March 11, 2016

Greetings!

Reminder- Our Music Hall field trip is on Tuesday. We will be eating snack at school before heading to Portsmouth. Please pack a hearty snack since lunch will be a little later than usual. We will eat lunch in our classroom when we return to SMS, so please remember to pack a lunch from home. 

Here is a glimpse into our week:

Readers' Workshop: This week we learned that readers check that their reading makes sense and sounds like a book. The children are learning to ask, Does it make sense? Does it sound right? If it doesn't, they need to go back and fix it. We used Cat and Mouse by Phyllis Root while working on this skill. We are checking student understanding by having them retell a story. 

Writers' Workshop: Lots of time was spent this week on peer editing. The children read their "How To" books to their writing partner. The partner was responsible for acting it out to make sure it makes sense/works. If there were any confusing parts, the author was then able to go back and revise. It is nice to see our writers decrease their dependency on adults and work with peers to grow as authors. 

Math Workshop: The children played Growing Train this week. It provided additional practice with representing addition with numbers and symbols (CCSS K.OA.1). The children are working on completing number scrolls to 100. They are picking up on the various patterns found on a 100 chart! We reviewed basic 2D shapes in preparation for our work with 3D shapes in unit 6. They also measured their body heights with string and found items in our classroom taller than, shorter than, and almost equal to their heights.

Some Books We Read: Can I Play Too?, Listen to My Trumpet!, My New Friend is So Fun!, Let's Go for a Drive!, Should I Share My Ice Cream?, I'm a Frog (all by Mo Willems) & Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson

Visual Arts:  We made shamrock sun catchers and are working on some cute leprechauns.

Up-coming Events:

• Word of the Week- my
• Handwriting- f & q
• Music Hall- 3/15
• Early Release-3/17
• Teacher Workshop Day (No School)-3/18
• April Conferences- 4/6 & 4/13 *These are Early Release Days

Fondly,

Kristen