Tracking print with her reading finger.

This week in reading workshop we talked about directionality- how to follow print in a left to right sweep.  We tried to read a big book right to left, but as the children said,"It doesn't make sense." We often talk about how reading has to make sense.  We also talked about reading top to bottom and why that was just as important.  The children practiced using their reading fingers to track the print on the page.  They became detectives to try and find our 'useful words' as they were tracking the print.  They were so excited to share their findings with their elbow partners.

In writing workshop the children began writing their own teaching books to tell all about a topic.  We talked about how writers plan what they want to put on each page before they begin writing.  The children thought of their topics then met with their elbow partners and talked through what they were going to put on each page.  They took their time and were really thinking as they worked.  On Thursday, after the majority of their book was done, they met with their elbow partners to get feedback on how their book was so far. The children were promted to ask questions so that the author would have to think about how they could add more to each page.

Conferring with elbow partners.

Adding more to their books.

Tablet station.

Pocket chart station.

The children are starting to become more independent during work stations.


In Math we continued practicing recognizing numbers 1-5 as well as 1:1 correspondence.  We talked about the words fewer and more and what they mean.  The children had to count the number of objects in a group and then say what one fewer would be and what one more would be.  They also practiced 2 fewer and 2 more.  I have attached a link to let you know how you can help your child learn to write his/her numbers correctly.  This is a skill that we are continually working on.
How we are learning to write our numbers