The kids sure did enjoy our Valentine's Day celebration this week! We enjoyed exchanging cards with each other as well and special sweet treats. We are thrilled to be getting some recess time outside this week, as this time of year it is crucial to get outside, enjoy some fresh air, and burn off some energy:)
This week was full of lots of learning fun!
In math this week we have been doing a lot of end of the trimester assessments. In between these assessments we've had the opportunity to practice skills through learning centers. We practiced telling time, addition facts, writing 3 digit numbers, counting money, and had fun with tangrams.
We had a tricky phonics skill this week. We practiced reading and sorting words that contain "er", "ir", or "ur". It's hard to tell which spelling pattern makes the sound in different words without just memorizing it. I made them work this week with this spelling list!
We read a story titled Digger Pig and the Turnip. We saw a lot of those spelling patterns in this story. This story is very similar to the story The Little Red Hen. Next week we plan to continue reading and doing activities with this story, comparing and contrasting to The Little Red Hen.
This story was about some farm animals that didn't want to help Pig make a turnip pie. We talked about how we are good helpers. We discussed ways that we help at home and wrote sentences about it.
In writing this week we also talked about parts of a friendly letter. The kids now understand that a friendly letter contains a heading, a greeting, the body, and a closing. Each of us practiced writing a friendly letter this week to Mr. Garner.
This weekend your child brought home a ziplock bag full of paper books. These books have been in the students' book bags in their desks for weeks. Each book focuses on a phonics skill your child has worked on throughout the last several weeks. These are great books to hang on to and keep practicing reading at home. Your child should be able to read these stories independently.
We had a great week! This may sound silly, but keep encouraging your child to properly wash their hands. We're working to do this at school, especially before lunch. Our class is staying fairly healthy amidst a very tough flu season. (I'm knocking on wood right now!) Keep reading each night at home with your child. Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Halon
Friday, February 15, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
iPads
This week I took an opportunity to give our new ipads a try in the classroom. A few weeks ago, our classroom received 4 ipads for use in our classroom. We've been busy playing around with them and getting apps on them that will work with our curriculum. I have tried out a couple activities with kids during guided reading groups. However, this week, I had a group of kids try working independently during literacy center time on the ipads. They were working on reading on RAZ kids, a program familiar to them. It was a fun way to get their hands on this new tool for our classroom. I'm looking forward to playing around with these more with small groups and trying out new programs and apps.
This week at a glance:
Reading/Language Arts:
We read a class story called Making Friends, Keeping Friends this week. We wrote stories this week about what we do with friends. The kids organized their ideas on an idea web, and then we put these details into a story book this week. They really enjoyed creating these story booklets and making it "published" work. Look for these stories to be coming home soon for you to see.
We learned how to put words in ABC order this week and practiced a little with it. I told the kids this would be another great activity to do at home with their weekly spelling list.
The kids have learned this week about special names and titles of people and how we need to capitalize those in our writing. I have become a little more picky with their writing and have really been pointing out when letters should be capitalized and when they should not be.
Math:
We reviewed and finished up our Unit 5 in math this week. The next week will be spent doing a lot of end of Trimester 2 assessing. Continue practicing basic facts and well and counting money at home.
We are looking forward to another great week this week! Remember to have your child do some reading every night at home.
Mrs. Halon
-visit again in the next couple days for pics to be added to this post and the last post about penguins. my camera is acting up and I couldn't add them on tonight.
This week at a glance:
Reading/Language Arts:
We read a class story called Making Friends, Keeping Friends this week. We wrote stories this week about what we do with friends. The kids organized their ideas on an idea web, and then we put these details into a story book this week. They really enjoyed creating these story booklets and making it "published" work. Look for these stories to be coming home soon for you to see.
We learned how to put words in ABC order this week and practiced a little with it. I told the kids this would be another great activity to do at home with their weekly spelling list.
The kids have learned this week about special names and titles of people and how we need to capitalize those in our writing. I have become a little more picky with their writing and have really been pointing out when letters should be capitalized and when they should not be.
Math:
We reviewed and finished up our Unit 5 in math this week. The next week will be spent doing a lot of end of Trimester 2 assessing. Continue practicing basic facts and well and counting money at home.
We are looking forward to another great week this week! Remember to have your child do some reading every night at home.
Mrs. Halon
-visit again in the next couple days for pics to be added to this post and the last post about penguins. my camera is acting up and I couldn't add them on tonight.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Penguins Penguins!
You have probably heard all about our week with our class visitor, an emperor penguin. He arrived in our classroom in a box from Antarctica. We spent the week learning all about our penguin and his needs to survive here at Washington school. We even made a plan as to how we would create a room with all of its needs if we were to keep our penguin here at school. In the end, we decided that it would be best to send our penguin home to his natural habitat, Antarctica. It was much fun for the kids to learn all about penguins and integrate penguin activities throughout our day of reading, writing, and math.
This week has been a busy one. Here's our quick recap:
Reading: This week we have been reading an African Folk Tale called Too Much Talk. It was fun to practice reading it with expression in our voices for the different characters that spoke in the story. We talked this week too about asking the questions who, what, and where??
WHO is the main character in the story?
WHAT are they doing in the story?
WHERE are they in the story?
We had the chance to go to the computer lab this week and get on RAZkids.com. If you have access to the internet at home, this is a great resource to use to have your child practice their on-level reading. Please let me know if you need your child's login information sent home again. We practiced "visualizing" when we heard a poem called "The Balloon Man". The kids came up with some great pictures of their visualizations.
Math: In math this week, we have worked a lot on number stories. In those stories we've discussed and compared amounts, figuring out who has more and how much more each time. We learned that this is the DIFFERENCE between the numbers. We're also comparing numbers using our symbols >,<,=.
We continue to practice our math facts each day. This week each day we also practiced putting data into bar graphs and discussing the information we found in the completed graphs.
Language Arts: We completed another big writing activity this week. We wrote a fact piece about penguins. The kids made an idea web and listed 6 facts they learned about penguins. We came up with a topic sentence, wrote the six facts, and ended our story with a concluding sentence. They did wonderful writing!! We are really starting to remember those capitals at the beginning of sentences and periods at the end.
I really enjoyed meeting with all of you last week during conferences. It's so nice to share how well your children are doing and all the wonderful gains they are making. Thanks for all the support at home!
Mrs. Halon
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| Mrs. Block discusses the needs of our penguin with the students. |
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| What will we do with this penguin!? |
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| Our penguin arrived! |
This week has been a busy one. Here's our quick recap:
Reading: This week we have been reading an African Folk Tale called Too Much Talk. It was fun to practice reading it with expression in our voices for the different characters that spoke in the story. We talked this week too about asking the questions who, what, and where??
WHO is the main character in the story?
WHAT are they doing in the story?
WHERE are they in the story?
We had the chance to go to the computer lab this week and get on RAZkids.com. If you have access to the internet at home, this is a great resource to use to have your child practice their on-level reading. Please let me know if you need your child's login information sent home again. We practiced "visualizing" when we heard a poem called "The Balloon Man". The kids came up with some great pictures of their visualizations.
Math: In math this week, we have worked a lot on number stories. In those stories we've discussed and compared amounts, figuring out who has more and how much more each time. We learned that this is the DIFFERENCE between the numbers. We're also comparing numbers using our symbols >,<,=.
We continue to practice our math facts each day. This week each day we also practiced putting data into bar graphs and discussing the information we found in the completed graphs.
Language Arts: We completed another big writing activity this week. We wrote a fact piece about penguins. The kids made an idea web and listed 6 facts they learned about penguins. We came up with a topic sentence, wrote the six facts, and ended our story with a concluding sentence. They did wonderful writing!! We are really starting to remember those capitals at the beginning of sentences and periods at the end.
I really enjoyed meeting with all of you last week during conferences. It's so nice to share how well your children are doing and all the wonderful gains they are making. Thanks for all the support at home!
Mrs. Halon
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