September Spotlight

Can you believe we have already been in school for 20 days! We have really accomplished so much by way of daily routines and expectations for learning. We have Daily 5 just about up and running (including reading groups!) as well as Writer's Workshop. During math we are diving into story problems and sharing strategies. During Read Aloud we are already onto our 2nd chapter back. Ask your child about Dory Fantasmagory-it's a definite favorite! Here are a few other highlights from September.

Daily 5
During Daily 5 children work on 5 components to build their reading and writing stamina and independence. We talk about student expectations as well as the teacher's role during this time. We know we have to pick and stick, start right away, work the whole time, keep our brain on our work, and our voices down low in order to build our muscle memory.

Here are some kids in action!

Read To Someone

Children read to a partner to practice their fluency. After each partner reads the other retells what was just read. We call this check for understanding.

Listen To Reading

Children listen to a story either at the listening center, on an iPad, or at the computer. At the iPad they scan a QR code to take them to a story online.

Work On Writing

This was our last Daily 5 component to introduce. During Work on Writing children have the choice to write anything they want. We made a list of writing forms such as cards, notes, letters, lists, fiction, nonfiction, kid news, poems and narratives.

Math

During math over the last few weeks we have been working on counting strategies, showing our count in organized ways, solving addition and subtraction story problems, and sharing our strategies and tools as mathematicians. We have talked about how we can use a ten frame, number line, cubes, counters, fingers, and counting on or back from a given number to help solve problems. We've shared different ways to show our thinking during whole group discussions. We have also played some math games using our tools.

Writer's Workshop

During Writing time we have talked about how writers have a special partner that helps them plan out their stories and even helps them fix up any "oops" mistakes. We practiced planning out our stories with our partners by touching and telling across our fingers. We then had our partners read over our stories and help us notice parts and words that didn't look or sound right. 

And here are a few friends who have read aloud their stories to the class!!

Hope you enjoyed learning about some of our learning over the last few weeks. Check back again soon!