News You Can Use!

Literacy

This week, the children worked with words containing r-blends (cr, gr, tr). We read books about storms this week. Before reading the book, Thunder Cake, the children made a prediction about what thunder cake is. After reading, the children wrote about what thunder cake actually is and if their prediction was correct. On our second reading of Thunder Cake, the children worked with rich vocabulary from the text. As I was reading, they identified the rich vocabulary words and we recorded them on our vocabulary organizer. The children then worked to define the word and use a key at the bottom to show how they figured out the meaning of the word.  

This week, we also worked on determining the authors purpose. Why did they write their story? Was it inform, persuade, or entertain? The children learned that it’s as easy as PIE to determine the authors purpose. After reading, the children looked back in the text for evidence and came up with the authors purpose. 

Grammar Packets:

The children continued to work with sentence structure in our grammar packets this week. They worked with question and exclamation sentences. They are working really hard on beginning their sentences with capitals and ending them with either periods, questions marks, or exclamation mark.  

Guided Reading:

We will be taking a short break from guided reading groups next week. I will be meeting with the children one on one to do a second round of running records. Reassessing allows me to make sure that each child is receiving reading instruction that best fits their instructional reading level. 

Writing

This week, the 1-1 authors published their narrative writing pieces. They worked extremely hard at rewriting their story in their best handwriting and adding careful, colorful, and detailed illustrations to support their writing. The children also added an opening an closing sentence to complete their small moment piece. These will be on display in the hallway at conference time so you can enjoy them!  

Math 

In Math, the children worked with their number grids to describe and compare number patterns. They looked at number patterns for counts of 2s, 5s, and 10s. They also worked with the number line. They found skip counting patterns and practiced counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, and 10s. The children used the number line to find the answers for addition and subtraction number stories. On their white boards, they practiced writing the number model that represented each addition or subtraction number story. Remembering to use the correct number symbols: +, -,  and = to complete each number model. 

Science

This week, the scientists continued their exploration of Weather. They learned that air is all around us and that the air that covers the earth is called the atmosphere. The scientists learned that the atmosphere is where weather happens. They did an experiment where they dropped objects into water. While observing, they noted that air bubbles were escaping from the objects. 

The scientists also went outside and observed the direction of the wind by looking at the trees, flag, and grass. The scientists learned that wind direction is the direction the wind blows from. Tomorrow, they will create their own wind tool, a windsock. Next week, the scientists will use their windsock to determine the strength and speed of the wind. 


Pumpkin Math and Pumpkin Carving

The children had a great time on their pumpkin fun Wednesday. In the morning, they enjoyed a trip to the Dryden Pumpkin Patch to select their very own pumpkin. Then, they became a pumpkin investigator as they used their pumpkin to complete a pumpkin math packet. The investigators began by estimating the height, weight, measurement, and number of lines on their pumpkin. Then using their investigative tools they found out the correct height, weight, measurement, and number of lines on their pumpkin. They also drew a picture of what they wanted their carved pumpkin to look like.  

In the afternoon, the children loved having a family member or volunteer come in to help them carve their pumpkin. What a sight it was to see the children and volunteers hard at work carving so many pumpkins. Thank you to everyone for coming and making this an enjoyable event for the children. The pumpkins looked great! Enjoy a slide show below of the day’s activities. 

                                              

Star Student

Jackelynn was our star student this week. Thanks Jackelynn for sharing all about you!

Happy Birthday

Today, we celebrated Mia's birthday. Happy Birthday Mia!

Note:

-Thursday, October 31st: The Halloween Parade will start at about 1:15. We will parade out the front doors and head north on  Dryden to Fairview, west on Fairview to Bristol, south on Bristol to Rockwell, east on Rockwell to Lincoln, returning to the school  playground area. Following the parade, the students will have a brief recess period, then return to our classroom for some fun  activities. For more information on Halloween lunch procedures and costume questions read this weeks Dolphin Splash. 

Have a great weekend! 

News You Can Use!

We had a short, but busy week here in 1-1!

Literacy

This week, we read books about snow. The children started the week with a Picture Aloud. I showed the children a photograph that was covered up. Slowly, I removed the covers one at a time. The children turned and talked to a partner. They discussed the information they could gather from each part of the photograph. At the end, they realized it was a photograph of a snowstorm. Then, the children worked together to create a caption to describe the photograph. The children are working with gathering additional details from photographs and illustrations that they did not read in the text. On Thursday, we read the story, Snowy Day. After, the children completed a Setting Guru page. They chose one illustration from the text. Then, they drew the illustration and explained how the illustration helped them learn more about the setting of the story. 

Writing

This week, the children continued to work on their narrative writing pieces. They reread their story and worked on adding detail. The children have worked very hard to be “brave spellers” and stretch out the words that they don’t know how to spell. They also had a chance to meet with a writing partner. Each partner had the opportunity to share their story, after they discussed what they liked about each others stories and shared ideas for zooming in even further. Next week, the children will publish their small moment stories.

Math 

In Math, the children worked with recognizing, describing, and creating visual patterns. They found patterns around our classroom and then worked with a partner to create their own patterns using craft sticks. 

The children were also introduced to even and odd numbers. They worked with counters to explore even and odd number patterns. The children noticed the following patterns:

-Even numbers end in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8.

-Odd numbers end in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9.

-Even numbers are counts by 2s, starting with 0.

Science

This week, the scientists continued their exploration of Weather. They continued to explore the idea that water can be part of the air. They watched as water condensed out of the air and formed droplets on a cold surface. 

The scientists learned all about the water cycle. We read an online article about the water cycle. Then, the scientists took turns coming up to label the three parts and explain them in detail. 

To help them remember the parts of the water cycle, they learned a water cycle song. Ask your scientist to sing it to you!

Water travels in a cycle, yes it does!

Water travels in a cycle, yes it does!

It goes up as evaporation

Forms clouds of condensation

Then comes down as precipitation, yes it does!

Today, the scientists learned about dew and frost. They learned that dew is liquid water droplets that condense out of the air during the night. The scientists learned that frost is ice crystals that cover a cold surface when water comes out of the air and it is below the freezing point.

Star Student

Cathryn was our star student this week. Thanks Cathryn for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

Thank you to Cathryn’s Dad, he joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to two wonderful books, Olivia Forms a Band and Don’t Call Me Pig! 

Notes:

• If you have not done so already, please send in your Pumpkin Carving slip and money by Monday. Thanks!
• Next week is Red Ribbon/ Character Counts week. Each day we will review one of the six pillars. The children will learn that the week is about making safe and healthy choices for our minds and bodies and about treating others in a way that is safe and healthy for them, too. On Tuesday, the children will learn about Caring. Please have your children wear red to show they care about the Dryden community. 
• I look forward to seeing you at Pumpkin Craving this Wednesday, October 23rd at 1:00. Please bring a big spoon to scoop out the pumpkin seeds! 
• Friday, October 26th is Mix-Not-Match day. Have fun mixing up your outfit, be creative!

Have a great weekend! 

News You Can Use!

Literacy

This week, the children worked with short /i/ words. We focused on books about twisters. During the first reading of our realistic fiction book about twisters, the children worked on visualizing. They shared what they were picturing or imagining in their mind. When we reread the book, we worked with picking out feeling words. The children discussed how the feeling words helped them to better understand the text. With our nonfiction text, the children worked on identifying nonfiction text features and how they help us to gain more information on the topic.

The children also listened to the story, Stellaluna. After, they discussed what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Then, they wrote their own sequencing cards. One for the beginning, middle, and end of the story. They glued their cards to their very own Stellaluna bat. They look great hanging from our ceiling!

Grammar Packets:

The children continued to work with sentence structure in our grammar packets this week. They had to determine if the sentences were statements. The children learned that a statement is a sentence that tells something and it has to begin with a capital and end with a period. 

Writing

This week, we read the book, A Chair For My Mother. The children listened to the story and then met with a partner to discuss what they thought the two small moments were from the story. When we came back together as a group the children discussed how the author described her two small moments using lots of detail. 

Later in the week, the children brainstormed a list of small moments from their life. After choosing their favorite one, they zoomed in and began writing. The children will take this piece all the way through the writing process. They are currently working on their rough draft where they sketch pictures, label, and write their story. Next week, they will reread their story and work on adding detail. The children will also go back and stretch out words that they did not know how to spell. Ask your child what their small moment is, try and help them recall the event in great detail. This will help them zoom in even further and add important details to their writing next week. 

Math 

In Math, the children worked with exchanging pennies for nickels. To enhance this skill the children played, the Penny-Nickel Exchange game. They were introduced to change to more number stories and change to less number stories. The children also learned how to write addition and subtraction number models. 

On Thursday, the children reviewed all the concepts from Unit 2 using Mimio vote. They were very excited when our room once again turned into the set of, Math Review, Mimio Vote! The children became the contestants and played the game using their very own clickers. 

They took their Unit 2 math test today. I will send them home after the long weekend. 

Science

This week, the scientists continued their exploration of Weather. The scientists worked with understanding how water changes from a liquid to a solid and back again. They experimented with placing small objects into a glass of water and observing what happens when they freeze. They learned that freeze means to change from a liquid to a solid. 

On Tuesday, the scientists experimented with their frozen ice. They explored different ways of making their ice melt. The scientists came up with many different techniques: breathing on it, rubbing it, using salt, wrapping their hands around it, carving it into smaller pieces, and running it under warm water. They learned that the term melt means to change from a solid to a liquid. 

The scientists also worked with understanding how water changes from a liquid to vapor and back again. They explored the idea that water can be part of the air, an invisible gas called water vapor. They did three experiments where they watched liquid water disappear into the air as it evaporated. The scientists used the terms; evaporate, humidity, and water vapor to explain what they noticed about the disappearing water. 

Columbus Day

Today, we learned about Columbus Day in our classroom. The children watched a short video on BrainPopjr about Christopher Columbus and had a great discussion on who Christopher Columbus was. They also learned a Columbus Day song. Enjoy a video of the children singing the song below!

                 
Columbus Day Song from Melissa Johnson on Vimeo.

Star Student

Ben was our star student this week. Thanks Ben for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

Thank you to Ben’s Dad, he joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to three wonderful books, Tacky the Penguin, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and Pete the Cat Play Ball. 

Happy Birthday

Today, we celebrated James' birthday. Happy Birthday James! 

Notes:

• Remember there is no school on Monday or Tuesday of next week!
• Don’t forget to read and return your purple poetry folder on Wednesday! 
• We do not have library next week because Wednesday is a Monday schedule. Feel free to keep your library books for an extra week.
• There will be no new spelling words or spelling test next week due to the short week.
• Please send in your Pumpkin Carving slip and money by Friday, October 18th. Thanks!

Have a great long weekend! 

News You Can Use!

What a busy group we were this week. Read all about our exciting learning adventures below! 

Literacy

This week, the children continued to work with short /a/ words. We read books about weather. The children worked on sequence of events, retelling stories including key details and asking questions. The children begin creating a RAN graphic organizer, which will help us organize our ideas about weather. We will categorize the information that we know and learn about weather over the next few weeks. This week we added sticky notes for What We Think We Know and Wonderings. We will continue to add to our organizer during Reading and Science time for the next couple weeks. 

Grammar Packets:

The children continued to work with sentence structure in our grammar packets this week. They payed close attention to beginning capitals and periods at the end of sentences. They are becoming experts at recognizing complete and incomplete sentences.  

Writing

This week, the children celebrated all of their hard work by meeting with students from Mrs. Glaser and Miss Bander’s classes. In groups of three, the children took turns reading their autobiographies. They had a great time sharing their writing. Enjoy the slide show of our writing celebration below! 

                                         

This week, we started our second writing unit. The children will work on Narrative writing, zooming in on a small moment in their lives to write about. To start, they chose something that they did over the weekend and used lots of detail to describe the event. 

Next week, the children will begin the process of writing their very own small moment story. You can help your child at home by talking about an event in their life that was really exciting for them: a trip, a big game, a birthday. Help them recall their favorite event in lots of detail, they will use this to write their narrative.

Math 

In Math, the children used their clocks to show times to the hour and used approximations to say what time their clocks read, for example, just after 7, a little before 11, in between 1 and 2. The children enjoyed explorations in math. They rotated through three stations: domino sorting ( learning that the dot patterns on dominos represent numbers), straight line dot to dot (using rulers), and estimating relative lengths of objects (sorting objects into two groups, smaller and larger than a six inch ruler).  

On Wednesday and Thursday, the children explored pennies and nickels. They identified the characteristics of each coin and learned how to write their values. They enjoyed learning two poems:

                                                 

Penny

Penny, penny 

Easily spent

Copper brown

And worth one cent!

Nickel

Nickel, nickel

Thick and fat

You’re worth five cents

I know that!

The children named values of different groups of pennies. They also counted groups of nickels and pennies and recorded the values in cent notation. The children worked with exchanging pennies for nickels. 

Science

This week, we began our first science unit. The children learned all about what a scientist does. We read the book, What Is a Scientist and worked together to create a chart listing everything that a scientist does. Then, the children created their own super scientist. Inside the lab jacket they wrote about what a scientist does. 

Later in the week, we started our unit on Weather. The scientists defined weather as, how the sky looks and feels. They learned that the main parts of weather are: temperate, sunlight, wind, clouds, and moisture.

The scientists learned about meteorologists. A meteorologist is a person who studies weather. The scientists researched about meteorologists using pebblego.com and by watching a weather report. The scientists became meteorologists themselves and took turns reporting the weather. 

The scientists worked with thermometers to measure temperature. They measured the temperature of their hands, the air, and water. They discussed what they noticed about the thermometers and the different temperature readings. They recorded the temperatures using the thermometer color scale. 

Star Student

Henry was our star student this week. Thanks Henry for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

Thank you to Henry’s Dad, he joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to two wonderful books, Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School and Boogie Knights.

Notes:

• The children had a wonderful time participating in the Dryden Just Jump Challenge. Each child was very excited to receive a jump rope to bring home. Thank you to Mr. Gries and everyone on the PTA for making this event possible! 
• Wednesday, is Walk To School Day. All the teachers will be out at 8:40am to walk to school with the children. I hope to see you on your way to school! 
• There is no school on Monday, October 14th because of Columbus Day or Tuesday, October 15th because of a SIP Day.

Have a great rest of the weekend!