Welcome, April!

 Last week during Reading and Word Work we:

• Learned about a period, exclamation point,  and question mark.  I taught children a poem for each punctuation mark.  After teaching them about these types of punctuation, I knew they would be thrilled when they noticed these in their books.  In anticipation of this, I gave each child a sticky note and told them to make a tally each time they found one of the punctuation marks.  I thought this would contain some of their excitement, but I was wrong!  As soon as they started reading, they were exclaiming "Miss Dutremble, Miss Dutremble, I found a period!!!"  It was so exciting to watch their enthusiasm!

• Learned that when "e" is the only vowel in a word and it's in the middle of the word, it usually makes the short e sound like in "get." 

• Sorted words by the short a and short e vowel sounds.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Learned the two ways a vowel can make the long vowel sound: when there are two vowels side-by-side (we say "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.") and when there is a silent e at the end of a word (we call it "super e" or "bossy e.").  Please click on the links below to see the videos we watched to help us learn these rules.  The children LOVED these videos!!

When Two Vowels Go Walking
Super e!

• Practiced building word wall words with "Wikki Sticks."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 

Last week in Writing we:

• Learned that writers of All-About Books can write more than one sentence on each page.  Writers make sure they have fully explained a topic before moving onto the next page.
•  Reviewed that writers of All-About Books should be able to tell five facts about that topic to be able to write about it.
• Learned that just like the authors of nonfiction books in our library, writers can add headings to each page to match the Table of Contents.
• Learned how to add a diagram to our All-About Books.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  Last week in Math we:

• Finished our survey bar graphs. 

• Learned about the following 3-dimensional shapes: sphere, cylinder, cone, rectangular prism, and cube.
  
  
  
  
     
  
  
  • Practiced solving comparison number stories using counter chips.  Example: Morgan had 8 flowers.  Kim had 4 flowers.  Who had more flowers?  How many more flowers did that person have?
     
  
  
  • Played "Coin Exchange."  Children work to collect five pennies which they then exchange for a nickel.  Once they have two nickels, they exchange them for a dime.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
   It's hard to believe tomorrow is already April (I feel like I say that every month)!  It is feeling more and more like spring every day.  Enjoy the sunshine!
  
  ~Katie

A Special Visit

We were so lucky to have author Matt Tavares visit Rowe School on Friday!  Matt began by reading aloud the first book he had published, Zachary's Ball.  He helped the children understand how much time, rough drafts, and patience went into creating this book along with the determination and persistence it took to get this book published.  In his slide show, he showed the children many of his writing and illustration drafts through to the final products.  This helped the children understand that the books we read in our classroom did not just miraculously become books; A lot of time and revisions went into creating those books.

Back in the classroom on Friday, we started a survey graphing project.  Each child came up with a survey question then asked every child in our class his/her question.  Children recorded each child's response on a class list.  We then began creating our own bar graphs to depict the data we collected.  The project took more time than I had anticipated, so we have not finished it yet.  Check back next week for pictures of the final products!

Many of us were sick this past week, including myself.  Let's hope we are all back and healthy this week!

Katie