Week of February 11-15

Hello parents!

We had another wonderful week together in the Youngest Friend's room!

Discussing the Kindness Boomerang video with the Oldest Friends during Synergy Day. Check out this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU

Decorating Valentine's Day cookies!

In reading we continue to practice and learn about the short vowels. During centers we did an activity where we matched pictures to the correct short vowel. This was a cut and paste activity which also helps with fine motor skills. The short vowels go nicely with our spelling words as each spelling list focuses on a particular short vowel. We practice breaking apart the words and listening for the short vowel we hear. We also continue to practice our fix-its and focus on punctuation. This past week students learned what a comma is used for. Great job readers!

Practicing our short vowels during centers.

In writing this week students continued to focus on writing about small moments. We brainstorm ideas to write about and then narrow it down to one fine small moment. Students are practicing writing in detail so we can really "see" what they are trying to convey on paper. I am so proud of how far these writers have come since the beginning of the year!

Bryce and Micah reading during silent reading time.

This week in math we continue to focus on teen numbers and using the number ten. Students practiced making partners of ten to understand that they can add two numbers to make the number ten. We then focused on creating teen numbers using ten sticks. Students took a centimeter stick representing the number ten and added centimeter cubes to make teen numbers. They then wrote the equation they had created. 
Ex: 10+ 4=14. 

We love going to the JRL library!

In Science we are continuing our unit on Motion. We finished reading the book Move it! Motion Forces and You. This book helped us learn about pushes, pulls, force and gravity. In partners we experimented with ping pong balls and investigated motion. In our science journals the students drew a picture of themselves on their favorite playground equipment. They then went on to label the picture using some of their new vocabulary words: up, down, slow, fast, etc.

Practicing patterns in Brain Blast with Ms. Brenda!

Missing something? Come check out our lost and found!

Notes/Reminders:

-Please continue to send your child to school with the appropriate winter gear

-Please continue to send your child to school with a morning snack

Have a great week!

Ms. Monica

Week of February 4-8

Greetings from the Youngest Friend's room!

We began the week by diving into Habit 4: Think Win-Win. Thinking win-win is about balancing courage for getting what you want while considering what others may want. It is about filling the buckets of others and looking for different alternatives when conflicts arise.

In the story, Lily wanted to plant her own garden after visiting her teacher's garden. Lily's mother agreed that having a garden would be fun, but it takes a lot of work and responsibility to keep up with a garden. Lily proceeded to write her mother a letter describing what she would do to take care of the garden and how her mother could enjoy the garden as well. After reading the letter, Lily's mother agreed to the garden. Lily explained to her mother that she would get to enjoy all of the fruits and veggies while Lily took care of all of the hard work. Lily's mother agreed this was a win-win situation. We will continue to talk about win-win situations and how we can find win-wins both at home and at school. Each day we apply the 7 habits vocabulary at school. This is something that can also be used at home as the students learn more about using the 7 habits.

In reading this week we studied the short vowel /e/. We learned a new song for this vowel as well. Students did a great job! Students did a short vowel picture sort, sorting pictures that had either the short /a/ or short /e/ sound. We also made short /e/ books together. This week we also introduced the /ck/ ending pattern as it was found in this week's spelling test. We continue to focus on breaking apart words and identifying short vowel sounds in words. The kiddos are doing excellent with this and each week I am seeing improvements in their reading!

In writing this week we focused on writing about small moments. The example I gave the students was my nephew's birthday party. I explained to them that we did lots of things at his birthday party. We played games, we opened presents, we ate cake and ice cream, and we watched a movie. I told them I was just going to write about the part where we sang happy birthday and ate cake. I described each detail: what the cake tasted like, how we were laughing and singing, how many candles he blew out, etc. I explained how you can really focus on details and how a small moment can create a great story to read. They did a great job narrowing down fun experiences to a small moment!

In math this week we began unit 4. We began by using the grocery store to tell math stories. We talked about different ways we could sort the fruits and vegetables and came up with multiple ways of sorting. The students also worked on finding partners of the number 10. We out ten squares face down and pretended that ten bugs were sleeping. We would flip over one bug and say that now 9 were sleeping and 1 was awake, therefore 9 and 1 were a partner of 10. This will help with both addition and subtraction. We also talked about how the number ten relates to teen numbers. Students found they could take a group of ten, add a few to that and they would have a teen number. For example, a ten stick plus five more equals 15. They also found it to be faster using two ten groups to make twenty rather than twenty individual pieces.

This week in Science we discussed motion on the playground. We talked about all of the different types of motion used and then students journaled about what they wanted to investigate about motion. The students added new words to their vocabulary about motion this week, including push, pull, up, down, forward, toward, backward, fast, slow, beside, etc. We also read the book Move it! Motion Forces and You which introduced the concept of force and defined the difference between a push and a pull. Students used a ball as a class to investigate pushes and pulls and test their different theories.

Notes/Reminders:

-Please pack a snack for your child every day

-Spelling tests will be given this Thursday due to Synergy Day being this Friday

-Please continue reading each day with your child. Book-It calendars will be collected again at the end of the month to receive a personal pan pizza!

-Please send your child with appropriate winter attire as we go outside to recess a few times each day

Have a great week!

Ms. Monica

Week of January 28-February 1

We had yet another great week in the Youngest Friend's room!

A few of our friends practicing sight words and spelling words together!

In Reading this week we continued to review our letter names and sounds. We reviewed the short /a/ sound along with our Aunt Aggy song. This week we really focused on the short /i/ sound. This sound is found in many of the new spelling words. We also learned a new song to go with this sound called "Cousin Izzo." We also learned a few new word families this week: the -in word family, the -ig word family and the -ad word family. Students sorted their spelling words into the correct word family and also brainstormed new words for each word family. This is really going to help with both reading and writing as students begin to find patterns in word families by changing the beginning sound.

In Writing this week students worked very hard on editing their final pieces of writing. We worked on "fancying up" our writing and adding any last minute finishing touches, including punctuation, spelling and neat handwriting. On Wednesday we began our Writer's Celebration. Each student had a chance to stand up and present their final piece of writing to the group. I am so proud of each and every one of these kiddos for standing up and sharing their hard work with everyone!

Aliana sharing her writing during our celebration.

On Wednesday of this week we began our Unit 3 math test. Prior to taking the test we reviewed math equations, 10 groups, 5 groups, sorting and classifying shapes, building teen numbers and seeing ten in teen numbers. This math test is a little longer and more complex than the previous ones. We will finish our math tests on Monday and begin Unit 4 on Tuesday.

Centers!

This week we began our Science Unit! This unit is the study of motion. On Wednesday each student took a pre-assessment test. This helps us to understand any prior knowledge students may have and areas in which they could improve or learn more. On Thursday we had a class discussion about what we already know about motion and recorded it on the board. Students made their first journal entry by drawing and labeling them moving on the playground.

Doing partner sit-ups during our indoor recess activities.

Notes/Reminders:

-Spelling tests will be given Monday

-Please pack a snack with your child every day

-Please sned your child with proper snow attire. We will be going outside unless the wind chill is below zero.

Have a great week!

Ms. Monica