All About Characters

This week during Reading Workshop we kicked off our character study unit.  The children learned to:

• do a picture walk before reading a story, paying special attention to what the characters in the pictures are doing.
• pay attention to the characters' facial expressions and body language to understand how a character might be feeling.
• pay attention to how the character felt at the end of the story compared to the rest of the story.
• read dialogue and make our tone match how we think the character would sound.
• add our own dialogue to stories.  Readers can think about what they believe a character might be saying during different parts of a story.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

This week during Writing Workshop we began to wrap-up our All-About (nonfiction) unit.  We:

• learned to add headings to the tops of the pages in our books.  The headings should match the words in our table of contents.
  
  
  
• looked back through all our books and worked on adding missing features (glossary, bold words, table of contents, captions, labels, and headings).
• chose one book to edit and publish.
• began publishing our chosen book.  We will finish this next week.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

This week during Math we:

• played a new dice game, High Roller, to help us practice counting up from the larger number when adding.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• played Dice Subtraction to practice basic subtraction facts.
• reviewed the names of shapes and shape attributes.
• used probability language (certain, possible, impossible) to describe the likelihood of different scenarios.
• learned about the quarter.
• determined the rule (plus 2, minus 1...) for different number patterns and then used that rule to complete missing numbers in the pattern.

And of course, there is always time for play!

Next week, we begin Kindergarten Screening.  Can you believe it is already time to screen next year's incoming kindergarteners?!  I will be screening on Thursday and Friday of next week, so our class will have a substitute.  We are lucky to have our very own Mrs. Landry as our substitute!

The weekend looks to be beautiful!  I hope you and your children enjoy the nice days ahead.
Best,
Katie