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!