During Fundations, your adorable and amazing children continued working on letter sounds and “tapping” out words. Keep practicing tapping three letter words at home (mat, sat, pig, wig, top, lot)~ practice makes perfect. Students are beginning to understand the tapping of each sound, but it is a difficult skill to blend those sounds to say the word. The children also practiced tapping/writing CVC words without even seeing the letters.
I also introduced long and short vowel sounds in words like mad/made, pin/pine, and hat/hate. Your children learned that long vowels say their name, and short vowels say the letter sound.
The children watched as I selected children and tried to figure out what common attribute, or rule, I used to "catch" my fish. They did a really great job with this!
The next day, I presented the following situation:
- I went to an amusement park, and there was a ride with a sign that said, "You must be as tall as this sign to ride." I wondered if any of you would be tall enough to ride, but the sign did not have any numbers or measurements on it. I needed a way to remember and describe how tall the sign was. I did not have any string, but I found some stick-on notes in my bag and used them to measure the sign. It was as tall as 12 stick-on-notes!
In Science, the kiddos learned how to prepare for severe weather and how to stay safe. They really enjoyed listening to the stories "Blizzard" and "Blackout" by John Rocco :) We even acted out a thunderstorm! It was so much fun!
To get ready for our Valentine's Day celebration, the kiddos decorated bags to hold all their Valentine’s cards.
During Guided Reading, the children rotated through 4 Valentine's Day themed centers:
-Valentine's Day Sight Word Write the Room- Children found sight words around the room and wrote them on a recording sheet.
-ABC Center- Valentine's Day CVC Mats: Children looked at pictures and wrote the CVC word on the mat and read a sentence with the CVC word in it.
-Reading Center- Children read and colored Valentine's Day Booklets.
-Art Center- Children colored their Valentine's Day bags
During Reading, I read the story "Cookies Week." This story is about a cat named Cookie that gets into a lot of trouble. This week, we continued to practice visualizing, or making pictures in our minds. The children worked with their partners and described their visualizations or what they pictured when they closed their eyes. This is a very tricky concept for young children. I am so proud of them! We also learned the following 4 vocabulary words: amusing, upset, grin and stuck.
During Writer's Workshop, the kiddos selected one of their How-To stories to "fancy up." They used crayons to add detail, added labels to their pictures, and even made a cover page! The next day, we celebrated our writing by reading our stories to our classmates.
Reminders: Valentine's Day cards are due on Wednesday.
Take Care,
Mrs. Nork