Happy New Year!

The children were excited to be back this week.  With it being such a short week, I didn't have the opportunity to take as many pictures as usual.  I will make up for it in the next couple of weeks!

This week during Reading Workshop, we learned a new strategy: Chunky Monkey.  This strategy reminds us to look for chunks we know inside of larger words.  For example, we can use the word/chunk "an" to help us read the word "hand."  We also learned that when reading pattern books, the last page is often different than the pattern on the rest of the pages in the book.  Often times, the author will make the last page the opposite of what the rest of the book was about.  Next week, we will learn another technique authors use when changing the pattern on the last page.

During Writing Workshop, we wrapped up our pattern book unit.  Before vacation, all the children chose a book from their collection of pattern books that they wanted to publish.  I typed the words, and the children spent writing time this week illustrating their books.  Today, we celebrated the end of our unit by sharing our books with the class.  Now they will become part of our classroom library.  Next week, we will start our small moment writing unit.

During Math, we explored patterns on the number grid.  We also played a game to help us practice identifying combinations of ten.

Although it was too cold to play outside most of the time, we did make it out for a couple recesses.  Here is a snapshot of our fun in the snow!

Stay warm!
Katie