Newsletter 1/11/19

We learned how to "super size" our Sound Power in Reading Workshop this week.  When books get harder, readers need to look at words and sounds more carefully.  We learned that readers not only look at the first letter of a word, but also search for blends and read sounds all the way to the end of a word.

We edited our narrative story and made a cover for it.  Our stories are great!  We also wrote 2 separate narrative pieces this week.

We began lower case letter writing this week, learning about letters that are the same shape as they are in capital form.  We familiarized ourselves with lower case writing lines, and learned that lower case letters can be tall, stay in the middle space, or descend below the writing line.

We spoke about the passage of time in math this week, solidifying our understanding of "before" and "after".  We also did an Exemplar problem solving activity in our math lessons this week.  See the attached photos for more information.

On Teddy Bear Sleepover Day, we read Corduroy, sequenced the events of the story, and wrote about our favorite part.  We also made our own bears to decorate the classroom.  They're hanging all over the ceiling!  We read to and wrote about our bears, too.  We were so surprised to see the trouble they made during the night!  See photos below.

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves are due on Monday
• No School 1/18 and 1/21
• Please be sure to label hats, mittens, etc

Before and after school I...

Lower case letter work

The beginning of our Exemplar

Solving the Exemplary using various manipulative models

Various diagrams to solve our Exemplar 

Our Class Diagram

Reading with our bears 

Look at what the bears did last night!

Happy New Year! Newsletter 1/4/19

It was great to get back together this week!  This is my FAVORITE time in the K year; the students are independent and and growing/learning so fast!  Just you wait and see!  We're really taking off now!

We spent some time with ABC books during Reading Workshop, because they can show us how certain letters can make more than one sound.  We learned games to play with ABC books and played them on our own and with partners.  We have been following Ezra Jack Keats' character named Peter, too.  We read Snowy Day in December, and this week we studied Peter's Chair.  This is always a K favorite, as Peter is struggling to adjust to life with a new baby in the house, and many students can relate.  Find it in the library if you haven't read it yet; it's worth a read. We also read Snowmen at Night and imagined what we would do if we were a snowman at nighttime.  Come see your child's artwork and writing about it in the hallway.

We wrote about what we did over our winter breaks and picked a piece to publish.  We've been using a checklist to help us write narrative stories- see photo below.  We'll edit and publish next week.

We learned how to "tap" in our phonics lessons this week.  Tapping provides students with a kinesthetic way to hear sounds within words.  We'll be tapping for months as it helps us segment and blend words in reading and writing.

We started a new unit in math.  Look for the Home/School connection sheet coming home today.
We revisited the concept of big/small, learned about capacity (a cup can hold more small items than larger items) and used appropriate positional language (in front of, beside, etc.) to describe and compare.

Lastly, we learned a new computer program, Learning A-Z (Raz-Kids)!  Everyone is reading just right books and earning stars!  They can't wait to play Raz-Kids and Dreambox at home!

News and Notes:

• Please send your child's Rough Draft Folder back to school on Monday
• Book sleeves due on Monday
• Teddy Bear Sleepover next Thursday!  Look for a blue note coming home today with important information.  
• January Scholastic book orders are due next Wednesday
• Your child has brought home his/her password, which enables Dreambox and Raz-Kids home access. Please read the yellow note sent home today. Enjoy!

Designing our Snowmen

We're so glad to see our friends again!

Reviewing capital letters

Learning about capacity

Comparing ABC Books

Our narrative writing checklist

Our Snowy Friends!

Newsletter 12/21/18

In Reading Workshop this week, we noticed that trickier books have pattern breaks!  We have to be extra careful while reading and look out for them.  We enjoyed showing our 5th Grade Buddies our amazing reading skills, too.

In Writing Workshop, we made a narrative writing checklist that will help us create our best work.  We used it while reading this week and it guided us to make smart decisions as authors.

In our math lessons, we played a lot of games that reinforced the concepts of more than, less than and fewer than.

We gathered Decembers's weather data, and despite how it feels today, it IS getting colder!

We made wonderful crafts this week and enjoyed extra play time and the all school sing-a-long.

Happy holidays and enjoy the vacation!

News and Notes:

• Book Sleeves due on Wednesday 1/2 when we return to school
• Teddy Bear Day is coming!  Look for a note home on 1/4

More than, less than and fewer than math games

Holiday crafts with our Buddies

Elfing fun

Our all school sing-a-long

Newsletter 12/14/18

In Reading Workshop this week, we strengthened our reading muscles by attempting to increase our stamina.  Every student received a reading mat with two sides: one to pile up the books to read and the other side for finished books to read again.  When we have a reading plan, we don't waste time searching for books to read, but pick up the next one in our pile.

In Writing Workshop we learned how to support our stories with illustrations that match.  We also learned how to end a story.  We don't want to leave our readers wondering!

We worked on retelling the story of how Baby Echo learned to fly in our phonics lessons.  We are sequencing events and trying to include character emotions while retelling.  We also learned new sight words, "what" and "went".  We had fun reading "Jingle Bells" and searching for the "ing" cluster within words.

We did another problem solving Exemplar this week.  One day, we solved it with various manipulative models (see below) and then next day we showed our problem solving on paper.

In Second Steps, we learned that we can tell how someone is feeling by looking at his/her face.  We studied pictures of people and tried to guess their feelings.  Then we reacted to imaginary situations and tried to guess how one another were feeling.  We are working toward reading one another's body language, so that we may be better friends.

The Hour of Code was this week and we coded with our 5th Grade Buddies in the Library!

Polar Express Day was such a blast!  We read the story, made our own version of the book, made jingle bells and wrote about what we would wish for.

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves are due Monday.
• Please let me know if your child is leaving for vacation early. 

Hour of Code fun with our 5th Grade Buddies!

Learning -ing

Our Reading Mats

This week's math Exemplar (a diagram representation)

Our Exemplar problem represented with various manipulative models...

Cozy for the Polar Express book!

Trains . . .

. . . and jingle bell making!

Happy Polar Express Day!

Newsletter 12/7/18

We launched new reading and writing this week!

In Reading Workshop, we recognized that it's sometimes still hard to read one another's writing.  So, our new unit, Writing for Readers, will help us clean things up.  We looked at pieces that were hard to read and easy to read and we noticed how they were different.  See the photo below.  Now that we are writing full sentences, we'll be writing true stories.

In Reading Workshop we recognized that books are going to get harder and harder and we need to be prepared for the challenge!  We're going to super-size our super powers in this next unit, Bigger Books, Bigger Reading Muscles.  We looked at books of different levels and noticed how they got harder. 

In math, we've been strengthening our 1:1 correspondence.  We also worked on counting forward and adding one more.  We used our fingers and the number line to help us.

We are all becoming engineers at science time!  We read a book about a child engineer and discussed what engineers do.  Now we're helping Dr. Forshaw solve his "Playground Problem".  Ask your child about his/her plan to keep the playground cool!  We visualized a structure, drew out our plans, and we'll build it on Monday!

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves due Monday
• Scholastic orders due Tuesday (by the end of the school day)
• NEXT FRIDAY is POLAR EXPRESS DAY!!!   Look for a small, blue note coming home today for more information.

Engineers exploring their building materials before making their plans

Various plans to build a shelter

Using fingers to represent numbers and add one more