We had a blast today celebrating National Talk Like A Pirate Day! We got together with Mr. Keefer's 4th grade class so he and I could do a live performance of the book How I Became A Pirate! The kids then met with a 4th grader to write about what they would do if they were pirates. I must tell you most of them would quit brushing their teeth, stop eating vegetables and wouldn't take baths! In the afternoon we figured out our pirate names, played a pirate sight word game and read some more pirate stories. A VERY FUN DAY!
This week we studied several wordless picture books to help us as readers and writers. We talked about how the pictures help the reader tell the story with a beginning, middle and end. We looked at how illustrators make choices like black and white vs color, backgrounds, facial expressions and distance of pictures (close ups and far away). The kids have already started using these techniques in their writing pieces.
We also started our first unit of study in writer's workshop focusing on personal narratives. We discussed that personal narratives are stories about ourselves. I wrote a story about my son and I going to the Coffman football game last week to model this for them and we also read the story The Snow as mentor text. We learned that authors tell stories over pages instead of telling everything on one page. Students practiced this concept by telling a story over 3 fingers and using the words First, Next and Last to help guide them. Another concept addressed was a strategy to figure out the spelling of a new word if they were stuck. They say the word slowly while moving their hand down the opposite arm and listen to the beginning, middle and end sounds of the word. They they try writing the word and have to check if it looks right. If it doesn't look right to them they are encouraged to try writing it a few ways and then picking one.
In math we worked on representing numbers through pictures, words, tally marks and tens frames to build a solid understanding of the number. Students made posters representing numbers 1-21 and worked together to put them in order on a number line to see the relationship between the numbers. We will continue this work next week.
We continued to study the -at and -an word patterns this week. We did some activities to help us be able to recognize the patterns within different words. Today we used letter cards to build different -at words. We talked about by changing the first sound in -at words we can build different words. Example: If I have the word cat I could change the c into a b and make the word bat. Seeing the relationship between words with similar patterns strengthens their reading and writing skills. You can play this type of game by using Scrabble tiles, Magnetic Letters, or if you have an iPad or tablet there are some free apps with magnetic letters.
Related Arts Next Week:
Monday - Library
Tuesday - P.E.
Wednesday - Art
Thursday - Music
Friday - Library
Upcoming Dates:
Thursday, Sept. 25th - P.T.O. meeting @6:30pm
Friday, Sept 26th - Field Trip (pack a disposable lunch please)
Sunday, Oct. 12 - P.T.O. Leed's Farm Family Event
Wednesday, Oct. 15 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Click on the Links Button above to sign up for one)
Friday, Oct. 17 - NO SCHOOL
Wednesday, Oct. 22 - Fall Picture Make-Up Day
Thursday, Oct. 23 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Click on the Links Button above to sign up for one)
Still looking for some classroom volunteers! If you are able to help in the classroom please click on the links button above to sign up!
WHEW! That was one LONG blog post! Sorry!
This week we studied several wordless picture books to help us as readers and writers. We talked about how the pictures help the reader tell the story with a beginning, middle and end. We looked at how illustrators make choices like black and white vs color, backgrounds, facial expressions and distance of pictures (close ups and far away). The kids have already started using these techniques in their writing pieces.
We also started our first unit of study in writer's workshop focusing on personal narratives. We discussed that personal narratives are stories about ourselves. I wrote a story about my son and I going to the Coffman football game last week to model this for them and we also read the story The Snow as mentor text. We learned that authors tell stories over pages instead of telling everything on one page. Students practiced this concept by telling a story over 3 fingers and using the words First, Next and Last to help guide them. Another concept addressed was a strategy to figure out the spelling of a new word if they were stuck. They say the word slowly while moving their hand down the opposite arm and listen to the beginning, middle and end sounds of the word. They they try writing the word and have to check if it looks right. If it doesn't look right to them they are encouraged to try writing it a few ways and then picking one.
In math we worked on representing numbers through pictures, words, tally marks and tens frames to build a solid understanding of the number. Students made posters representing numbers 1-21 and worked together to put them in order on a number line to see the relationship between the numbers. We will continue this work next week.
We continued to study the -at and -an word patterns this week. We did some activities to help us be able to recognize the patterns within different words. Today we used letter cards to build different -at words. We talked about by changing the first sound in -at words we can build different words. Example: If I have the word cat I could change the c into a b and make the word bat. Seeing the relationship between words with similar patterns strengthens their reading and writing skills. You can play this type of game by using Scrabble tiles, Magnetic Letters, or if you have an iPad or tablet there are some free apps with magnetic letters.
Related Arts Next Week:
Monday - Library
Tuesday - P.E.
Wednesday - Art
Thursday - Music
Friday - Library
Upcoming Dates:
Thursday, Sept. 25th - P.T.O. meeting @6:30pm
Friday, Sept 26th - Field Trip (pack a disposable lunch please)
Sunday, Oct. 12 - P.T.O. Leed's Farm Family Event
Wednesday, Oct. 15 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Click on the Links Button above to sign up for one)
Friday, Oct. 17 - NO SCHOOL
Wednesday, Oct. 22 - Fall Picture Make-Up Day
Thursday, Oct. 23 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Click on the Links Button above to sign up for one)
Still looking for some classroom volunteers! If you are able to help in the classroom please click on the links button above to sign up!
WHEW! That was one LONG blog post! Sorry!