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.