This certainly was a quick week with only 3 1/2 days of school!

This week in reading workshop we talked about making predictions: thinking about what is happening, using what you know, and what you see in the book to predict what you think will happen next.  We also practiced making predictions based on the patterns in books- familiar patterns like the alphabet and growing patterns such as The Jacket I Wear In the Snow.

In writing workshop we finished our unit on narrative writing.  The children each had an opportunity to share a piece of writing that they felt was their best work.  It is amazing to see how much progress the children have made and how excited they are about writing!  Next week we will start a unit on informational writing.

This week in math we started a unit on understanding addition as joining sets of objects.  The children listened to math stories about objects and had to figure out how many there were in all.  We also practiced fluency by playing 5 frame cube.  The children have a 5 frame and 5 cubes.  I roll a die (the 6 is 0) and the children have to make the number that is shown, then say a math sentence to go with it. For example, if I rolled a 4 to start, the children would have to put on 4 cubes and say 0+4=4.  If I then rolled a 1, the children would have to take off 3 cubes so that 1 remained, then say 4-3=1.

This week in writing workshop we continued our unit on narrative writing.  We talked about descriptive language, then compared two versions of the story to see which sounded more interesting.  The children agreed that the story with more detail sounded better.  The children worked with a writing partner to use their best storytelling voice and details when telling their true story.  They then had a chance to ask their partner questions to find out even more details.  They had to be active listeners to make sure their partner told who was in the story, where it took place, what happened, and how they felt.  Telling their story orally helps to organize their thoughts for when they write.

In reading workshop the children practiced reading books with repeating and predictable patterns.  They are so excited when they finish a book.  It is also fun to watch them read with a partner and work together using context and picture clues to figure out unknown words.

In math we continued our practice of counting by multiples of 2 and 10 as well as looking for patterns on a hundreds chart.  Given a pattern the children had to count to figure out what it was, then continue the pattern.  We also learned about estimating using benchmarks of 5, 10, and 20.  The children learned the term 'about' which means close to.  During morning work we also practiced making groups of 7, 9, and 10 by writing addition sentences using counters and white boards.

This week we started talking about our 5 senses and how they help us learn about the world.  We talked about our sense of sight, how it helps us, and things we can do with our sense of sight.  We practiced using our sense of hearing listening to different animal sounds that you would hear at the zoo.  The children then wrote a sentence about what they heard and illustrated it.

On Thursday we had "Dress Like A Farmer Day."  The children donated a dollar to "Kids for Kindness" to help raise money for the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society. It was a bushel of fun!

In the coming weeks children will be invited from our class to have lunch and game time with Mrs. Gaffney and a small group of children.  They play games like Uno and Candyland and will rotate games that can be played quickly and build their cooperation, communication and friendship skills.

This week in reading workshop we talked about how many books have patterns.  They have a predictable structure and repetitive language which can help a reader figure out unknown words.  We discussed types of patterns: repeating words and question and answer.  We read books together and looked for patterns.  We talked about how good readers use context clues to figure out an unknown word.
In writing workshop we continued to work on writing true stories that include details such as: who was there, what happened, where did it take place, and how the writer felt about it.  We have been discussing and using the kindergarten narrative writing checklist as a a guide.  We refer to it before the children go off to write independently.  It reminds them to include details, to write a beginning, middle, and end of their story, and to make their writing easy for a reader to read.  This means writing letters for the sounds you hear in words, using finger spaces,  making it neat, and remembering to use capitalization and punctuation.
In math this week we practiced counting in a variety of ways: by ones, twos, and tens.  We also looked for patterns on a hundreds chart.  We worked on putting numbers 1-20 in order starting at different increments.  We practiced sorting buttons by their attributes into groups of two and four, then counted them.

The children are very excited about Charlotte's Web being the book that our whole school is reading at the same time!  The kick-off assembly was lots of fun.  I have included a link to the video of the assembly as well as other resources for our Slingerlands One School One Book project.  slingerlandsoneschoolonebook.weebly.com

This week in reading workshop we talked about what characters are.  They can be people, animals, or even things that are given qualities like people. Characters are who the story is about.  Characters can change as things happen in the story.  We talked about how characters interact and that dialogue helps understand the characters in the the story.

On Tuesday we had a surprise assembly to celebrate Mrs. Bonacquist's birthday!  Earlier we had created a page in an alphabet book that was presented at the assembly.  Two children from our class read the page and presented Mrs. Bonacquist with a flower.

This week in writing workshop we continued to write true stories.  We talked about what makes writing hard to read, and what makes writing easy to read.  The children had to assess their own writing and divide it into two piles-easy to read, and hard to read.  We talked about revising and ways to make our writing better.  We practiced writing stories that readers really want to read by remembering and using everything we have learned so far about writing.  We talked about how writers think about what they want to say before writing anything down.  The children rehearsed their writing with their writing partners before beginning a new piece.  We ended the week with the children reviewing their most recent piece of writing and whether it was hard to read or easy to read.  We also began our use of conventions such as a capital at the beginning of a sentence and a period at the end.

In math we practiced making groups of 5,6,7, and 8, then writing addition sentences to describe the groups we made.  We talked about comparing numbers to 10.  We practiced making groups on a ten frame using the terms one more, one fewer, and two more.  We practiced quantity recognition within a ten frame by playing a game called ten frame flash.  The ten frame flashes a group on a ten frame and the children need to say the quantity before it changes.  I have included a link to "Ten Frame Flash" on youtube.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRR9LK3zfho

This week in reading workshop we worked on retelling familiar stories including key details. We read the story of the Three Bears and practiced retelling as a whole group.  We learned storytelling words such as: first, next, then, last, and finally to show sequence in the retelling.  The children had a chance to practice retelling the familiar story of the Three Bears with their elbow partner using storytelling words.  We discussed how retelling can help you understand what is happening in a story.  We also talked about using a storytelling voice. and how changing your voice to sound like

different characters makes the retelling much more interesting.  We sat in a circle and practiced retelling the story using both storytelling

words and a storytelling voice.  Each child had a chance to add a 

sentence to the retell. It was great practice for both active listening 

and retelling.

In writing workshop we practiced bringing our writing to life by adding dialogue with speech bubbles. We discussed how the story tells the reader about who the characters are, where it takes place, and what happened.  The speech bubbles tell what the people in the story are saying.  This was very exciting for the children!  We ended our week talking about editing and using everything we have learned to make our writing pieces the best that they can be.  It is very exciting for me to see what tremendous growth your children have made since the beginning of the year!

 

In Math we worked on counting, reading, and writing 10.  We sorted objects into groups of 10 and used 2-sided counters to make different combinations that equal 10.  We reviewed counting and sorting numbers 6-9 by sorting toothpicks into groups of a certain number, then using that number of toothpicks to create a shape.

This week in reading workshop we focused on making a plan to share during share time with their partners.  Last week we talked about what they could share, this week we worked on marking the place  they wanted to share.  The children practiced using a single sticky note to mark one place they wanted to share, then had a chance to discuss it with their elbow partner.  We reviewed some of the things that they can share, then introduced the folder, "My sticky notes."  It will give the children four sticky notes to mark places that they want to share.  It has the same icons that are on our anchor chart so that the children are able to discuss four different things to share.

In writing workshop we worked on writing true stories.  We told a story about a common experience-our last fire drill. I told a very basic version first, then asked the children if it was interesting. It was not.  We talked about what we were doing before the fire drill, how everyone behaved, what the day was like, and things we heard.  We added details each time, then judged our story. We planned how we could write that story and what would be on each page.  The children had a chance to think of something that they have done/experienced then share that with their partner.  We talked about how details make a story more interesting and help the reader get a good mental image.  The children started working on their own stories with illustrations and words.                In math we continued practicing more/fewer using ten frames.  We reviewed counting and writing numbers 1-5, then started with numbers 6-10.  The children played a memory game that they had to count objects 6-10, then find a corresponding number of objects.  We worked on addition and subtraction skills using a five frame and a die.  Given the number on the die, the children had to either add or subtract cubes from their five frame to get to that number.  The children also had to verbalize what they did using mathematical language.

Thank you to everyone who came in or donated items to our Halloween party.

On Monday we celebrated Peace Day with a school wide assembly.
First, our entire school made a human peace sign by standing on a giant peace sign that was painted on the field. Next, we gathered in the gym and representatives from each grade level talked about how we could bring peace to the world.

 This week in reading workshop we focused on what we can share with our partner during share time.  We discussed how they can talk about their favorite part in a story and tell why it is their favorite part, they can share something that is interesting or "That's cool" to teach their partner something.  They can share something that they learned from their book, something that makes them say, "I didn't know that!"  They can also share a connection that they have to the book, or a similar experience with, "That's happened to me."
The children have been practicing their reading stamina and are now able to read for 8-9 minutes independently! I am so proud of them! Independent reading is followed by followed by 4 minutes of share time.  They do their independent reading back-to-back with their partner so they don't distract each other, then they turn so that they are knee-to-knee for sharing.

 

The children did a great job staying focused during share time.

At the fine motor station the children had to use a hole punch to punch out black circles that would form the legs of their spiders.

In writing workshop, the children finalized their books and many had a chance to read their books to me so that I was able to write words underneath.  This was a great exercise because as they were reading over their own work, they were able to see things that they wanted to revise or change because it wasn't what they really wanted to say or they wanted to add more words.  We worked on visualizing an idea before beginning to write and many children started a new piece in their writer's notebook.  After only 1 1/2 months of school, it is so exciting to see the growth that is taking place.  Listening to them stretching out words or using our 'useful words' in their writing is so great to watch.

In math this week we worked on comparing and ordering numbers 0-5.  The children used 1:1 correspondence to compare two groups to determine whether one group has more, fewer, or as many as another group.  We practiced ordering numbers 0-5 in sequence, and learned about ordinal numbers through fifth.