Weekly News (Jan. 3-6)

Happy New Year! We have had a great start to 2017. Take a peek below to see what we have been learning in the new year.

All About Me
The class loved learning all about Brooks before we headed off for winter break. We learned that Brooks likes to play baseball, and he is a big sports fan. He enjoys watching the Miami Dolphins, and he is a HUGE Cubs fan! We also learned that Brooks likes to collect Pokeman cards and build with Legos. He LOVES tacos and spending time with his family too!

Thank you to Brook's mom for coming in to read to the class.
We loved listening to Leonardo the Terrible Monster!

Another great read aloud before break--Miss Nelson is Missing.
Thank you to Gia's mom for coming in to read it to us!

Math

This week in math we reinforced addition concepts by sorting a collection of dominoes by their sums. We also learned about the concept of weight and practiced using a pan balance. We passed around a cupful of silk flower petals and a cupful of plastic gems and made predictions about which set of objects was heavier. We used the pan balance to test out and confirm our predictions and learned that a pan balance is like a seesaw. The heavier side goes down and the light side goes up. We also learned that the pans are balanced when both sides have an equal amount of weight.

The students also loved learning how to play Monster Squeeze this week, which is a game where students have to figure out the "mystery number" using a number line. A paper version of this game was sent home during the week, but students can also play an online version of the game using the Everyday Math login info that was sent home at conferences. Students were also introduced to the app version of this game. 

Literacy

Reading Workshop

We began the mini-lesson portion of our Fiction Unit this week. Using two short stories, Where is Little Bear's Hat and Waking Up Farmer Fred, the children learned how to make good predictions and practiced retelling the story in order. They also practiced listening for repeated phrases and patterns within each story. The students also had time to shop for new books for their book boxes--always a highlight for the week! 

Guided Reading

The children were thrilled to begin meeting in guided reading groups this week and were excited to bring their new book home to read. During our guided reading time, I meet with students in groups to read a book at their instructional reading level and to work on a variety of literacy and word work activities that match the needs of each group. A letter was sent home this week with information about how you can support your child at home, but if you have additional questions, please feel free to ask at any time! We will continue to add books to our blue book bags each week. Be on the lookout for a new book next week!

While I am meeting with groups of students for guided reading, the rest of the class works on a variety of math and literacy activities as well as some self-selected options. They have been doing a GREAT job working independently!

 

Writing Workshop

I absolutely LOVED reading all about what the children did over their winter break! I could tell everyone thoroughly enjoyed the time off with family and friends. This week we took our writing up a notch by writing and illustrating two sentences about our break. Their confidence as writers continues to grow!

The students have also been doing a great job setting goals for their writing each week and then reflecting on their work. Take a peek at them in action below!

Handwriting

Now that we have finished learning our Jolly Phonics sounds, we have bumped up our handwriting instruction using the Handwriting Without Tears program. The students will be learning and practicing 2-3 letters per week. Once we finish learning the capital letters, we will move onto lowercase. Below you will find a guide for forming each letter as well as the language we use to learn the order of the strokes.

Jolly Phonics

Now that all the Jolly Phonics sounds have been introduced, please continue to review these sounds with your child regularly using the flashcards in your child's blue book bag. Knowing their sounds well really helps when learning to read and write. I can tell many of the children have been practicing! Keep up the great work!

Gingerbread Engineering

Before winter vacation, the students worked to solve a problem that we noticed kept happening in many of the gingerbread stories we read---how can the gingerbread character get safely across the water? Working together in teams, the students identified the problem, developed a plan, and created a prototype of their design. Here are their final products. They did an amazing job!!

Thanks for reading!

Have a great weekend!