I like to...

They are getting really good at pattern writing! Today we practiced using the "I like to..." pattern. We are working on spacing, using lowercase and upper case letters when appropriate, and ending sentences with a period. Even Mr. Pattison wrote about all the things he likes to do!

CAFE

All of my literacy instruction is based on the C.A.F.E. model. This stands for comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanded vocabulary. We work on targeted skills and objectives for each area. This past week in centers we worked on sight words; stamping, writing and tracing high frequency words. We also worked on phonemic awareness,counting syllables in a word. A helpful trick we use to help us count the syllables in a word is to put our hand under our chin to see how many times our chin moves and that's the number of syllables. Then in listening they worked on the comprehension skill of retelling by drawing pictures of what happened in the story. With me in guided reading we spent time with pattern books and using different reading strategies to figure out words we don't know. Be looking for book marks I will be sending home with the different strategies to help your child. Example; lips the fish helps you figure out words by saying the beginning sound. This way you will understand what they mean when they say things like I used " eagle eye" and "chunky monkey" and can reinforce at home.

Teeny tiny and learning teens

Here's a look at some of the math centers we have been doing to work with teen numbers. We had spin a number, roll a number, represent a number, count a number, and count on from 10 to a teen number.

We've been practicing representing teen numbers using life sized ten frames. A student leader picks a number and counts out that many students to fill the ten frame and see how many more to get to that number. Example; 11= 10+1

What happened in the story?

Thank you to Saige and her mom for adding to our classroom library!! We enjoyed the story, "Secret Agent Splat" and used comprehension strategies to assess understanding of the text. To assess for comprehension I modeled representing key details in the story through pictures. The students were then given their own graphic organizer to come up with 4 key details they remembered from the story.

You didn't scare me!

We have been reading, writing and creating pattern books. As emerging readers picking up patterns in books is a foundational skill. We have been pointing out the repetition of high frequency words in the text we read. Here is an example of one of the pattern books we read to tie into our scarecrow theme. the students had to fill in the missing words. This activity practiced the use of using the reading strategy, "eagle eye." This means that you look at the picture to help you figure out the word. The words that were missing matched the picture on each page(example, cow, pig, etc,). They then had to stretch and sound out the missing words to write them out.

Investigating properties

In science this quarter we are learning about investigating properties. This unit focuses on how to sort objects based on size, color, shape, texture. We began our investigation using leaves and now are going further sorting objects based on the material they are made out of. We've also noticed that some objects are made of more than one material.