Rocks

Last week during Science we continued our study of rocks.  Children worked with a partner to find different ways to sort a collection of river rocks.

Last week during Reading Workshop we:

• reviewed Questioning Owl: asking ourselves questions about a book before, during, and after reading.
• reviewed checking-for-understanding as we are reading.
• reviewed the r-controlled vowel sounds.
• practiced comparing and contrasting characters and events between stories (we spent a couple days working on this).

Last week during Writing Workshop we revisited small moment stories.  We:

• reviewed that writers can write a story about something they have done.
• learned to get our minds ready to write by telling our story out loud and touching each page as we tell what we will write on that page.  
• reviewed ways to begin a small moment story.
• reviewed transition words writers can use to sequence a story.
• reviewed that a writer ends a small moment story in the moment.

Last week during Math we:

• played Addition Top-It, a card game to help us practice addition facts. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• practiced estimating. 
• learned about Function Machines, a graphic organizer that involves applying a rule (for example, plus 2) to numbers.
• played a game called Make My Design.  One child made a design with pattern blocks without his/her partner looking.  Then, the child had to tell his/her partner how to make the design.  This activity helped children practice naming shapes and using descriptive positional language.  They loved this game!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

This week, I will be out of the classroom on Thursday and Friday for Kindergarten Screening.  It's hard to believe we are already meeting next year's kindergartners!  It feels like just yesterday I was screening this group of kindergartners.  How time flies!

Warmly,

Katie