I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family. :) It's good to be back, but there's only a few weeks until the holiday break! We have a lot of fun things planned between now and then. Our holiday party will be held on Thursday, Dec. 15th (more details to come) and Polar Express Day is Friday, the 16th. We have permission to wear PJs that day! I will be asking for a couple of volunteers that morning to help serve donuts and hot chocolate.
Today you may have noticed there wasn't a hw packet. I thought I'd give the children (and you all) a break. I would, however, like some help decorating our little classroom tree. Yes, it's another project! Please work with your child on creating a tree ornament that represents your family's holiday traditions, culture, or interests. I would like to have the ornaments by Monday to hang on the tree. A brief letter will go home tomorrow.
This week's theme is the Gingerbread Man. Everyday we will read a different version of the popular story, comparing and contrasting the characters. We will also create a class book, adding ourselves to the story. In reading, our focus is on reviewing and identifying beginning sounds and the short a sound in words, and rhyming words. In math, our gingerbread theme continues with the game "Roll-a-Gingerbread," Gingerbread glyphs, a cookie graph, counting games on the promethean board, and finding the perimeter and area of a gingerbread man.
In science, we are starting a unit on Properties of Matter. Our goal is to sort objects by observable properties, such as color, shape, size, temperature, weight, and texture. We will record in our science journals what objects we've sorted and the property that we used to sort. On Friday, we will place gingerbread cookies in water and observe them over time.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
It's Native American Week!
Parents, Tom Turkey is due Friday. Please include your child's name on the back, along with the name of the turkey (angel, baseball player, Santa, etc.). Get creative, silly, and have fun! Mrs. Miller is making a turkey too, with the help of her incredibly artistic husband. :)
Today, we made Native American headdresses and children will add a feather each day for great behavior. Hoping to see tons of feathers on the children's heads! Here's what else we're working on:
Reading We are reading a nonfictional book about Native Americans and a fictional story, the Legend of Bluebonnet. Focus is finding the main idea, describing characters, and setting. Phonics skill: identifying the /h/ and short a in words.
Language Arts Focus continues to be on phonetic spelling (sounding out words) in writing sentences, beginning sentences with capital letters, word spacing, and punctuation. I can see that we have some amazing little writers!
Math This week we're focusing on making, counting, and writing 6 to 8. Some of our math centers include: counting corn (kernels), leaf sorting, using playdoh, pipe cleaners, yarn, and craft sticks to form numbers, making a collage of numbers, and a fun game called Roll-a-Turkey (children follow directions to create a turkey with a roll of the dice).
Science The focus is on daytime and nighttime patterns, and on Friday (with your help) we will begin working in our 5 day science journal. The journal will go home Friday for children to record their observations of the sun and moon.
Today, we made Native American headdresses and children will add a feather each day for great behavior. Hoping to see tons of feathers on the children's heads! Here's what else we're working on:
Reading We are reading a nonfictional book about Native Americans and a fictional story, the Legend of Bluebonnet. Focus is finding the main idea, describing characters, and setting. Phonics skill: identifying the /h/ and short a in words.
Language Arts Focus continues to be on phonetic spelling (sounding out words) in writing sentences, beginning sentences with capital letters, word spacing, and punctuation. I can see that we have some amazing little writers!
Math This week we're focusing on making, counting, and writing 6 to 8. Some of our math centers include: counting corn (kernels), leaf sorting, using playdoh, pipe cleaners, yarn, and craft sticks to form numbers, making a collage of numbers, and a fun game called Roll-a-Turkey (children follow directions to create a turkey with a roll of the dice).
Science The focus is on daytime and nighttime patterns, and on Friday (with your help) we will begin working in our 5 day science journal. The journal will go home Friday for children to record their observations of the sun and moon.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
News from the Pad
It's hard to believe November is here! We have a busy week (and month) ahead. The next several weeks we are learning about people (life) from the past and comparing them to people and life in the present. Today, the children had a great time looking through family photos, old and new, and sorting them into categories. Thank you all for sending in pictures. Some of them are posted in the hallway for our "American Heritage" display. :) Other activities we have planned this week are:
Reading Yesterday, we read Sarah Morton's Day (the life of a pilgrim girl) and have been comparing/contrasting her life with our own. I am also doing AR testing on the book, Ugly Pie, which will go into next week as well. There's a recipe for Ugly Pie that I'll try to send home this week. :) Comprehension strategies we're using in the classroom (you can do at home) are: identifying characters and setting, retelling the beginning, middle, and end of the story, comparing/contrasting, predicting, and identifying fiction and nonfiction books. Phonics skills this week are: identifying the beginning /n/ sound in words, like Nyle Noodle. You may want to have your child list words that begin with n, as well as end with n. This skill will be easy to do with our word family -an. Come up with as many -an words as possible, and take apart and blend the words. Ex: /f/ an, fan; /m/ an, man; /k/ an, can; etc.
Language Arts We will continue to write (and speak) in complete sentences, use punctuation to end sentences, and capital letters at the beginning. What we say can be written down and our focus is writing our thoughts down and sounding out our words on paper. Sight words we have been using in our writing include: I, can, see, like, my.
Math The focus is on numbers 1-20, verbally, in writing, and counting with manipulatives. Our math centers include: domino counting, number writing (using number "roads" and hotwheels), counting with Halloween-themed erasers, number concentration, candycorn count, and making a collage of numbers.
Science We will explore the law of gravity this week, with an experiment to see which objects in the classroom fall more slowly/rapidly than others. Any objects that the children can pick up, then drop, are fair game. :)
Reading Yesterday, we read Sarah Morton's Day (the life of a pilgrim girl) and have been comparing/contrasting her life with our own. I am also doing AR testing on the book, Ugly Pie, which will go into next week as well. There's a recipe for Ugly Pie that I'll try to send home this week. :) Comprehension strategies we're using in the classroom (you can do at home) are: identifying characters and setting, retelling the beginning, middle, and end of the story, comparing/contrasting, predicting, and identifying fiction and nonfiction books. Phonics skills this week are: identifying the beginning /n/ sound in words, like Nyle Noodle. You may want to have your child list words that begin with n, as well as end with n. This skill will be easy to do with our word family -an. Come up with as many -an words as possible, and take apart and blend the words. Ex: /f/ an, fan; /m/ an, man; /k/ an, can; etc.
Language Arts We will continue to write (and speak) in complete sentences, use punctuation to end sentences, and capital letters at the beginning. What we say can be written down and our focus is writing our thoughts down and sounding out our words on paper. Sight words we have been using in our writing include: I, can, see, like, my.
Math The focus is on numbers 1-20, verbally, in writing, and counting with manipulatives. Our math centers include: domino counting, number writing (using number "roads" and hotwheels), counting with Halloween-themed erasers, number concentration, candycorn count, and making a collage of numbers.
Science We will explore the law of gravity this week, with an experiment to see which objects in the classroom fall more slowly/rapidly than others. Any objects that the children can pick up, then drop, are fair game. :)
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