Monarchs and More

During Writing Workshop we are continueing our focus on writing personal narrative stories.  We are learning to work with a writing partner.  With our partner we practiced telling each other our stories and then asking each other questions (who? what? why? how? when?) to help us improve our writing.  Writing partners have also been assigned different writing spots around the classroom.

Writers are also working hard to use correct lower case letters in their writing.  Please encourage your child to use correct lower case letter formation on their homework.

    

                          

     

In math we often use the "Mystery Jar" to make random partnerships.  Our focus in math right now is learning to recognize quantities by grouping and not having to count by ones.  We use models like tally marks and ten/twenty frames to practice.  For example, tally marks help us see groups of fives and then count on the extras.   Twenty frames help us see the teens numbers as "ten and more".  

     

    

     

Every Thursday, Mrs. Brady will join our classroom to help teach about how we can "grow our brains".  This week she read us a book that will be the touchstone of our work for a couple of weeks called ...
    

But of course the most magnificent thing that happened in our room this week is that the monarch butterflies emerged!

We released them in the zinnia patch Friday afternoon-off they go to a warmer winter home!

I will leave you this week with some action shots on the playground!

 
   

 

Busy First Full Week

In math this past week, we learned that mathematicians need to show their math thinking.  We learn from one another when we share our strategies.  We will focus on justifying our answers by drawing labelled pictures or equations, sharing our work/thinking with partners and teaching each other our strategies using the smart board.

"We have 18 students and 22 popsicles.  How many popsicles will be left over?"

               

"If we eat the 18 popsicles, how many sticks will be left?"

Celebrate our different strategies!

Writers are hard at work writing stories from our lives called "Personal Narratives".  We are learning to plan our stories across pages, zoom in on small moments and revise our writing by asking ourselves..

Did I remember to tell Who? Where? When? What and How?

Our Nursery Rhyme unit is a great way to set up reading expectations.  We begin whole class looking for words, rhyme and patterns.  Then the children find these examples in their copies, color them and add them to their Literacy Binders.  Sometimes they work on a follow up activity and then they read with a partner.  We are also reading one poem a month from Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice.

And we had a productive, but hot, day in the CCS Kitchen Garden with Deirdre.  We harvested chard, cherry tomatoes and basil which were all served in the cafeteria last week.  YUMMY!

Other things to talk about with your child..

• our first fire drill
• handwriting practice-always start your letters at the top!
• our monarch caterpillars went into their "j" and then their chrysalises

Some Books we have read:

• Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus-still reading!
• Night of the Vegie Monster
• Rollercoaster!
• Blueberries for Sal