Welcome, Spring!

It was nice to welcome spring this week!  Although some days didn't feel very springlike, we are moving in the right direction.
The last couple of weeks during Reading Workshop, we have been focusing on the vowels and the sounds they make.  We practiced the long and short sounds.  We learned that:

• when there is a "super e" at the end of a word, it can jump over one letter, and if that next letter is a vowel, it can make the vowel say its name (the long sound).
• "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" (makes the long sound).
• when there is one vowel in a word and it's in the  middle of a word (CVC words), it makes the short sound.
• some words belong to the same word family.  If we know a word like "at," we can use that word to help us read other words that contain "at."
• there are always some words that are "rule breakers" and don't follow the rules we've learned. 
• when we come to a word we don't know, we need to ask ourselves "Does it look right?  Does it sound right?  Does it make sense?"

During Writing Workshop, we are in the thick of our nonfiction (all-about) unit.  Students have learned to:

• write facts about a topic.
• include a Table of Contents.
• draw pictures that look realistic and teach the reader more about the topic.
• add labels and captions to pictures.
• include headings on pages that match the Table of Contents.
• make some words bold. 

During Math we:

• used dominoes to learn that there are different ways to show a number. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• painted combination of 10 rainbows.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• played "Bunny Hop" to practice adding and subtracting on a number line.
  
  
• compared and contrasted 2-D shapes to 3-D objects and learned that a 3-D object can be represented through a 2-D picture.  We played a memory game to help us practice recognizing and naming 3-D objects.
  
  
• reviewed that teen numbers can be thought of as a group of ten and some extra ones.  

Although spring has arrived, recess time can still be very cold.  Please make sure your child continues to come to school dressed appropriately for the cold weather.  Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend!

Katie  

What We've Been Up To

We have been very busy these past two weeks!  Here's a snapshot of what we've been up to:

During Reading Workshop we have been learning about nonfiction books.  The children are really enjoying this unit.  We've learned that:

• many nonfiction texts have pictures with captions.  The captions help us learn more about what the picture is showing us.
• many nonfiction books have a Table of Contents.
• we can often find bold words in a nonfiction text.  The bold words are usually the words we will find in the glossary.
• many pictures include labels to teach us about specific parts of the photograph.
• readers can study the photographs closely to learn more about the topic.
• when we read a new word about a topic, we can study the photograph to see if the picture helps us understand the meaning of the new word.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

During Writing Workshop we finished our How-To unit.  Children published one of their how-to books (in poster format) then shared them with the class on Thursday.  We started our new unit, All About Books, on Friday.  The children get to be authors of their very own nonfiction books!  We will be able to take what we've learned during reading workshop and apply it to our own writing.  This is an exciting unit as the children get to show the many different topics they know all about.

During Math we:

• spent a couple days on a lesson called "Tall Enough to Ride."  The children measured a partner to determine how many sticky notes tall they were.  On day 1, many children overlapped sticky notes or left large gaps between sticky notes, giving them inaccurate measurements.  After debriefing at the end of day 1, the children learned that the sticky notes needed to be lined up with no gaps or overlapping.  We repeated the lesson on day 2 and made more accurate measurements.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• spent several days solving addition and subtraction number stories.  Students are working on writing number models to represent a number story (subtraction number models tend to be a little tricky).
• played a game called "Disappearing Train" to practice subtracting. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• played "Hiding Bears" to practice naming combinations of 10.
• played "The Disappearing and Growing Train Game" to practice adding and subtracting and recognizing the addition and subtraction symbols.

We were lucky to welcome a new friend to our class last week.  The children have been very kind and helpful to their new classmate, inviting him to play and helping him learn the routines and expectations.  Welcome to our class, Nathan!  

It looks like more snow is on the way next week...fingers crossed that we don't have another snow day.

Have a great weekend!

Katie