Reading: We read The Polar Express and identified its story elements. We sequenced the story from the beginning to the end. We watched the movie then compared and contrasted the book with the movie. During intermission kids enjoyed hot chocolate with marshmallows, Halo oranges, candy canes, and Scooby snacks for our Christmas party. They unwrapped gifts from me and made ornaments. Many, many families sent items to help. Thank you all! We had some fun with "Reindeer Day" on Tuesday. We learned facts about real reindeer, made a reindeer-face book, watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and made reindeer food (oats and raisins with glitter). The reindeer food is to be sprinkled in your yard on Christmas Eve to help Santa's reindeer find your house! (I have pictures from our party and will post when I can).
Writing: We worked on our writing prompt to see how much we have grown in writing. Students finished their narratives and shared for our Writers Celebration on Friday. It was fun listening to students read their own books proudly. Handwriting: We practiced writing letter Qq and wrote words that started with Qq. Qq is difficult to write. Be sure your child is beginning letters at the top and moving downward. Math: We played Roll & Record 2 involving rolling a 1-3 dot cube and a 1-6 dot cube, then adding them together. We also played Racing Bears by rolling a dice to move bears on a chart and get all four of them to "home". January Theme: Winter, the book The Snowy Day and other stories, fiction and non-fiction Reading: We will be working with the following skills…activating schema, generating questions, answering our questions through non-fiction reading, visualizing, and sequencing. Sight Words: We came close to hitting our goal of 15 out of 17 kids mastering List A. Ten of the kids have mastered List A. Five are so close! "We," "me," "am," and "at" are those missed most. Please practice a few times over break to strengthen. I will recheck in January. I will introduce list B and set a new goal with the class. Word Family: -and Handwriting Letters: Rr and review of A-Q. We will be using handwriting paper and learning how to form and sit letters correctly on handwriting lines. Writing: We will be beginning a new unit on writing "How-To" books. We will introduce the unit, take a formative assessment prompt, and then dive into writing. Math: We will continue to play games to strengthen our addition skills, but we will also begin to look at word problems and subtraction by 1. Upcoming Events: December 19-January 3…Christmas Break January 4 – December Book It Calendars Due January 5 – Hat Day Personal note: My youngest grandson, Elijah (Eli), is having his third heart surgery in St. Louis the 23rd, and we hope to bring him home Christmas Eve. He will be two in February. We learned before Eli was born that he had heart defects. His first week of life was frightening for us. We prayed for him to be strong, and he is a fighter - actually he's quite a stinker! This surgery will be done like his second surgery at 2 1/2 months was, so we have knowledge of what to expect. It isn't as invasive as his first at five-days old when he was cut open. Still yet, prayers are welcomed and appreciated. Eli will be scared of all the strangers and cords. If you need anything next week, please understand that I probably won't respond right away. Merry Christmas to all. Hug your babies for me. Mrs. Bailey Reading: We enjoyed How the Grinch Stole Christmas in reading focus lessons. Kids compared and contrasted the original black and white version with the updated color version, listed adjectives to describe the Grinch at the beginning and the at the end of the story, and made text-to-self connections about what makes us grumpy and happy. Next week: we will read The Polar Express, practice sequencing the important events in order, and make text-to-self connections. Thursday we will wear pajamas for our Polar Express day when we watch the movie and have our Christmas party. We will have a movie intermission from 9:45 to 10:15 so the kids can drink hot cocoa with marshmallows, eat a small snack (lunch is at 10:57), and unwrap their gifts from me. We will be making ornaments later in the day. Parents are invited to join us during the intermission, but help isn't needed. Several parents are already supplying items for the party, so further help isn't needed. Bless you all!
Math: We played games adding on to a given number. Next week: we will continue to play adding-on games. This practice and observation is in preparation of mastering the fact families for addition and subtraction 0 to 5. (Ex: 0+0, 0+1, 0+2, 4-2, 3-3 ...) Writing: We learned how to make strong beginnings and endings in our stories and revising planning pages to publish for our writer’s celebration this week. Kids are using everything they have learned about writing to make their books the best they can be. Capital letters only at the beginning of sentences and special words are a must. Correct punctuation and in the correct place is expected. Word wall words have to be spelled correctly. Finally, the book should tell a true story from the child's life. Next Week: Monday kids will be given an hour to write a narrative for the end-of-unit assessment. These scores will go into Mastery Connect. Tuesday and Wednesday they will complete any unfinished narratives in preparation for our Writers' Celebration Thursday and Friday. All books and planning pages will be sent home by Friday. I've completed second quarter reading level tests and am proud to say that 82% of my kids are "Proficient" or "Advanced". This is wonderful! "Proficient" is B/2, "Advanced" is C/3 and above. 88% of my kids advanced from where they were first quarter.I'm proud of my kids who are reading well, and equally as proud of those who are at "Basic" or "Below Basic" because everyone starts with different skills and learns at a different pace. I did not do this on my own! YOU MATTER! Thank you for all of your hard work. Level C/4 is a difficult leap because I don't read the first page for the kids and there isn't a repeated pattern to the words. Keep reading and helping your child think about strategies used to decode words. Talk about the story before reading and after to be sure your child is internalizing what is read. Some kids are so focused on attacking the words that they forget to remember what they are reading. Jacob brought more puzzles for us - thank you Jacob! (and Mom, of course) Mrs. Bailey Important Dates:
Reading: We had a fun week with Gingerbread Man activities and stories. Kids heard several versions of the story: The Gingerbread Man (3 versions), The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Bear, and The Gingerbread Girl. Kids brainstormed ways the gingerbread man could get away from those chasing him and completed the sentence "_________, _______ as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!" We discussed the setting in each of the books in great detail using picture clues such as clothing, scenery, the oven used to bake the cookie as well as the lack of items such as televisions, couches, paved roads, and cars. Using The Gingerbread Baby kids predicted what happened to him toward the end of the story when only crumbs were left. If they were watching the side pictures, they knew that Mattie had baked a gingerbread house for his cookie, and had saved him from the fox. They had to finish the sentence with "because _____" meaning that they provided a reason they predicted what they did for the end of the story. This is very difficult for some. You can use this strategy at home to help your child begin to see that they can provide a reason using the pictures and words up to the prediction point. Next week: We use How the Grinch Stole Christmas to focus on characters and their traits, adjectives, text-to-self connections, and comparing/contrasting the black and white version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas with the color version.
Science: We used the Scientific Method to experiment with a gingerbread cookie. Kids created a plan for testing their hypothesis for what would happen to the Gingerbread Man if he had tried to swim across the river instead of letting the fox help him. Some kids said he would sink, some said float, some said he would get soggy and fall apart. We then put the cookie in a tub of water and waited. He floated at first then began to soak up water. Air bubbles released from his head. He sank within 15 minutes with more air bubbles releasing from his feet. We didn't see a visible change for awhile, but hours later the water had a yellow-brown tint at the bottom. We chose to leave him for a day. The water became more discolored. At two days of observations one leg cracked away a little. When I picked up the tub for kids to see, the leg floated away. Since it was Friday, I picked up the broken leg for further hypothesis testing. It was mushy. Kids described it as cat poo or puke. Very scientific! We left him for the weekend and are anxious to observe new changes Monday. Sight Words: Review of all words from List A & B *Our new classroom goal for January will be that 15 out of 17 students will know all 11 High Frequency words from List B. I am proud of Sylayah and Elyssa for adding their names to our goal of mastering all words on List A by December 18. Writing: Publishing is beginning to happen! Several kids have finished the process of planning a narrative story, editing (looking for errors), and reprinting in a book format. A cover with a title and picture is the last touch. I am very proud of those finishing books. We will be celebrating success the last week of school by letting those with a "published" book read to the class. The formal writing prompt for conclusion of this unit will be give the week before break begins. Kids will have one hour to write a story complete with all the elements we've discussed since August. Next week: We will brainstorm amazing beginnings and how to end a story with a feeling sentence or how to wrap up what the story was about. Writing a sentence or two each night about our school day can help your child practice these elements of writing. Handwriting and Word Work: Continued practice using handwriting paper and learning how to form and sit letters on handwriting lines. Most kids are still beginning their letters at the bottom. Please practice beginning from the top and moving the pencil downward. Continued work with using strategies for reading and writing using "Stretchy Snake," "Chunky Monkey," "Lips the Fish," and"Eagle Eye". Math: We practiced measuring items with different objects. We also used a balance to compare the weight of two objects. Next week: We will continue our unit on non-standard measurement focusing on comparing weight using the terms "heaviest" and "lightest". We will work on adding on to a given number through math games. In January: kids will begin thinking abstractly in math with adding and subtracting. They will learn: how to add two numbers to get a larger number, how to listen to a story problem and decide what numbers and pictures are needed to solve the problem, and how to complete a number bond. Number bonds will be introduced. Third quarter math goals are for kindergarten students to solve addition and subtraction problems with sums 5 and under in less than 3 seconds each. Using fingers is fine if the answer is found within the 3 second rule. Many kids have a hard time thinking backward to subtract and begin adding. Kids also have to listen to two story problems, decide whether to add or subtract, write the number equation, draw the pictures needed, and solve the problem. I've been testing for second quarter progress reports. I see progress in everyone! Even if it's baby steps, those steps are in the right direction. Bless you for all that you do! I couldn't have these kids where they are without you. Important Dates: December 15 – Tiger Pride Assembly @ 2:45 December 17 - Our classroom PJ day and party hosted by me. If you are able to help by providing supplies, please contact me for items needed. The party will be from 9:00 to 10:45 while the kids are watching The Polar Express (our focus book for the week). December 18 – Early Dismissal @ 12:30 December 19-January 3…Christmas Break January 4 – December Book It Calendars Due |
AuthorMrs. Christine Bailey Willard South Homepage
Archives
May 2019
|