We had such a great time celebrating friendship today with our Valentine's exchange. The class really enjoyed sharing cards and treats with their friends. The teachers loved all the cards and treats too! A big thank you to Mrs. Smith for coming in for Fun Friday today. We had a great time sorting, counting, and graphing candy hearts and decorating
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We enjoyed discussing Groundhog Day and seeing if our predictions were correct for this year. We discovered that groundhogs live in burrows and hibernate in winter. We read the book, "Groundhog Gets a Say", and learned many more facts about groundhogs. Ask your child some facts and if the groundhog saw his shadow this year. Thank you so much to Mrs. Westney for coming in and making Groundhog Cupcakes with us for Fun Friday today.
We read the story, "Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears" and discussed story elements. We discussed the characters, setting, problem, and solution in the story. Ask your child to retell you the story at home and discuss the story elements together. We continued working with Base 10 Blocks this week and discussed how teen numbers are made up of a group of ten and extra ones. We will continue working on composing and decomposing teen numbers next week too. Next Week's Themes: Guided Reading, Story Elements- Snowy Day, Valentine's Day, Composing and Decomposing Numbers in the Teens Popcorn Words: have, like, am *We will have a Valentine's Card exchange on Friday, February 13th. We had a great week continuing Writing Workshop and Daily 5 & Guided Reading. We introduced a new Word Work center, "Stamp It Out", and the class really enjoyed practicing writing popcorn words using stamps. We continued working on Opinion Writing too! We really enjoyed reading Strega Nona, Her Story and discussing story elements. We discussed the characters, setting, plot (beginning, middle, and end), problem, and solution. Ask your child to retell the story to you by reminding them about these important story elements.
We loved exploring Gravity and Motion in the Science Lab today. Thank you to all the parents that volunteered to help with this fun activity. Look for pictures in the January Photo Gallery. We continued working with Base 10 and Ten Frames in math this week. We will continue with Base 10 next week by composing and decomposing numbers in the teens. We will introduce writing an addition sentence to represent composing a teen number (10+5=15) and decomposing a teen number (15=10+5). Themes for Next Week: Guided Reading, Opinion Writing, Story Elements, Gravity & Motion, Groundhog Day, Composing and Decomposing Numbers in the Teens Popcorn Words: he, she, do We had such a wonderful day celebrating the 100th Day of School! All of the 100 year old costumes were amazing! We enjoyed going to Ms. Thomas and Mrs. Peters' classes to do 100th Day activities. We loved having our 4th Grade Tech Buddies help turn us into 100 Year Olds and we wrote about what we thought it would be like to be 100. We also played a fun 100 Bingo Game and really enjoyed seeing all the 100 Collections you brought in for homework this week. We loved our snack of 100 items and reading the story, Emily's First 100 Days of School.
We continued working with ten frames, base ten blocks, and numbers in the teens for math. We also learned about gravity in Science. Check out the Photo Gallery for new pictures. Next Week's Themes: Writing Workshop- Opinion Writing, Guided Reading, Base 10 for Numbers 11-19, Motion & Science Lab Popcorn Words: with, say, ran We learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the holiday in his honor this week. We read the book, Martin's Big Words, and learned that Martin taught people to use words and love not violence to solve problems. We discussed the character traits of Martin Luther King, Jr. and created an art project that goes along with the story. A big thank you to Mrs. Leach for sending in items for Fun Friday this week. Check out pictures of our snack.
We are so excited to begin our new Writing Workshop Unit on Opinion/Persuasive Writing. We introduced learned about the difference between facts and opinions as we wrote this week. We also had fun playing Binky's Fact and Opinion game on the ActivBoard. We learned more this week about numbers in the teens. We learned that numbers in the teens have a group of ten. We explored these groups of ten by using ten frames and base ten blocks. Check out the songs we learned about ten frames and base ten in the Math Songs section. I finished all the testing of new reading levels this week and sent the information home on Thursday. I am so so proud of the progress everyone made. I also updated all the new levels in RAZ Kids. Next Week's Themes: Writing Workshop, Guided Reading, Base Ten for Numbers 11-19, 100th Day of School & Gravity Popcorn Words: all, want *The 100th Day of School is on Friday! We have so many fun activities planned for this day. Three papers are in your child's folder with information about these activities. I will also upload them to the Homework Section. Welcome back! We had a great week reestablishing our rituals and routines, seeing our friends, and writing about our Winter Break. We discussed how families celebrate the New Year and wrote about our New Year's Resolution. Ask your child what he/she would like to do in 2015.
Thank you so much to Mrs. Whittle for volunteering for Fun Friday this week! We made "sparklers" and pretended to count down to the New Year. We also enjoyed learning about Winter, Frozen City, and Polar Animals in our Let's Find Out Magazines this week too. We reviewed writing numerals and counting and labeling sets this week. We also learned about comparing sets and numbers this week. We talked about greater than, less than, and equal to and learned a fun new song called the Number Eating Alligator (check it out in Math Videos). We will continue counting next week and using 10 Frames. Next Week's Themes: Writer's Workshop-Persuasive Writing, Guided Reading, 10 Frames and Counting, Martin Luther King, Jr. Popcorn Words: find, funny We had a wonderful time traveling to our last location in our passport; The North Pole. We viewed the Polar Ice Caps through Google Earth and also looked at the mountains and land near the North Pole. We learned about the tundra and many of the animals that live there. We also saw many pictures of arctic animals that have white fur to camouflage themselves in the ice and snow. We loved reading The Polar Express and then watching the movie in our pajamas! We compared the book and the movie and discussed all the story elements like the characters, setting, problem, solution, and the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
We had an amazing Winter Party and enjoyed seeing you all there. Thank you again for your donations and volunteering too! See you again on January 6th! Don't forget about Wolfie's Winter Challenge during the break. Next Week's Themes: New Year's Resolutions, Winter, Reading Stamina, Guided Reading, Comparing Numerals and Sets, & The Mitten by Jan Brett Popcorn Words: new & little This week we continued our trip around the world by traveling to Israel, India, and Africa. We used Google Earth to “fly” to each location. Ask your child to tell you all about the food, children, and celebrations in these countries.
Israel: Families in Israel celebrate Hanukkah. They light one candle each night in the menorah for the eight nights of Hanukkah. Children play with dreidels, eat chocolate coins called gelt and latkes (potato pancakes), and get gifts. India: Families in India celebrate Diwali in autumn. They celebrate with stories, lights, and fireworks. They light special oil lamps. Africa: Kwanzaa is an African American holiday that celebrates their African ancestors and traditions. Kwanzaa lasts for seven days, so they light seven candles in the kinara, and learn about the seven principles. A big THANK YOU to Mr. Sherman and his mom and dad for coming in and making latkes and playing dreidel with our class this week! We continued our genre of Informational Writing this week by writing facts and information about a topic your child knows a lot about. We also read a new book in Guided Reading this week and worked on our Reading Strategies too. Ask your child about Eagle Eye, Lips the Fish, and Stretchy Snake. Encourage them to use their strategies while reading at home. Don't forget all parents are invited to the Holiday Party on Thursday, December 18th from 12:30-1:30. Please check your email from the Room Mom to sign up to send supplies. We can't wait to see you all next week! Themes for Next Week: Holidays Around the World, North Pole, Informational Writing, Letters Tt & Mm,Read to Self, Counting and Writing Numerals Popcorn Words: said, help, here **We will take our first field trip to the Teaching Museum on Tuesday. Please have your child where his/her lime green grade level t-shirt on this day. Please do not plan to eat with your child in the cafeteria on this day since we will be eating in our classroom on after we return. This week we began our Social Studies Unit about Holidays Around the World by taking a trip by traveling to Mexico, England, and Germany. We used Google Earth to “fly” to each location. Show your child your house on Google Earth and let them explore different countries at home. We really enjoyed reading many non-fiction books with information about the different countries and holidays. Ask your child about the customs and traditions we learned about. We loved filling in our passports for the countries we visited this week and can’t wait to fill in more next week too!
Mexico: We learned about Las Posadas, the legend of the poinsettia, and piñatas. They say “Feliz Navidad!” England: Children hang stockings or socks for Father Christmas to put gifts in. They write letters to Father Christmas asking him for presents and put them in the fireplace. They say “Happy Christmas!” Germany: The tradition of Christmas Trees came from Germany. They call it a Tannenbaum. Children put their shoes out for Saint Nicholas to put gifts in if they are good or switches in if they are bad. They say “Frohliche Weihnachten.” We really enjoyed reading books during Reading Groups this week. We discussed using the pictures to help us with words we don't know, looking at the first letter in a word to help us with unknown words, finding patterns in stories, and retelling a story. We also continued Reading to Self and built our stamina up to 10 minutes. Please continue to have your child read just right books at home to help build stamina too. We continued writing numerals this week and counting too. Have your child practice counting sets and writing their numerals at home. We learned a great song to help us remember that numbers in the teens start with a 1. Please practice writing numerals 0-20 (or 30 when your child masters to 20) at home. When we do the assessment for this, your child cannot receive credit for counting 14 objects if they write the number 41. We will continue practicing this next week as well. Next Week's Themes: Holidays Around the World- India, Israel, & Africa, Counting and Labeling Sets, Informational Writing, Guided Reading, Read to Self, & Letters Vv & Kk Popcorn Words: come, run We continued our genre of Informational Writing this week by discussing that writers write about what they know a lot about. We discussed that informational writing teaches information about a topic (like non-fiction stories). We will continue writing next week and the students will get to "teach"
the class from the information in their books about a topic of their choice. We will continue writing our numerals next week in Math. Please have your child practice writing numerals 1 through 10 at home. We learned the Dr. Jean Numeral Song to help us correctly form our numerals. Check your child's folder for the words and directions for this song to use at home. Also, check out the Numeral Song in the Songs/Videos tab. We have really enjoyed learning about Thanksgiving for Social Studies this week. We learned about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians and how they helped celebrate the harvest after a very hard, cold winter. Check out some of the Thanksgiving Songs we learned this week in the Songs/Videos tab. We are looking forward to seeing how Thanksgiving was celebrated "then" and "now", learning facts and information about turkeys, pilgrims, Native Americans, and the first Thanksgiving. Discuss with your child your Thanksgiving Traditions this weekend to share with us next week. We loved seeing all the clever and creative disguises for your turkeys today. The turkeys were so thankful not to be recognized as dinner! Thank you Mrs. Campbell for making turkey cookies with us for Fun Friday today! We also can't wait for our Thanksgiving Feast next Friday. Please remember to send in your donations by 12:00 p.m. Next Week's Themes: Informational Writing, Guided Reading, Letters Ii & Jj, Numeral Writing, Thanksgiving Long Ago and Now Popcorn Words: |