Word Play/ Phonics
We are continuing our work on short vowels. We practiced short a word chunks (at, ap, an, am) and short i word chunks (in, it, ig, ip). Please continue to have your child read the words on their weekly list and their ABC papers. It really helps with fluency.
Daily 5
We expanded our Work on Writing choices by creating an anchor chart. I brought in several writing samples from my own home and then we brainstormed a list of things that writers write. They especially loved reading my thank you note to Nana and my grocery list :)
We also started a new Daily 5 choice called Read to Someone. We brainstormed why we would read to someone...and the class came up with 3 great reasons: to become better readers, to understand books better, and to sound better! Then we got right to work building our read to someone stamina.
Writer's Workshop
This week we continued to tell our stories across pages of a booklet. We started using long term partners to help us plan out our stories and then add details to our pages. Partners listened to each other's story plan then asked questions to help with details. We also continued to work on our sentence frame, which is the visual that helps children remember that sentences start with an uppercase letter and end with a period.
Math
We are continuing our work on simple addition. Children have been playing several games where they have needed to combine numbers to get a total. We also began work on solving simple addition story problems. We've had a lot of conversation around strategy use. I encourage children to use pictures, numbers, and/or words to show their thinking.
At this point many children are counting all meaning if they are adding 5+6 they are starting at 1 (possibly using pictures or fingers) and counting it all out. Some children are counting on meaning if they are adding 5+6 they are starting with 5 or 6 and counting on from one number. A few children are using known facts meaning if they are solving 5+6 they may state that they know 5+5=10 and since 6 is 1 more than 5, 5+6=11. These strategies are all appropriate. Children will move to more efficient strategy use as they develop a deeper math sense. To help your child continue to ask them how they solved their math work.
At this point many children are counting all meaning if they are adding 5+6 they are starting at 1 (possibly using pictures or fingers) and counting it all out. Some children are counting on meaning if they are adding 5+6 they are starting with 5 or 6 and counting on from one number. A few children are using known facts meaning if they are solving 5+6 they may state that they know 5+5=10 and since 6 is 1 more than 5, 5+6=11. These strategies are all appropriate. Children will move to more efficient strategy use as they develop a deeper math sense. To help your child continue to ask them how they solved their math work.
