Gingerbread House Fun!

Thank you for helping to make our gingerbread house building a success!
Happy Holidays!
Katie

A Successful Play!

The children did a fabulous job performing Jan Brett's play, The Gingerbread Baby.  They worked hard both at home and school to learn their lines, and it showed!  Thank you all for attending this special event.  Even though it was only ten minutes long, I know the children were excited to have such a full audience.

In addition to practicing our play during Reading Workshop, we also:

• learned that buddies can practice echo reading.  One chid reads, then his/her buddy rereads that same page.
• learned that buddies talk about books when they finish reading.  We can check to see if our buddy was listening and thinking as we were reading by asking: "What was my book about?".
• reviewed that readers get to know a book before reading it by doing a picture walk.  A picture walk can help us figure out the title.
• reviewed that when we are done reading, we think about what the whole book was about and tell the story/nonfiction text back to ourselves. 
• reviewed the names of the vowels and that each vowel can make a short and long sound.  We then learned a new strategy, Flippy Dolphin.  This strategy reminds us to flip the vowel sound in a word...if one sound doesn't work, then flip it and try the other vowel sound.

During Writing Workshop we spent time learning about different types of writing we might explore at the writing station.  We learned to write/make lists, cards, and letters.

We also took a day to decorate paper gingerbread men/women.

During Math we:

• explored combinations of numbers that make 5.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• learned about weight and used a pan balance to compare the weight of different sets of objects.
• learned why counting by tens is useful, then highlighted the multiples of ten on our growing number line and number grid.  We used this to help us notice patterns.
• played a gingerbread man counting game.

Next week promises to be a fun two days at school as we make gingerbread houses on Monday and have pajama day on Tuesday.  

Have a nice weekend!

Katie

The Gingerbread Man

Last week we kicked off our Gingerbread Man unit.  We read two different versions of this tale, The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth, and The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, then spent time talking about the characters, repeating phrases, and endings in each book.  We will continue this work in the week ahead.

In addition to focusing on story elements of The Gingerbread Man, we also did the following during Reading Workshop:

• reviewed that readers pay attention to characters' faces and body language for clues about how the characters might be feeling.
• learned that readers get ready to read a new book by doing a picture walk and paying attention to what is repeated in the picture on each page.  Doing this can help us figure out some of the words.
• learned a new strategy, Skippy Frog.  When a reader comes to an unknown word, he/she can skip the word, read on to the end of the sentence, then go back to the beginning and think of a word that could make sense.

During Writing Workshop, we began wrapping up our pattern book unit.  We:

• spent one final day writing new pattern books.  I taught the class that when they think they have run out of ideas, they can think of what the books in their own book baskets are about.  
• chose one book to publish.  Once it is complete, children will add their published book to our classroom library for others to read!
• edited our books for finger spaces, capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and punctuation.  The children were excited to use special editing markers for this task.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

We will finish publishing our books this week.  By the end of the week, children will bring home all their other pattern books.  I can't wait for you to read all the books your child wrote!

During Math we:

• created a bar graph showing our favorite colors then spent time analyzing and discussing the data.
• spent time focusing on shape characteristics by the way the shapes feel.
• played Dot Card Top-It and Memory.
  
  

• practiced subitizing with ten frame cards, then played a memory game to help us further develop this skill.
  

The weeks ahead promise to be very busy!  Tomorrow, I will assign lines for our Gingerbread Baby play, so you can expect to see those in your child's folder tomorrow evening.  We will also begin learning about light as the common theme among winter holidays.

Have a bright week,

Katie