December 19, 2014

Hi!

Just a few quick updates from the fish class:

• You may have seen a teddy bear picture come home this week. The children practiced "teddy bear breathing" during OT to help us get our engines just right. Your child might be able to teach you this technique to help reduce holiday stress! :)

• We baked our gingerbread cookies today in preparation for Monday's decorating party at 2:05. We are excited to sing some songs for you and celebrate the season.

• We went to "Winter Wonderland" during our PE class today. I have put some pictures on our FLICKR page. The tab to link you to these photos is at the top of our blog homepage.

• Tuesday is Wear Your PJs to School Day for the fish class!

I hope this covers everything! A special thank you for contributing to the mission gifts. Your generosity will surely make a little girl's holiday very merry!

Kristen

Dear Fish Families:

Thank you for all of the cookie decorating donations coming in. The fish class is lucky to have such supportive parents!

Here is a glimpse of our week:

Writers' Workshop:  We are wrapping up our "writing like scientists" unit. The children picked a piece to publish and we talked about how writers find the big idea before giving their book a title. We will be writing our covers and editing next week.

Readers' Workshop:  Your readers learned that readers re-read books using a storytellers voice. This is how young readers work to develop fluency and expression. 

Literacy: We have learned how to properly form all uppercase letters during our handwriting time. We will begin lowercase letter formation after our December vacation. Using our gingerbread stories, the children are working on sequencing stories. They know that the beginning of the story takes place during the first couple of pages and the end is the last couple. The middle is everything else in between. This is helping them develop re-telling skills.

Math:  We have been working on teen numbers this week. The children know that a teen number is 2 digits starting with a 1 in the tens place. They were surprised to learn that some teen numbers (10,11, and 12) don't have "teen" in their names. That is why we sometimes call teens tricky teens. With the introduction to teen numbers, the children are now using ten frames. We are doing quick looks where the children quickly see a group of dots and need to name the number. They are being given 2-3 quick glances at this point in the year to help them become more comfortable with these larger numbers and groups of dots. I introduced the children to the calculator as a math tool. They enjoyed exploring with the solar panel and reading the numbers on the display screen. They also can find the clear key. 

Visual Arts:  The children have been busy creating gingerkids and gingerbread houses this week. They are really enjoying this unit!  Our winter quilt is up and looks beautiful.

Book of the Week:  The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

Song of the Week: "10 Little Gingerkids" 


Up Coming Events:

• Early Release-12/17
• Monday, 12/22 at 2:05 Gingerbread decorating party (families welcome)
• Tuesday, 12/23 Wear your pjs to school day!
• Winter Break- 12/24-1/2
• Word of Week- am
• Handwriting- Uppercase letter review
• Phonics- sh

Happy Weekend,

Kristen

December 5

Dear Fish Families:

Here is a glimpse of our busy week together:

Writers' Workshop:  We are writing like scientists! The children are working on taking their observations and writing/drawing/labeling across more than one page. The are stretching out words to write the sounds they hear and are being reminded to leave a 2 finger space between each word they write.

Readers' Workshop:  Your readers learned that readers go back and re-read when they get stuck on a word, fix a mistake, or if something doesn't make sense. They are learning to use all the strategies (superpowers) they have learned when they come to a word they don't know. We have been talking about the sequence of stories using various gingerbread stories. The children are talking about similarities and differences with different variations of this tale. We had a book talk using The Napping House. We focused on what happened at the beginning and ending of the story. The children then discussed the events in the middle of the story. They were making great personal connections, talking about parts we liked or found funny, and lots of  predicting was happening!

Math:  Through the use of attribute blocks, the children classified and sorted by shape, size, and color. The also counted the number of blocks in each group. We talked about sorting rules. As an extension of this lesson, the children identified missing blocks from sorted sets. A challenging activity for the children this week was identifying shapes using touch and not sight. Shapes were placed in a "feely box" and the children had to pick out shapes by attribute (ie. a 3 sided shape with 3 vertices, or a 4 sided shape with all 4 sides being equal length). We made a class bar graph of our favorite colors and compared numbers. 

Visual Arts:  We made winter trees and snowpeople this week. We will be using them to make a class winter quilt on our bulletin board. We are also making gingerkids!

Book of the Week:  The Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt

Song of the Week: "The Gingerbread Man" by Jack Hartmann

Donation Requests:

• rick rack
• small craft buttons
• ribbon
• foam stickers

Up Coming Events:

• Gingerbread stories unit
• Early Release-12/17
• Monday, 12/22 at 2:05 Gingerbread decorating party (families welcome)
• Winter Break- 12/24-1/2
• Word of Week- the
• Handwriting- I, T, & J
• Phonics- s and z

Fondly,

Kristen

November 21

Dear Fish Families:

Thank you so much for all the donations that have been coming in. We appreciate it!

Here are some highlights of our week together:

Writers' Workshop:  We have begun our "Writing Like Scientists" unit!  We learned that scientists observe and notice details. I modeled how to make technical drawings like a scientist. We use colored pencils to help with this. The children are being encouraged to label and write what they observe or any wondering they might have.  We continue to have science talks. The children seem to enjoy this time of the day. 

Readers' Workshop:  We worked on 2 new strategies (superpowers) this week. The children are beginning to put the first sound in their mouth when they come to a word they are trying to read. They also learned that our sight words are in books and those are words we read in a snap because we know them and don't need to sound them out.

Math:  We completed our "All About Numbers" booklets and sent them home this week. They children have been ordering number cards 0-10 and representing those numbers using objects. We played roll and record to practice numeral formation and subitizing. We also learned to play Monster Squeeze. It can be played as a game or on the app. I will be completing the end-of-unit assessment next week.

Visual Arts:  The children have been busy making Thanksgiving headbands, owls, and lots of turkeys. They will all be on display for our breakfast on Tuesday morning.

Book of the Week:  Various Thanksgiving books

App of the Week:   Every Day Math Monster Squeeze

Donation Requests:

• rick rack
• small craft buttons
• ribbon
• foam stickers

Up Coming Events:

• Family Breakfast- 11/25 from 8-8:30 *siblings are welcome! 
• Thanksgiving break- 11/26-11/28
• Gingerbread stories unit
• Early Release-12/17
• Monday, 12/22 at 2:05 Gingerbread decorating party (families welcome)
• Winter Break- 12/24-1/2

Happy Thanksgiving,

Kristen

November 14,2014

Dear  Fish Families:

Here are some highlights of our week together:

Literacy Centers: We practiced writing X, Y and Z. The children drove Matchbox cars along these letters and formed them in journals. We have been working on the sight word so and made an old lady to go along with the book I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. 

Writers' Workshop:  This week we chose our small moment piece to fancy up.  The children edited for details in their picture by adding more color. They also added text and some chose to make a cover for their stories. We will celebrate our published pieces next week with the Panda class.

Readers' Workshop:  We spent some time talking about super heroes and their super powers. I told the children that they have reading super powers and when they read, they will use them all. We reviewed how readers touch under each word as they read making sure they have 1-1 correspondence. We also learned that readers look at the pictures. This is an important strategy for young readers! They are also working on putting the first sound of a word in their mouth to get ready to read it.

Math:  We have been working on positional words (on, below, above, in, under, up, down) and writing numerals. The children are also creating a variety of representations for the same number (four can be 4 dice dots, 4 tallies, the numeral 4, or 4 dots filled in on a 10 frame). The seem to be grasping the concept that a number can be shown different ways, but when you count them it is still the same number.  We are also playing math games using a spinner to practice naming the numerals, counting the sequence, and counting the number of objects (or spaces) on the game board.

Book of the Week:   I Know An Old Lady That Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson

Song of the Week:  The Numeral Song by Dr. Jean 

Donation Requests:

• tissues
• small white paper plates
• sandwich-sized  'ziploc' baggies
• foam hand soap

Up Coming Events:

• Handwriting- C, O & Q
• Phonics- l & r 
• Word of the Week- and
• Family Breakfast- 11/25 from 8-8:30 *siblings are welcome! 

Fondly,

Kristen

Hello Fish Families!

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Ella Rogers. She joined the fish class today. Please add her to your class directory.

Jeanette and David Rogers
3 Hemlock Way
407-232-0220


Thank you!
Kristen

October 31

Happy Halloween,  Fish Families:

Thank you for all the donations and help this week! The children told us that the Halloween celebration yesterday was AWESOME. I couldn't have done it without you! There are photos on our FLICKR page.  The link has a tab at the top of our home page

Here are some highlights of our week together:

Literacy Centers: We practiced writing V and W. The children found "I" in our shared reading book, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle. We made bats for our bulletin board and have begun to practice saying our names in chunks, or syllables. We played tic- tack-toe and other fun Halloween games.

Writers' Workshop:  This week we learned that writers can go back and add sentences to their stories. We worked in partnerships to talk about our stories before writing. We also know that writers re-read their stories and add details.

Readers' Workshop:  This week, we reviewed that readers point under the words as they read. We know that readers use the pictures to help them read the stories. We also began to put the first sound in our mouth to get ready to read a word.  The children are getting better at selecting interest books independently. 

Math:  We have been working with 10 frames this week. The children did a bean spill activity where they record the different combinations of 10. 

Social Stories:   Various fire fighters from Stratham and neighboring towns came to teach us all about fire safety. Be sure to check out the pictures on our FLICKR link and ask your child what s/he learned. 

Book of the Week:   Various Halloween stories

Song of the Week:  Wizard's Brew by Joanne Hammil 

Donation Requests:

• small white paper plates
• large white paper plates

Up Coming Events:

• Handwriting- X, Y & Z
• Phonics- m & n 
• Word of the Week- so
• Early Release for Parent Conference- 11/7
• Family Breakfast- 11/25 from 8-8:30 *more info to follow

Happy turn-the-clocks-back weekend.

Kristen