This week, we began our new work in the unit Growing Expertise in Little Books. Students worked on using the whole book to try to read the tricky words they may encounter. We used the information from the back and front covers as well as the things that were happening to understand how each page might go. We also used the things we might already know about a topic as well as the pictures to try to figure out what would make sense.
Writing Workshop
Students have really enjoyed writing how to books! We have been writing how to books as a class about some passed shared experiences we have had together Today, we made nachos and wrote a books about it! You can help at home by thinking about all the things that your child knows how to do and oral rehearse them. Examples: make chocolate milk, hot cocoa, a sandwich, make a bed, get ready for school, carve a pumpkin, make a sand castle, etc.
Word Work
Students learned the proper letter uppercase formation of all the letters as well as the sound those letters make. Please practice letter sounds and formations at home!
Snap words introduced this week : are
Snap words taught this year: I, a, the, is, my, on, we, see, and, by, like, it, look, you, me, we, you, has, he, she, went, to, go, here, come, they, in, was, got, are
We are also working on listening to the ending sounds of words, blending onset rhyme ie /b/ - /at/ make bat, segmenting sounds ie say bat now tell all the sounds you hear /b/ /a/ /t/, and blending sounds to make words ie /b/ /a/ /t/ makes the word bat. You can practice these skills at home as well as use the following websites for fun.
http://www.abcya.com/
http://www.starfall.com/
Math Workshop
We began our new math unit on 2D and 3D shapes. Students have been learning that shapes are still the same even if they are in a different direction or size. There are so many different looking triangles, but a triangle is a triangle if it has 3 sides!
Things to do at home:
Practice number combinations to 5. Ex. 1 and 4, 3 and 2.
Practice number combinations to 10. Ex. 8 and 2, 7 and 3.
To practice number combinations, use beads, cereal, pasta etc, pen and paper, flash cards, memory recall.
Play War - winner can have greater or less than number. Before winner takes the cards, they need to say 8 is greater than 6.
Counting to 100
Counting backward from 20
Count by tens to 100
Count on or backward from a given number not 1 or 10. Example count on starting at 7 or count backward from 13.
Social Studies and Science
We have been talking about animals needs for survival as well as how their habit plays a role in their daily lives and needs. We have been brainstorming about what would make a good class pet! So many fantastic ideas! However, I think the tiger is a no go!