Welcome to winter! Our students are so glad to finally see some cold weather! We have talked about winter and snow, but without having it, we have had a difficult time understanding. Please remember to send your child to school in a coat. We go outside after lunch each day and it is too cold right now to not wear a coat.
This week is Valentine's Day. Each student can bring in a set of Valentine's for every child in the class. We will exchange them during the day. We are then using them to sort and read!
Literacy
During our literacy time each day, we are working on sight words, letter sounds and blends, and small group work with either Mrs. Gropp or Mrs. Dupuis. Your child needs to know ALL 40 SIGHT WORDS by the end of this grading period, March 14. We send home a list of words to work on each week and check all students on their word knowledge each week. Please, please go over the words listed on your student's behavior sheet.
We are learning how to work cooperatively in peer groups, small groups of three or four and in large group. During center time, we work independently or in peer groups of 2 to accomplish work. We have learned how to take turns and how to work with each other! It's been very exciting to see their growth as we learn how to work in groups.
Math
In math, we have learned how to use our Calendar Journal. Each day, we fill in:
- how many days we have been in school
- the date (today is Monday, February 6, 2012)
- a graph of the weather
- a graph of the number of days we have been in school this month
- who lost a tooth?
From there, we can move into our math centers where we work cooperatively learning fair trades (5 pennies=1 nickel, 2 nickels=1 dime, etc), tens frames using teen numbers, and putting the numbers 21-30 in order. At home, you can help us by going over the teen numbers with your child and working on fair trades. If you need some ideas of games to play, please let us know!
Writer's Workshop
We are learning to organize our ideas and write more than one sentence. We use illustrations to show the topic of our story, and we write the words that convey what the picture shows. Our students are writing so much! They love writer's workshop and love being able to share on stage after they have written. They critique each other's writing, giving some compliments and some things they could have done better. Each student gets the chance to share their writing.
Reader's Workshop
We are trying something new! We have started doing Reader's Workshop where we take 10-15 minutes and each student reads books on his/her level. After only a week, we have seen some readers really take off! We (Mrs. Dupuis and I) listen to each student read aloud and give them some strategies to help them become better readers. At the end of each session, we have a Reader's Showcase, where your student reads a book aloud to the rest of us. It's been very exciting to see the reading transformations occur. WOW!
Thanks to all of you!
Thanks to all of the dads who came to Donuts for Dudes. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing each one of you. Your child was thrilled to have you here!
Thanks to Mrs. Goolsby for getting the rock for our dude projects! We couldn't have done it without you, Mrs. Goolsby!
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