Weekly Round Up

This week is one of those weeks we all have to work just a wee bit harder to keep our "engines just right." It can be a tall task, especially as we get closer to the Halloween festivities! It all goes down this Friday! We have the parade at 9:30 and parties in the afternoon starting at 1:30.

But until then.....here is what is happening in room 27!

Math
The last couple of weeks children have been exposed to addition and subtraction strategies that allow them to practice a deeper understanding of how number work together and to use those strategies to solve word problems. We've learned several strategies including number lines, doubles, near doubles, and think addition to subtract. Children continue to have hands on opportunities with the part-part-whole model. manipulatives, and number lines. We've also begun working on fact families to see the relation of addition and subtraction. Here are a few strategies we are using to solve story problems in our math journal.

Phonics
Children have continued to tap and blend to read and spell. In addition, we learned about letters that "stick together". Children have practiced reading, building, and writing words with digraphs or h-pals as well as with the ck ending. We are also continuing to learn about the appropriate sentence frame including capitalization and punctuation. Have your child be a "digraph detective" and look for words that have ch, sh, th, and wh. 

These are the picture clues we use to cue for the right h-pals

Visitors
We've had 2 different people come in as special readers this week! Our first was our very first Mystery Reader. The children were so excited trying to guess who it could be! Our second guest was M. Forrester (our school psychologist). She came in to read us a story and talk to us about following the "group plan." We have been working hard to keep our brains and bodies in the group and to follow the "group plan". We are even earning links towards a reward!

                                

                               

Happy Halloween!

Hope you found the highlights of our last 2 weeks helpful! Have a Happy Halloween!

Spotlight on Writing

We've had a few distractions this week.....from bus evacuation, pictures, to a first grade reading assembly, there is just never a dull moment! The class is getting so good at transitioning though so even when we do have a day where things are a little "flip-flopped" as we call it, it doesn't take much to get us back into the groove!

This week I thought I'd share a little of what writing time looks like in here. We have writer's workshop 4 times a week and I truly can say it is a FAVORITE around here. We start all together on the rug for a little mini-lesson and then they are off to their best working spots, sometimes along side their "writing partner" to get to it! After they write independently for a bit we try to make time for a quick share. Sometimes 1 or 2 children read their stories aloud to the class, sometimes they share a work in progress with their partner or table. They LOVE sharing!!! And I LOVE how proud they are of their writing!!

This weeks mini lessons focused on how writer's have a special partner they use for help with planning. We brainstormed question words to use then partners took turns reading their stories to each other. When partner 1 finished reading their story, partner 2 asked questions like who, when, how, where, and why. We used these questions to help add details to our story! 

We also learned this great phrase "Once You're Done, You've Just Begun!"  We talked about what to do when you think you are done with your story. Their are SO many options. You can start a new piece, add details to your pictures, and add details to your words.  We also learned that once a writer is done writing, they become a reader and they re-read their story slowly to look for any thing they can fix up! We even have special pens for that!!

I hope you learned a bit more about what writing looks like in here! I love how excited and enthusiastic they are about their stories. It's an absolute joy! I can't wait to share some of their work in progress with you soon!!

Here are just a few other highlights from this week....

The BIGGEST apple I have ever seen!

The Summer Reading Assembly

Our Summer Reading contest winner!! Congrats on logging in all of those summer reading minutes!

Check back soon!