Monday we will have bus evacuation drills.
Thursday is picture day. I just found out that we will be having our pictures taken first thing in the morning so you don't have to worry about lunch spills :)
If you are planning on ordering school pictures please make sure to send the picture form to school with your child on or before Thursday.
Friday is an in service day so no school for the kiddos!
Now onto MISSING NUMBERS
This week in math I have begun to introduce the concept of missing addends. We started this off by playing a few games in which the total and 1 part were known and the children had to solve for the unknown. One of the games we played is "How Many am I Hiding?" In this game 2 math partners worked together. They had a tower of 7 cubes. One partner breaks the tower apart and hides part of the tower behind their back. The other partner counts how many cubes are not hidden and uses that information to solve for the unknown. For example if 3 cubes were shown, then 4 were hidden.
We talked about strategies for solving this kind of problem. Some children will relate it to addition starting at 3 and counting on to 7. Other children will relate it to subtraction (without even knowing) by starting with 7 and counting back or taking away 3. Others still will use a known fact such as 3+4=7. All 3 of these strategies are a great basis for the understanding number relationships.
Writer's Workshop
This week we have been working hard on adding to our narrative stories. Children are learning to unfreeze their stories by making their characters move or talk. We even talked about how to add quotation marks to show conversation. Next up we will discuss how to tell stories in itsy bitsy steps. This is all in an attempt to develop their narrative writing into detailed accounts as opposed to a summary of events. After all of the hard work that children put into their pieces we showcased a few authors by having them share their writing.
And Finally....introducing our new Clip Chart!
Children walked in this morning and quickly noticed this new addition:
This is our new positive reinforcement chart. When I notice a child doing something positive such as helping a friend, demonstrating good work habits, or following directions I'll ask them to clip up!On the other hand if I notice behavior that is destructive, dangerous, or disrespectful I'll ask a child to clip down. I've used this in years past and the act of clipping up can serve as a real motivation. My hope is that if a child clips down it's enough of a warning that they try extra hard to clip back up. The chart is fluid, meaning that children can move up and down throughout the day.
My intent is never to have children clip down and stay down...I am always looking for and reinforcing positive behavior!!
On a side note....I have a little request. We have expanded our Work on Writing choices during our literacy block to include writing letters and cards. If you have extra note cards or stationary or are willing to purchase some for our class it would be greatly appreciated by me and more importantly your budding authors :)
Have a wonderful weekend!
