We started off the week with a special presentation about Chinese New Year from Caroline's Mom. We learned that Chinese New Year is a festival like Thanksgiving & Christmas but lasts 15 days and that it is also called “Spring Festival." 2015 is the Year of the Sheep/Goat/Ram. The children also received traditional red envelopes with a quarter inside. Thank you to Caroline's Mom for such a fantastic presentation!
In Fundations, we continued to practice tapping out and blending CVC words. Your kiddos are now beginning to spell CVC words that are dictated to them. This week, I performed the story "Baby Echo Finds Echo at Last." The children LOVE these stories. After I read and acted out the story, I asked the following questions:
- Who was in this story?
- Where did it take place?
- What was Baby Echo's problem? What did he do about it?
- How did things turn out? What happened in the end?
- How did Baby Echo feel at the beginning of the story?
- How did Baby Echo feel at the end of the story?
Feel free to read "Baby Echo Finds Echo at Last" with your child at home :)
I was ecstatic when a child stated that counting could be used to measure and compare time. I marked a steady beat by clapping and had the children count the beats out loud.
One child walked across the room while the class counted out loud at the steady pace. We recorded "10 counts." Then, the same child tiptoed across the room. We recorded "16 counts." We concluded that it took more counts to tiptoe across the room.
Then I asked, "What number do you think we will get if we count faster while she walks?" After getting responses, the same child walked across the room while I marked a faster pace for the children to count. We recorded "7 fast counts." We discussed the reasons for the difference and talked about whether or not counting is the best way to measure time. Then, of course, we had to skip, jump, and run across the room. Why not?!
The next day, we created a graph as a class. We asked, "Do you have a sibling?" and tallied each child's response. We counted up our tallies and used our data to create a simple graph with two columns: one for "yes" and one for "no." Check out the powerpoint presentation I made below :)
During Guided Reading, we rotated through the following 4 centers:
-Chinese New Year Write the Room- Children found Chinese New Year words around the room and wrote them on recording sheet.
-Word Work:"If I can Spell" CVC Mats: Children read a CVC word and wrote three more CVC words that rhymed with it by changing the initial sound.
-Writing Center: Children wrote a true story in their writing folders.
-Math Center-Penny Heads/Tails: Children flipped a penny and recorded how many times they land on heads or tails.
-Center 1: Children worked together to count 100 Unifix Cubes by counting by 5’s or by 10’s and then created a long train of cubes on the rug.
-Center 2: Children used playdough and cookie cutters to make 100 objects.
-Center 3: Children received a 100th chart, a die, and a bear counter. They rolled their die and moved that number of bears until they reached 100.
Next, I charted the children's ideas about what they would do if they were president of the United States. Don't miss the very last bullet. It made me chuckle :)
Sincerely,
Miss Visicaro