Feb. 14-25

This week seemed to fly by.  I hope everyone enjoyed the warmer tempurature and sunshine!

Language Arts:  Our letter of the week was K and our sight word was "are."  We will not have a new letter next week but will focus on the sight word "do."  We read Valentine and love books, went on a heart hunt to write our color words, and wrote our February assessment "Why do you love your family?"  We read Spring in the Kingdom of Ying and discussed -ing words.  We heard the story about King Midas who wanted everything he touched to turn to gold, read a version of that tale called Chocolatina and wrote what WE would want to changed with our touch.  Next week we will be practicing blending words (similar to the spelling list sent home) to listen and write the beginning, middle and ending sounds in words.

Math:  We continued counting activities like the Skyscraper Game.  We practiced the Top It game which focuses on  recognizing numbers and comparing smaller and larger numbers.  I created a copy of the game for you to play at home and as I was showing the kids, realized that I only made one set of numbers.  I will send the other set home next week.  We saw examples of three dimensional objects such as sphere, cube, cylinder, cone, and prisms.  We brainstormed different items of those shapes.  We completed many different kinds of worksheets that focused on patterns, different types of counting, more or less, and number sentences.  We will focus on measuring and coins during the next few weeks.

Social Studies:  We continued to focus on acts of kindness.  May Watts had an incentive program which offered blue tickets to students showing kindness and respect.  This Friday and last Friday a name was chosen from each classroom to have juice and cookies with Mr. Raczak.  Our bucket was very full of tickets which is great to see!  We read a bit about President Lincoln and will also discuss Washington next week.

Notes:  I forgot to say thanks to Mr. Marron for being a Guest Reader last week.  He shared some pretty and funny poetry.  Thank you also to Mrs. Marron, Mrs. Nosek, Dr. Platt and Mr. Parrilli for helping with Literacy Centers.  Our next date is March 2.  I need two volunteers if you are interested (1:05-1:45.)  Thank you, in advance, to Mrs. Nosek for coming in as Guest Reader next week.

I am sad to say that our classmate Advika moved today.  We will sure miss her and wish her the best of luck!

Enjoy the four day weekend!
 

Jan. 31-Feb. 11

Language Arts:  The letter focus was on H and B.  The popcorn words were "it" and "you."  Last week we read our last Jan Brett book Hedgie's Surprise.  We had fun using Jan Brett's side picture gimmick to predict what was going to happen next!  We read The Magic Hat and made a class book in response.  We read Hector the Hermit Crab and recorded the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  This week we read the poem Bandaids and created a class book.  We read a fact book about bats and wrote a four square response.  We are really getting good at these!  We red a fiction book about bats called Stellaluna and made  Valentine bats for our room.  We have a new author to study!  His name is Mo Willems and we love him!  He has speech bubbles in most of his books.  If you look at the left side of the blog post you will notice My Library Thing.  Some of his books plus many more of our favorites are listed.  If you click on the book, you will get information about them.  Check it out!

Math:  We had a fun 100 Day celebration this week!  Thank you to Mrs. Marron, Mrs. Nosek, Grandpa McHale, and Mr. Parrilli for helping out!  We did many 100 day activities...hopefully every student has a good sense of what 100 is.  Keep counting at home.  Last week we read Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? and wrote a sequence of events in our own days.  We played addition games on calculators.  We play Guess My Number using the number lines on our name tags.  We played a Bug Addition game adding two dice an coloring in the sum.  We focused on the 100 number grid.  Check out the 100 game in the web link abcya (look for link to the left) for additional fun practice.

Social Studies:  Our Cool Tool last week was reviewing the Bully Program.  We realized that not all conflicts are bullying.  Our Cool Tool for the next two week is Kindness.  Teachers gave out blue tickets to children displaying kindness and respect.  Students are writing about other friends and their acts of kindness to be displayed on hearts in the building next week.

Notes:  Monday is Valentine's Day.  We will be passing out Valentines before the party.  If your child is participating, please send in 27 signed valentines addressed to My Friend with your child in the morning.  Next week it is supposed to get a little warmer.  (Hard to believe!)  Please send your child in winter boots for recess.  It is going to get very wet and slushy outside!
Let me know if you are interested in Literacy Centers next Wed., Feb. 16th from 1:05 to 1:45.  I currently have Dr. Platt and Mrs. Marron.  I would love three more!  Your help is very much appreciated!

Have a wonderful weekend!