Snowman Art

This week we read a cute poem about what would happen if snow came down in colors (ask your child to tell you the poem).  The children then painted their own colorful snowmen! 

This week during Reading Workshop we:

• worked on asking ourselves "Does it look right?  Does it sound right?  Does it make sense?" when we think we have figured out a word we don't know.
• learned about Chunky Monkey, a strategy for reading words we don't know.  When you come to a word you don't know, you can try to find a chunk you do know inside of the word.
• reviewed that readers think as they read.  We worked on paying attention to the characters in stories.
• built words from the -at word family.
• added "all" to our word wall.

This week during Writing Workshop we:

• learned to write itty-bitty details in our stories.
• brainstormed different ways to begin small moment stories.  We read the beginnings of several books and talked about how the authors began their stories, then we compiled a list of ideas.
• talked about using transition words to help order our stories.

This week during Math we:

• learned about a foot as a standard unit for measuring.
• practiced measuring objects in our classroom using a standard foot.
  
  
  
  
• played a game called The Raft Game to help us practice exchanging.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   

This week during Science we studied river rocks.  This was such a fun lesson that the children really seemed to enjoy!  Students worked with a partner to sift a pile of river rocks.  As children sifted, the rock mixture was separated by the different sizes.  We used different sized screens to sort the rocks.  When the experiment was complete, the children had five different rock groups: large pebbles, small pebbles, large gravel, small gravel, and sand.

Next week, we will spend some time talking about Martin Luther King, Jr.  I hope your children enjoy their long weekend.

Best,
Katie