Monday, April 28, 2014

April 28-May 2

Reading
We will continue to work on our fluency this week through reader's theater. Student's will be performing their  reader's theater story on their groups assigned days. Please email me if you do not know your students performance day. This is different from their read aloud story day. Please help your child become more fluent when reading at home by using expression, changing the volume, tone, and sound of their voice and also by reading smooth and not bouncing from word to word.

Math
We will be doing a quick pattern review and then getting in to number facts. Students shold be using math vocabulary to build sentences such as: 2 and 3 make 5, 4 and 1 make five, 10 is 3 and 7, etc. We will be taking our end of the year NWEA computer assessment Thursday morning. 

Writing
Students are making books through the writer's workshop experience. Students are learning to brainstorm, write, edit and publish. Encourage your child to make books at home as well and/or show family members the writer's workshop process.

Science
We are reading Whose Garden is it and learning more about seeds and plants and how they interact with our environment. I hope to also read a book called Love Your World to the kids and discuss how we can help our environment at school, home and in our community. We read and watched The Lorax last week and the kids seemed really excited about how we can take care of our world so I am trying to take that excitement and turn it into something productive. We are growing lots of flowers in the room and students are doing science observations daily.

Social Studies
We are continuing to work on being a more caring community and having discussions about how we can be more caring towards each other.

Mr. E

Saturday, April 19, 2014

April 21-25

Reading
In our small group lessons this week I will be introducing reader's theater to the students. Each group will get a reader's theater script to take home and practice. They will have to bring the script back to school to perform in front of the class on the day there group is assigned. (I will send home this information this week) They will also be learning some tricks they can use to figure out tough words and how punctuation affects how they read. (pausing, inflection, etc.)

Writing
We are starting writers' workshop this week. Students will be creating their own stories and making them into books. Please have your child write any opportunity they can. They need to build up their stamina for writing. All students should be able to at least write a paragraph focused on something. Students should be moving from writing a paragraph to writing stories. (fiction/non-fiction)

Math
We will be continuing early addition/subtraction skills. Students should be using vocabulary such as: I count up 4 from 6 to get 10 and I count back 6 from 10 to get 4. I will introduce them to number families this week and show them how 4 and 6 makes 10, 6 and 4 make 10, 10 minus 4 makes 6, and 10 minus 6 makes 4.

Phonics
We will be discussing synonyms and antonyms this week.

Science
We are reading Seeds this week. Students will learn about the life cycle of a plant and learn vocabulary about seeds/plants. They will be planting their own plants and writing observations about their plant. We will be going on a walking field trip this week to visit two local community gardens.

Social Studies
Students will continue to learn about feelings and social interactions during classroom discussion time. Students will also be encouraged to follow the rules and get along with others to earn a kindergarten certification before the end of the school year.

 

Monday, April 7, 2014

April 8-11

Reading
Vaeda, Sean, Niza and Travis will be reading during story time this week.
I would like all children to be practicing active reading and "beyond the text" comprehension. They should be thinking about characters feelings, author's purpose and inferring things when reading/listening to stories.

Writing
We will be having one more week of introduction to writer's workshop as the students see how the entire process (brainstorm, first draft, editing, publishing) works and the outcome. Students should bring their writing ideas sheet to school this week.

Math
We are starting the early addition and subtraction skills. Students will be counting on to make ten (6 and how many more make 10?) and counting back on their fingers.

Social Studies
We will be reading Flat Stanley's Original Adventure this week. Students will be making their own "Flat Stanley" (or whatever they want to name it) to take with them on any adventures they have over Spring break. I will send information on this home with their cut-out Stanley. Basically, your child will take/draw pictures of their Spring Break adventures with Flat Stanley. After Spring break I will put up a map and we will display all the pictures of Flat Stanley's adventures.

Phonics
We will be doing a web activity that will help students describe things with adjectives.

Note: Students will only have P.E. Thursday this week due to a schedule change. Starting next week they will have it Thursdays and Fridays.

Mr. E