Ask your child about our blubber experiment!!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
January 8, 2013
I hope you all had a nice holiday and New Year with your families and friends!
We have started January with a review of the rules and routines of the classroom and a slightly different Reader's Workshop format! Each morning the children pick the three centers they want to visit during morning work time. Their choices include the listening center, writing center, word work center, and independent reading center. We will also be adding a poetry center shortly where students will have the option of reading and highlighting the large chart poems that we have been reading all year.
After the mini-lesson in the morning, we have our 45 minutes of center time. While students are busy at these centers, I am working with a reading group of around 4 students (guided reading). In the reading group, each child gets their own copy of a book that I have chosen. We do a picture walk, talk about sight words that we will find in the book, read a page or two together, and then each student tries to read the rest of the book quietly to him/herself. I am right there listening to everyone and am able to help if a child gets stuck. Some of the strategies that we have been working on include looking at the picture for help, trying to "sound out" the word, and trying to figure out what would make sense with the story. After reading, we talk about the story to develop better comprehension. We might discuss important events or try and retell the story, we talk about setting, characters, problems, and solutions, or we may talk about something else. We also do a short word building, rhyming,or writing activity. We are still getting used to this new routine, but so far the kids seem very excited about it!
After recess, we have been doing a shared reading activity. In shared reading, we read a big book together and then do a short literacy activity that focuses on reading strategies, concepts about print, phonemic awareness, or comprehension. All these things help us to become better readers!
After shared reading, we usually do an interactive writing lesson. During this lesson, we come up with a sentence and then write it together (the kids write on their marker boards and I write on the big board in front). We practice forming letters, making capital and lowercase letters, leaving spaces, and putting punctuation at the end. Today we finished writing our short story about what reindeer do when Christmas is over. Ask your child about this story!
After interactive writing, students are able to independently practice some of the things that we have talked about. They write a story in their journals or do another writing activity. I also work with small groups at this time to build on each child's writing abilities. I love to see the ideas that everyone comes up with, the great details in their pictures, and the writing that they are doing!
We finish our reader's workshop time with partner reading. At this time, students take their guided reading bags to the carpet and practice reading them with another child. They enjoy showing off their reading skills and are able to practice reading their new books more fluently.
After all this hard work, we finish off the morning with some play time! :)
In the afternoon, we have specials, math, and science. In math, we have been learning about symmetry, equal parts, and halves and fourths. We have also been doing some math games with numbers through 25. I like to review concepts that we have covered throughout the year so that the children are able to practice again and again. Our next chapter in math is all about numbers 10-30.
In science we are learning about polar animals. We learned where polar animals live and learned about the walrus today. We will be learning all about blubber tomorrow and will also talk about reindeer!
As you can see, we have been very busy! We also had our rescheduled Holiday Sing on Friday and I have posted new pictures in the slide show! Please check them out!
Thanks for reading,
Mrs. Skeels
We have started January with a review of the rules and routines of the classroom and a slightly different Reader's Workshop format! Each morning the children pick the three centers they want to visit during morning work time. Their choices include the listening center, writing center, word work center, and independent reading center. We will also be adding a poetry center shortly where students will have the option of reading and highlighting the large chart poems that we have been reading all year.
After the mini-lesson in the morning, we have our 45 minutes of center time. While students are busy at these centers, I am working with a reading group of around 4 students (guided reading). In the reading group, each child gets their own copy of a book that I have chosen. We do a picture walk, talk about sight words that we will find in the book, read a page or two together, and then each student tries to read the rest of the book quietly to him/herself. I am right there listening to everyone and am able to help if a child gets stuck. Some of the strategies that we have been working on include looking at the picture for help, trying to "sound out" the word, and trying to figure out what would make sense with the story. After reading, we talk about the story to develop better comprehension. We might discuss important events or try and retell the story, we talk about setting, characters, problems, and solutions, or we may talk about something else. We also do a short word building, rhyming,or writing activity. We are still getting used to this new routine, but so far the kids seem very excited about it!
After recess, we have been doing a shared reading activity. In shared reading, we read a big book together and then do a short literacy activity that focuses on reading strategies, concepts about print, phonemic awareness, or comprehension. All these things help us to become better readers!
After shared reading, we usually do an interactive writing lesson. During this lesson, we come up with a sentence and then write it together (the kids write on their marker boards and I write on the big board in front). We practice forming letters, making capital and lowercase letters, leaving spaces, and putting punctuation at the end. Today we finished writing our short story about what reindeer do when Christmas is over. Ask your child about this story!
After interactive writing, students are able to independently practice some of the things that we have talked about. They write a story in their journals or do another writing activity. I also work with small groups at this time to build on each child's writing abilities. I love to see the ideas that everyone comes up with, the great details in their pictures, and the writing that they are doing!
We finish our reader's workshop time with partner reading. At this time, students take their guided reading bags to the carpet and practice reading them with another child. They enjoy showing off their reading skills and are able to practice reading their new books more fluently.
After all this hard work, we finish off the morning with some play time! :)
In the afternoon, we have specials, math, and science. In math, we have been learning about symmetry, equal parts, and halves and fourths. We have also been doing some math games with numbers through 25. I like to review concepts that we have covered throughout the year so that the children are able to practice again and again. Our next chapter in math is all about numbers 10-30.
In science we are learning about polar animals. We learned where polar animals live and learned about the walrus today. We will be learning all about blubber tomorrow and will also talk about reindeer!
As you can see, we have been very busy! We also had our rescheduled Holiday Sing on Friday and I have posted new pictures in the slide show! Please check them out!
Thanks for reading,
Mrs. Skeels
Monday, December 17, 2012
A Special Visitor
We had a special visitor today who told us all about his pets and home, showed us his photo album, and read us a story. It was a very special morning! Many more photos are posted above in a slideshow!
PJ Day
Don't forget that our special Polar Express activity and PAJAMA day is tomorrow! I can't wait!
PJ Day
Don't forget that our special Polar Express activity and PAJAMA day is tomorrow! I can't wait!
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Winter holidays
We have been learning about different winter holidays this week and have made many projects. We learned about Hannukah and made a menorah and played the dreidel game. We talked about Kwanzaa and wove mkeka mats. This was very tricky, but our class stuck with it and had lots of fun. We talked about Ramadan and learned about the phases of the moon. This was very interesting! Take a look at the moon each night and have your child they and remember words like waxing, waning, new moon, full moon, crescent, quarter, and gibbous. There are also some neat videos on YouTube to watch!
We made Christmas trees by ordering branches by length and then decorated them! We will be making poinsettias and rangoli designs next week!
Gingerbread math centers
During our gingerbread unit the kids visited several gingerbread math centers. They measured their height and the length of their jump with gingerbread, made graphs, made gingerbread glyphs, and measured a gingerbread's perimeter and area using candies and math cubes. They also decorated a gingerbread by rolling two dice, adding the numbers, and adding the correct decoration for the number. They loved these centers! There are some pictures below!
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