Friends...

We have had a great time learning this past week and getting to know our friends.  During math we worked on matching and practicing how to take turns.  We also played memory; therefore, we can now add this game to our math/game center.  We also earned some time to go outside to play.  Last week was beautiful!  We had to take advantage.  The children are doing a great job!

This Week...

This week we will be continuing to work on our sight words (I, am, little, then, a, to, have, is).  We
will be delving in to science with this new reading street unit and reading books about nature, flowers, and animals.  I think the children will love it!  We will be reading "Flowers" and learning about the parts of a plant.  We will also be learning the sound of a.  The children will also learn how to begin blending and reading real and make-believe words.  Some of the words we will learn are: mat, tam, at, sat, ats, tas.  In math, we will be working with numbers 7 and 8.  We are also working on decomposing numbers.  One great site you can go to play a game to help with decomposing numbers and working with 5 frames is: http://illuminations.nctm.org/Activity.aspx?id=3564

Math Game...

Yesterday we learned how to play "Steal the Card."  The children put number cards in line and then their friend "steals" a card and then figure out the missing card.  The children loved trying to trick their friends.  It was great to see the children collaborating and working together!

Math Game Fun...

Bears in a Cave...

We have been working hard in math to figure out "how many more to ten."  We have used our tens frames to help with this and the past couple of days we have played a game "Bears in a Cave."  The children took 10 bears and hid some in a cave (a colored plastic cup).  The other player had to figure out how many bears were inside the cave.  This allowed children to start to connect in another way to figure out how many more.  It was a lot of fun and I loved listening to the conversations the children were having!  You can always play this at home with how many pennies in my pocket!

Number Top-It...

This past week we learned how to play "Number Top-It."  The children were able to practice their ability to identify the greater number.  The game is played like the card game "War."  Each player draws a card and the one who has more, gets the cards.  You can also change the rule and the person gets the cards if they have less.  If the cards are "equal," then you get your own card.  Here are two students playing the game!

Addition Fun...

One of the things we did to practice addition this week was with this tree game board and two dice.  The children had to roll two dice and then add the numbers together (the children had to also say the number sentence too).  For example, if your child rolled a 4 and 3, they had to say 4 plus 3 equals 7.  Once the children said the number sentence, they had to color in the corresponding ornament.  The children had a blast playing!  Here is a sheet you can print off at home and play too!  Enjoy...

This Week...

This week we will be working on the letter sound /a/ as in apple, ant, and ax. The children will begin to develop the understanding of decoding simple words, such as, tam, mat, and am. As you are at home working you can show your child these letters and have them begin saying the sounds. You can place the letters m, a, and t on a card and mix them up and have your child say the appropriate sound. This is the beginning skill to decoding words. In addition, please continue to work on letter identification with your child.  I am in the process of assessing the children.  You may have noticed on Wednesday or Thursday your child has been bringing home a book with letters, sounds, and a story. This is what we use in our reading groups during the week. Your child should be able to show you how he or she can read the letters, sounds, words, and sentences. You can have your child be the teacher and teach you how we complete the booklet in the classroom. This is a great way for your child to take ownership and show you what they are learning.

In math, we are continuing to work with numbers up to 9.  This past week your child did bring home Chapter 3 homework and their Chapter 2 test.  Please review both of these with your child.  The homework is due back either October 29 or October 30.  Children should be able to read and write the numbers to 9.  In addition, children should be able to compare the numbers (greater, more, fewer, less).  One great game to play with your child is using a deck of cards or a set of number cards written on an index card.  Here are two children playing the game:


 I hope you have a great week!

5 Frame Practice...

Here is a great site your child can use at home to practice 5 frames.  This allows the children to practice building various numbers, identifying numbers, and figuring out how many more.  This reinforces skills we have been doing in the classroom!  Thank you for all of your help on your child's math homework.  Almost every single child brought it back.  Today and tomorrow your child will bring home the next chapter's homework.  This will be due on October 10 or 11th.  Enjoy...

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=74

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=74

WOW...Lots of Learning...

Children Working Together at the Computer Center

First, I cannot believe where the time has gone.  This year is flying by and I am amazed ever day how much the children are learning.  Second, I want to thank the parents who came last week to conferences and I look forward to seeing the parents who are coming this week.  We had a very packed schedule and we are having to have some phone conferences.  We will be making these phone calls throughout this week.

This week we will be moving into Reading Street Unit 4.  We have a new question "What can we learn from our adventures?"  I think the children will really enjoy this particular unit.  We are introducing new sight words "are, do."  Some children are still having difficulty with our previous sight words "they, you, of."  Please continue to practice these sight words at home as we continue to practice them at school.  The expectation is children should be able to say the sight word within 3 seconds of seeing the word.  We are working with comprehension by identifying the characters, setting, and main idea.  In addition, we work on retelling and sequencing the story.  These are all great questions you can ask your child as you read various stories at home with them.

We are continuing to work on our writing every morning.  Children are suppose to be able to write a complete sentence with spacing, upper/lowercase letters, and punctuation.  Most children are doing well.  The most common error we have noticed is spacing.  The children will start off well, but as the sentence continues their spacing diminishes.  We are also requiring the children to write their first and last names on papers.  Children must be able to write their first and last name correctly for 3rd and 4th quarter.  This requires children to have an uppercase letter and lowercase letters.  In addition there name needs to be controlled, which means on a single line and not extremely large.

In math, children will be assessed on modeling numbers up to 20.  This entails children to build a random number up to 20 on a double tens frame.  The children have practiced this throughout January and February and we feel confident they should do well.  Furthermore, we will be assessing children on the ability to compare 2 numbers.  Children will be required to identify the larger or smaller number of a given set.  We have been working on this skill through the learning game "Top-It" or "War."  Lastly, we will begin introducing one more and one less to the children.  This will help prepare children for addition and subtraction.  Students will explore this skill through various math games.

Once again, I cannot thank you for all of your support at home.  A lot of this learning could not occur without the home-school connection!  You all are wonderful :)  If you have any questions please feel free to email or call!