Math
This week we introduced the concept of a number story. We used our interactive whiteboard to create our own number stories such as, "Ryan saw 2 green leaves on the tree and Maggie saw 2 orange leaves on the tree. How many leaves did they see in all?" Then we wrote a number sentence (or a number model) to match our story, 2 + 3 = 5.
The children also learned about symmetry this week by looking at many different examples of symmetrical shapes. We took a closer look at our leaf collection and found several leaves that were symmetrical. We even did some symmetry painting!
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| Symmetry Painting |
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| What a masterpiece! |
The children also played a new math game this week called Name That Number. For this game, the children practiced rolling a die, counting the number of dots, and writing the matching number in one of the columns labeled 1-6. The first column filled to the top was the winner! This game not only reinforces number writing skills, it also helps students practice automatically naming the number of dots on the die. Dice games are a fun way to reinforce math skills at home. Tenzi is a fun dice game that we love to play at home! I included a picture of the game below.
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| Playing "Roll That Number" |
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| Tenzi |
The children also practiced writing the numbers 8 and 9. The rhymes below helped us remember how to form each number.
Make an "S" and do not wait.
Go right back up and there's an 8!
A loop and down line.
That's the way to make a 9!
Jolly Phonics
We completed Jolly Phonics Book #3 this week and learned the sounds and motions for the following letters:
Ll as in "lion"
Ll as in "lion"
Ff as in "fish"
Bb as in "bubble"
We review the sounds and motions for the letters we have learned frequently in class. Some tricky ones to keep practicing at home are all the vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, and u), d, b, g, and r. The children often want to make the /j/ sound for "g" and the /er/ sound for the "r" instead of the /r/ sound like you hear in the word "rug." All of their hard work learning these sounds will really pay off in learning how to read and write.
Literacy
The children learned the sight word "like" this week, and we used the word "like" in our writing during Writer's Workshop time. The children also spent some time hunting for our sight words in books. This is a great activity to do at home too! We read several fall books this week including: Fall Walk, Count Down to Fall, and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf. We also read a book about Christopher Columbus and sang a song called "Sail Your Ship." We used the Count Down to Fall book to do a second "close reading" of the text. During a close reading, the children are encouraged to go back and think more deeply about the words and pictures in the book in order to gain a deeper understanding of the story and the author's message. In the picture below, the children had to close their eyes and listen to the words on one page of the story--"Six linden leaves in Valentine shapes" and think about what shape linden leaves might be. Children drew leaf shapes on sticky notes and shared their ideas with the class. We will be doing many close readings of text throughout the year to help students develop deeper comprehension skills that are reflected in the Common Core Standards.
We had two special guest readers this week too. Luciano's mom shared a beautiful story with the morning class, and Aleena's mom shared a wonderful presentation about Eid in the afternoon. We loved having you! Thank you!
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| Close Reading Lesson |
Science
We began our study of leaves this week by reading a book called What Is a Scientist? We learned that scientists ask questions and try to find answers to those questions by making observations, noticing details, and conducting experiments. We read a nonfiction book called Colorful Leaves that taught us about many different types of leaves. We made crayon rubbings of several different leaves and labeled each one and then assembled our pages into a book to make a Leaf Field Guide. Feel free to take it along on your next nature walk! The children also spent some time investigating the many leaves that were brought in this week. The children first used their own eyes to make observations about the different leaves. Their observations included things like: leaves come in all sizes, shapes, and colors, some leaves are soft and others are crunchy, and most leaves have stems. Then they used magnifying glasses to really notice the details in the leaves. This time their observations included things like: some leaves have veins, some leaves have tiny spots on them, some leaves look like bugs have bitten holes in them, and some leaves have cracks in them. The children did a great job investigating and noticing the details. We recorded our ideas on a class chart.
Centers
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| Leaf Rubbing |
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| Fox and the Falling Leaves |
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| Computer Center |
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| Buddy Reading Thanks for reading! |
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