Math - In math we have been working on the correct way to form and write all the numbers. (0-9) We learned about some shapes - squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles. We worked on graphs - We made our own pictograph. It's like a bar graph, but it uses pictures. Today we worked on greater than and less than. We talked about when adding two numbers you start with the bigger number to count on. We are also practicing our doubles facts from 1+1 to 10+10. We learned a fun Doubles Rap. Click on it an check it out! :)
Handwriting - We are working on forming the letters correctly and putting the letters on the correct lines. We are also working on writing neatly.
Phonics - We are starting to get trick words. Trick words are words that you can not tap out or words that have something tricky in them. Every time we get a trick word we add it to our student notebook in the trick word section. We are making our own dictionary in our student notebook. Our first tricks words are a, the, is, his, and of. We also will work on word of the day cards. The word of the day cards are words that have something to do with what we are studying. Currently we are working on C-V-C words so our first word of the day card was fix. We have been practicing dictation both in our composition notebooks and on dry erase boards. We have also started working on our magnetic letter boards to spell out sounds and words.
Science - We are learning about weather. We learned about wind. We have a graph that we are doing for a week to chart the wind. Our choices are no wind, some wind, and strong wind. Today we started learning about thermometers. We learned that in the United States we measure in Fahrenheit. We are practicing how to read thermometers on a big class thermometer. We will also be using real thermometers to practice reading the temperature. We are also doing a weather calendar each morning during our calendar time. We are charting the cloud cover, precipitation, and the wind.
Religion - We are continuing to work out of our Religion books. We are discussing the sign of the cross and the prayer The Our Father. Today we read out of our Children's Bible. We read the story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors. Then we watched a short video of the story of Joseph. This week Friday we will do our first Promise Paper of the year. The Promise Paper is a newspaper and activities for children about the weekly Gospel. I like to read the Promise Paper on Friday to prepare the students for the Gospel reading they will be hearing on Sunday at Mass. Most of the students are finished with their Creation books. They are beautiful. They will be coming home some time this week.
Reading - Wow! That's all I can say! Wow! Daily 5 has been nothing short of AMAZING!!! I have been testing the students for their reading level by doing Fountas and Pinnell running records. I have one more to do tomorrow and then I have read with every student! After all of the students have been tested I can put the students into reading groups. The groups are made by putting students in like levels together. When they are in reading group they will be reading stories and doing activities at their reading level. While I am teaching the reading groups, the rest of the class is doing Daily 5 - which is what we have been practicing. We are building our stamina! The Daily 5 centers are read to self, read to someone, listening, work on writing, and word work. The students need to be able to do their centers independently and quietly to make Daily 5 work. They have been doing such a fantastic job! I am so proud of them! Here are a ton of pictures from working in Daily 5.
Friday we have reading buddies. Last Friday we read a great book called What A Wonderful World with our buddies. First we read the story and looked at the beautiful illustrations. Then we talked about how this book is actually the words to a song by Louis Armstrong. Then we "read" the book one more time - this time by listening to the song. It was beautiful. The students loved the vibrant illustrations and the song!
We have been talking a lot about kindness, being a friend, and filling each other's buckets. I have to tell you that my heart and my bucket were full on Friday. During Daily 5 time, as two students were working together, they decided that they wanted to take a moment to stop and pray. They asked me if they could go over by our class crucifix and pray for the hurricane victims and the people of Guatemala. (I was wondering about Guatemala - Mrs. Anderson later filled me in that there was a speaker last school year that told the students about Guatemala.) These two boys then knelt down under the crucifix and just started to pray. It was an absolutely beautiful moment in our classroom!
One more story - In my family there are four people. Myself, my husband, and our two boys. My husband is a high school football coach. He coaches at De Pere. My son Garrett is a freshman at De Pere and plays football on the freshman team. My son Zak is in 6th grade. He plays football for De Pere Youth Football. Well, there are a lot of sports fans and a lot of football fans in this classroom. When we have sharing time I have been sharing about my family and football. I have to report the games and the scores. :) The students have taken it upon themselves to write about football during Daily 5 work on writing. My boys have been getting cards written to them about their football teams, as well as some pretty awesome illustrations. Some students wanted to make a banner for them - and here it is! Love it!
Have a great week! :)
