We spent a lot of time last week talking about what a "just right" book was and how it looks differently for all of us. It doesn't mean we can't read easier or harder books but sometimes to practice and make us more confident in reading, "just right" books are what's best! We have been practicing with partners and on our own to find "just right" books! The reminders at home will help them remember when they are looking at their bookshelf or at the library! First we read the title. If we can read it and it sounds interesting, we look at the back. If the book doesn't have anything on the back, we move on. We read the first page. If we make less than 5 errors on the first page, it's probably a good book for us! If the book has lots of pictures, we also look at those. Pictures can help tell the story and show us a lot! If we like the pictures, then it probably is a "just right" book!
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Just right books are all the rage in our room! We have been talking all week about what a just right book is and how we can find them in our classroom, at home, at the library! We also spent a lot time talking about how "just right" books look differently for everyone! It's ok that our friends "just right" books may look differently than ours. In math this week, we have been talking about how to make 8 and 9. We've been using pictures, numbers and words to help us solve the problems. We are in the early stages of learning how to write number sentences. We use the language: part + part =whole Please feel free to practice this at home! You can use pasta, pennies, beans or whatever else you have! We have done an amazing job during the start of our math workshop! They know what choices they have while some are in small groups or working on other math manipulatives or assignments! I am so proud of them! While we are settling into our classroom routines and expectations, one area of focus is reading. Many youngsters are not comfortable reading because it is not something comes easily. Reading is something that they should be doing throughout school as well as at home! Please remember to read nightly! I know we have many activities that interrupt our reading time but maybe a story before bed! I try my best to foster an environment for the LOVE of reading and it would be wonderful to have your support at home! Reading is such a huge part of learning at this age (math, social studies, science) and the more comfortable they become the more independent they will be as learners! We are in the very beginning stages of writer's workshop. This will be a time when your children will be writing stories full of quality writing. The workshop model takes lots of practice in routine and expectations. We have been thinking about things that we would want to write about during this time. They have a heart map in their writing folders for things to write that are close to their hearts, that would immediately give them an idea of what to write about. I made the mistake of asking what is close to your heart-"Your blood", "muscles", "well, you said no but blood is". So with some prompting :) we started listing things that are close to our hearts. We didn't put down specifics so that when we see family-anything could spring to mind what to write about! Not just mom or dad or brother or sister. This should be a good jumping off point for them to start exploring and getting their writing juices flowing! We have been working on the short a sound. We practice the sound during our alphabet chant and have been doing lots of different word study activities to help us practice reading and writing this sounds. Some patterns we are focusing on are: 'at', 'an', and 'ap'. Children are working on words like: cat can man stand clapping bat Look for these familiar word patterns around your house (cereal boxes, boxes from cooking, books) and every life! It could be a fun game! We are also working with our sight words/high frequency words. This week we are working on an, the, she In the articles/resources section of the website, you'll find a list of the K-2 words. |
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