cup. After you say the correct sound, you get to keep the sick in your pile. There is one stick in the cup that has the word WHAMMY written on it. If a student pulls this stick out all of the sticks in their pile go back in the cup. The person with the most sticks at the end of the game wins!

Stretching Fun--Poem of the Week

A Little Ball--Poem of the Week

Play-Doh Numbers

This week is all about our letters and ABC fun! During our content time this week, we are having fun with our favorite 26 letters. Today, we took our letter cards and traced them using Play-doh. Practicing our letters in a different way only adds to the excitement of learning each and every one!

Substitute Award Winners!

I was out sick yesterday and the substitute chose 4 students as the "Substitute Award Winners" Way to go!!

Shaving Cream Letter Writing!

We have been practicing our handwriting of each of the letters of the alphabet everyday since school started. We took a break today and had a little fun by smearing shaving cream on our tables and writing the letters we have practiced in it. What messy fun!

Word Work Practice

We have our third choice for Daily 5 available to practice! We first started by modeling all of the aspects of Word Work and talked about the students jobs during this choice and then of course my job during Word Work. The first activity the class can choose for Word Work is to use the dry erase board and practice writing ABC's, sight words and classroom names.