Merry Christmas

 

The last few weeks we have been busy little elves in room 102. The kids have worked hard at their end of the quarter testing, and they have also been busy writing narratives, reviewing addition and subtraction, and reading various Gingerbread stories. We have have compared and contrasted several versions of the Gingerbread Man and have reviewed various comprehension strategies to go along with our stories (character traits, story elements, and point of view). On Monday, our elf, Kringle arrived along with a letter and picture of Santa. The kids worked on writing their letters to Santa on Monday in hopes that Kringle would take note of their needs and wants. Through this writing activity we talked about the difference between a need and a want, and practiced using commas in a series as we wrote our letter. The kids enjoyed writing their letters as well as completing the elf that went along with this writing project. We ended our Christmas festivities today with a Pancake Party. A big thanks to our Bright Futures Sponsors, Eyecare Specialities for providing and cooking pancakes for our class. The all loved the yummy breakfast and fun saran wrap game.

 

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and relaxing break! I will see all my kiddos on January 3rd. When we come back Mrs. Trebble, will be in our room as a student teacher. I am looking forward to the awesome experience of getting to co-teach with her.   

Weekly News for December 11th-December 15th

This week we will begin reviewing and testing since 2nd quarter is almost over. We will also be doing various activities that go along with Christmas and our story this week, The Gingerbread Man. Please remember tomorrow we will be shopping at the Penguin Patch Holiday Shop. Several of the kids have already brought in their money, but if you have not sent money and would like to, please do so tomorrow. Also, Friday is our Christmas Program at 10:00 in the cafeteria. The kids look forward to sharing with you the songs they have been practicing.  

Week of December 4th-8th

This week we focused on cause and effect and more specifically on how the seasons effect people, plants, animals. We read the story Snowy Day at the beginning of the week and found various cause and effects in the story, and then we also read Four Seasons for Little People and discussed the effects of each season. After building background knowledge about the four seasons and cause and effect, the students used the informational text, Seasons to help them gather facts about Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. The students then used the information they read throughout the week to help them complete their own Books of Seasons. We worked as a class to gather facts and write an acrostic poem about each season. The kids ended the week by writing about their favorite season, and they used facts from their Book of Seasons to help them with their writing.

 On Tuesday, Slugger visited CIS and Henry for an assembly. The kids enjoyed this engaging experience, while learning about the importance of teamwork.

In math, we finished up place value. We spent the week practicing comparing numbers as well as ordering numbers from greatest to least and from least to greatest. In order to meet the needs of each student,  I differentiated the instruction by placing them in small groups to work on specific skills. Some groups worked on place value to the thousands this past week as well as expanded form, while other groups focused strictly on ordering numbers and patterns. Although a lot of math work has not went home, your child is learning and completing lots of stuff in their math journal. Next week we will be reviewing and testing since the end of 2nd quarter is approaching. When we come back from break, we will begin addition to 20. Keep working on those facts to 10 at home.

Congrats to Ellis for being our Student of the Month winner for Kindness and Haddon for earning the reading award!

Wright's Weekly News December 4th-8th

*Please note that the Christmas Program is at 10:00 on December 15th. This is a different time then I sent out last week.*

Under the Sea

                                                     
This week included tons of research and lots of learning as well as excitement. We began our week talking about author's purpose. The kids learned that the three reasons authors write are to persuade, to inform, and to entertain.  Each student created a flip book that included the three reasons why author's write and examples of books that go along with each purpose. The kids enjoyed finding books in the Scholastic Book Order that were written to either persuade, inform, or entertain. After understanding author's purpose the students were ready to apply their knowledge to the text that went along with our theme. After our read aloud, Rainbow Fish, the students had to write a reading response of what the author's purpose was for the story and how they knew that was the author's purpose. Later in the week the students read in partners about turtles or crabs. After reading about these sea animals each pair of students used a web to help them gather facts about the topic. Then, they used the important details to infer what the author's purpose was to their reading.

            

We continued our informative research and writing on Thursday and Friday. The students read, Sea Animals in their journeys book independently, and then as a class we used the information we read about to create a web. The students then got to choose based on this text if they wanted to do further research on one of the four Sea Animals: turtles, fish, sharks, or coral reefs. After picking their topic of interest, each student created a web of facts using various informational books. The students worked collaboratively to read and find various facts to help support their main idea. After finding facts, the students used their web help them write an informational writing piece. In their writing they had to include a topic sentence and at least three details. Some students wrote more than three details and even included an ending sentence. After writing their informational pieces, the students presented their writing to the class. I was so impressed by the kids hard work on this project and their excitement!

In math, we began place value. We focused this week on the importance of using place value to help us count on and compose numbers. At the beginning of the week we practiced making groups of 10 and counting on. The kids inferred how much easier and faster this was then counting one to one. We also spent time building various numbers using a place value chart. The students used their own place value boards to build numbers 10 to 20. In addition to building number we also learned how numbers are made. For instance, 16 is not 1 and 6. It is really 10 and 6 that make 16. The students practiced using the correct vocabulary this week as they composed numbers. It is important that students see that a number, such as 16, is really 1 group of ten and 6 ones. This concept is so crucial as we begin comparing numbers next week.

November 27th-December 1st

Giving Thanks

The last week and half has been full of learning, fun, and giving thanks. We have focused a lot on the Pilgrims and Indians as well as the First Thanksgiving. To start our week, we discussed various events and people we celebrate throughout the year, and we learned the importance of why we celebrate these important events and people. Then, after defining and discussing what the word "celebrate" means, we began researching and reading about the Pilgrims. We read aloud a book that explained about the Pilgrims voyage and their eagerness to find freedom. After reading together about the Pilgrims, the students read in partners "A Pilgrims Day." Then, as a class we discussed the similarities and differences of life as pilgrim child long ago and the life as a child today. By using a venn diagram students were challenged to think even more on their own of how food, houses, toys, and clothing long ago compared to those things we have today. We also wrote an informational writing piece about Pilgrims and focused more specifically on improving our topic sentences. After learning about the Pilgrims, we focused on the Wampanoag Indian tribe. The students were intrigued by this group of Indians and their role in helping the Pilgrims as they came to America. In addition to reading various non-fiction texts about the Native Americans, we also played a trivia game. This opportunity brought about good discussion and teamwork as the kids had to work together in their teams to agree upon if the various statements about the Wampanoag Indians were facts or opinions. The kids loved getting to learn about the Indians and really enjoyed making their vests and headbands for the feast using the Native American symbols and signs.

The last two days we have focused on The First Thanksgiving and why it was celebrated. Not only did students use the read aloud text to help them build their knowledge of this event, they also used their background knowledge of Pilgrims and Indians to help them make inferences about the First Thanksgiving. After reading and learning about the First Thanksgiving, the students each created their own web about this event and used their web to write a topic sentence with 3 details. After much discussion, questioning, reading and writing the students definitely understood better the significance of Thanksgiving. Finally, to end our week each student reflected on what they were thankful for, and then they wrote about one specific thing using details to support their reason.

On that note, I want to express to you how blessed I am by your kiddos. I consider it a privilege to teach your child each day, and I am so grateful to have such a rewarding and fun job that doesn't feel like work at all. Thank you for trusting me with your most precious gifts and giving me the chance to love, inspire, and teach them. I appreciate your confidence in me and your support. Your children have already left a special mark on my life, and I have realized I need them more then they probably need me. I consider it great honor having the opportunity to teach your child, and I count it as one of my greatest blessings this Thanksgiving. My heart is full!

  

P.S. - We did do other stuff the last week and half like reading and writing "l" blend words, making patterns using shapes, and using ordinal numbers, but the highlight has been our theme, The First Thanksgiving.

Wright's Weekly News

This week we studied two different authors, Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss. I read to the kids Eric Carle's biography, and then together we picked out important facts and made an anchor chart. The kids read independently about Dr. Seuss and wrote down important facts in their writing journals. After reading about each author, the students learned about text and graphic features. In our text, Dr. Seuss, we found the following Non-Fiction text features: table of contents, captions, photographs, and bold face words. In order to help us identify and recall these features, we created a book to share with our families. Throughout the week we read various stories written by Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss. As a recap of the week we wrote an informational piece about Eric Carle. Before they wrote independently, I modeled for the students how to write an informational writing piece with their help using facts we had learned from Dr. Seuss' biography. I emphasized the importance of topic sentences, and we discussed various examples of good introduction sentences.

Our phonics focus was on "s blends." Throughout the week the students practiced hearing, writing, and reading "s blend" words. We did various word and picture sorts, as well as an "s blend" spider that we used to write down various words we came up with that had "s blends." Our end of the week spelling assessment consisted of shaving cream fun with "s blends". 

We continued learning about shapes this week in math, but more specifically we focused on 3-D shapes. In our math journals we glued a picture of each 3-D shape and listed various attributes for each shape. After exploring each shape's attributes, the kids experimented in groups which shapes could stack, slide, and roll. We ended our week by finding shapes in the real world through a shape hunt. We then reviewed our findings and shared what we discovered on Friday. 

Weekly News November 7th-10th

Our Week

Our phonics focus this week was on r blends. We practiced sorting r blend picture words in groups on Monday, finding r blends in our weekly poem on Tuesday, alphabetizing our words on Wednesday, and making r blend words on Thursday. Today we did a quick spelling and reading assessment to end our week with r blends. 

The comprehension focus this week was main idea and details. In order to help the students understand the concept of main idea, I brought in several mystery bags with various clues. After showing the clues to the students they had to guess the main idea of my bag. For example, one bag had a measuring cup, cookie cutter, spatula, and whisk. The kids used the clues to figure out that the main idea of that bag was baking. After doing some whole group practice, the students had the chance to go on their own main idea mystery hunt around the room. They used picture clues to solve the main idea of the various bags throughout the room. After practicing identifying main idea we applied this to our read aloud text about bats. The students drew detailed pictures from the text on puzzle pieces. We discussed how all the pieces of a puzzle are details that come together to create the main idea of the puzzle, just like all the details in a book come together to make the main idea of the book. After that, the students used what they learned about main idea and details to make a simple web about the story they read, How Animals Communicate. Today, we used what we have learned about animals, main idea, and webs to create team posters. Since the students got new groups today, I made each team decide on a group name that was an animal. Then, they had to use the books that corresponded to their animal to do research about their animal. The details they found out about their animals had to be used in a way they could apply them to classroom procedures, rules, and expectations. For instance the tiger group, said they were going to follow directions quickly because tigers are fast. The kids had so much fun with this, and it really encouraged some creative as well as fun thinking. 

In math, we began shapes. The first part of the week we practiced identifying triangles, squares, rectangles, and circles as well as getting to know their attributes.  We discussed more specifically how many corners and sides all the various shapes have. Then, we made shape monsters only using paper triangles, squares, rectangles, and circles. After the kids made their monsters they wrote about their monster's features (eyes, mouth, nose) and what their monster can do. Once the students learned all the shapes attributes, they then learned how they can sort shapes. They practiced sorting shapes and comparing how they are alike and different based on color, shape, and size. Today we finished learning about 2-D shapes by paritioning shapes into halves and fourths. The kids enjoyed using (and eating) cookies to help them demonstrate their understanding of fractions.  

Weekly News for October 30th-November 3rd

A Spooktacular Week in Room 102

The last few weeks have been full of fall, writing, and hard work. We began wrapping up our narrative unit last week by beginning our last element of the unit, which is the engaging learning experience (ELE). Our ELE included three tasks: a pumpkin investigation, writing a class book, and publishing personal narratives about a fall experience that we can share with other classes and our families. Together we had fun learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin and making estimations about our pumpkin's height, weight, and circumference. After making predictions we made our pumpkin into a Jack-o-lantern and then we ate pumpkin pie. We used this fun experience to write a class narrative. After that, each student wrote their own narrative about a fall experience. This past week we worked on editing our rough drafts, and today we completed our final drafts and illustrations to our stories. Our book gets sent to be published on Tuesday! I look forward to seeing the finished project, as do the kids. This learning experience was a memorable one, and the kids really enjoyed getting to put what they have learned over the last nine weeks into practice. The kids were excited to write because this activity had meaning, and they felt as though they were really authors sharing their experiences, which is what reading and writing is all about.  The books take about 20 days to be published but they might be here sooner. I am hoping to get them by Thanksgiving break. I know the kids are anxious to share them with their families and friends.

  

      

In addition to completing working on narratives, we have also been reviewing this week sequence of events and comparing and contrasting. We read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat. We compared and contrasted the two stories and practiced putting the things that were swallowed back in order. We also made up our own sequence of items that the old lady swallowed through a writing activity and then shared our made up version with each other. Throughout the week we did various long e activities which included a class sort, scavenger hunt, sentence writing, and long e tree. We also went over our narrative post test together and talked about the answers. This was very beneficial for the students. 

 

In math, we finished our subtraction unit today. We began our week by reviewing fact families and completing a fact family scavenger hunt, and then we reviewed subtraction word problems. We also did some mixed fact practice and word problems. I was hoping to get another subtraction timed test in this week, but we just weren't able to get one in. We will take one on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week. If your child received multiplication flashcards they will begin taking a timed test over those facts next week instead of subtraction. Next week we will begin exploring shapes as well as partitioning shapes.