Welcome, Spring!

Tomorrow is the first day of spring...what a wonderful feeling!  It might not seem like spring yet, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

During Writing Workshop the past couple of weeks, we finished our How-To unit and started our All-About unit.  The children all chose one how-to book to publish.  They went through the processes of editing and revising then rewrote their books onto a poster.  The children shared the posters with their peers, and now they are on display in the hallway.  Last week, we launched our nonfiction (All-About) unit.  The children have been learning to write facts about topics they know about.  This week, we will learn to add a Table of Contents to our books.

During Reading Workshop the past two weeks, we wrapped up our study of nonfiction texts.  The children learned to:

• retell the big idea and details.
• work with their reading buddies to closely study photographs and to talk about what the photographs are teaching them. 
• ask questions as they read.
• reread a text to learn more information each time. 
• notice how photographs and words might teach us different information.
• compare and contrast two books on the same topic.  

During Math we:

• measured our heights using sticky notes to see if we would be tall enough to ride a roller coaster (given you had to be 12 sticky notes tall to ride the roller coaster).
  
• told and solved subtraction number stories.
  
  
  
  
• played games to help us practice adding and subtracting.
• played a game called Hiding Bears to help us practice naming combinations of ten. 
• sorted dominoes by the total number of dots then discussed the many different ways to make a number. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

During Word Work time, we have been working on tapping out the sounds in words (Stretchy Snake) to help us read unknown words, and listening to all the sounds in a word to help us build and write words.  We have also been working on hearing long and short vowel sounds in words.

Thank you for all the parent surveys that have been submitted so far.  If you have not had a chance to fill out the online survey and have a few extra minutes, I would appreciate your feedback.  Your comments help me to improve my teaching practice.  Thank you!

Warmly,

Katie