Yesterday I started a unit.  I wanted to stay with the school writing genre of Informational.  I chose BEARS.  Together we created a KWL chart. That stands for

K (what do we know about a topic)

W (what do we want to know/questions)

L (what have we learned about the topic-to be completed at the end of the unit)

It is impressive to see what the students already know about a topic.

Here’s a picture of yesterday’s chart.   A report topic

I copied this chart and taped it to their desk so they can use it as a reference when they write their Book Report on Bears!

Today we reviewed the chart and created a word web from our chart.  Notes for a report, aka note cards 🙂

Next we chose a word from the web and made up a sentence using that word.  We circled the word that we chose from the web.  aka “rough draft”

Tomorrow we will begin putting together several sentences to create our Book report about Bears.

Thursday we will Revise and Edit the writing.

Friday we will Publish our Book Report and share with our classmates!

Needless to say, I will not get to all of the Book Bags this week.  🙂

Here are some pictures of the hardworking students with a partner.  I am very proud of their efforts and focus on the task!

We also had time for another Guest Reader…Isabella’s Daddy!

Just another day in here!  🙂

Mrs. Smith

Here is today’s reader

Mr. Blessing, our interim Principal

I started a spelling list on SpellingCity.com

Check it out for student practice

LOTS to talk about this morning…wind, no power, staying at relatives houses, candles, games, haircut,  cold temperatures in the house, have to eat out at restaurants (“and I like my mom’s cooking better than the restaurant’s cooking”), pets are cold, and the others who have power don’t understand the confusion!  I hope your weekend is warm and calm. 🙂  I have my daughter, son-in-law and 3 granddaughters staying with us due to power outage.  Lots of fun!!!

If traveling to relatives to stay warm, please drive carefully.

Here’s what next week looks like…

READING- HOW WEATHER AFFECTS US

WRITING-Informational Writing, so….We will make a Book Report about BEARS.  

PHONICS- We will be talking about nouns and adjectives (words that modify nouns, describe nouns)

Naturally, I will tie these in with our weekly topic.  For example, bear is the noun.  Now describe the bear (adjective)…”huge, furry, 4 legged, vicious…”  You can play with these words at home.

I also will be working with rhyme.  Next Wednesday’s homework is to bring in 2 small things that rhyme.  ie cat and a hat/bat  Please wait until next Wednesday to bring in these items.

SPELLING WORDS-“un” chunk     run  bun  fun   sun  up  help  is it in   9 words this week.

Please help your child every night with these words.  Although I work with these words every day in here, support on the homefront is greatly appreciated.  It also helps with their reading and writing.  10-15 minutes each day will help a lot.  It also shows them that school is important to you too.

SOCIAL STUDIES-I will be assessing them all week on maps.

MATH-Base 10 blocks and Measurement.

Have a great, warm, weekend.

Mrs. Smith

Parents,

We are in need of Kindergarten parents to be present and assist in monitoring and supervising our little runners during Running Club.  I also need a list of my students who will be participating in running.  I need to know who is going where after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Please respond if your child will be participating and if you can assist with the supervision of the runners.

Thanks you in advance.

Mrs. Smith

Another great story reader.  Today’s book was an INFORMATIONAL book about Lions and Tigers.  Informational text is our writing for the next few weeks.  Thanks Mousa and Mrs. Salem

Such a busy day!  Just a couple of thoughts for you…

MATH-I am really hitting MATH with great emphasis this quarter.  One of the areas in which my kids are having difficulty is SUBTRACTION.  Writing the number sentence is the hard part for them.  When writing the number sentence, they need to remember to write the largest number first, then the number of items they are taking away from that large number.  10 balloons   3 popped  10-3=

We also spent a lot of time today with the 100’s chart.  Pick a number.(17)  Add 10.  Add 10.  Add 10  Where are you?  (47)

Pick another number (23)  Add 10.  Add 10.  Add 20 (That’s just 2 10’s!)  Add 20. Where are you? (83)

Got the idea…It’s just number awareness and how they fit together with each other.  For those who caught on, they really enjoyed using the 100 chart.

Also, we had our first Parent Reader for our March is Reading Month.

Noah Beydoun and his mom

Continuing on with our Unit 7 on WEATHER, our theme this week will be SEASONS.

READING-We’ll read a book titled “In the Yard.”  We’ll focus on verbs (action words) which we will use in our writing.

READING STRATEGY-Visualize  (Seeing the story, setting, events, etc in your mind)

READING SKILL-Identifying setting

WRITING-Combining Seasons and verbs from Monday and Tuesday, our prewrite on Wednesday will look something like…

“In Fall (season) I like to throw  (verb) a football.”

VOCABULARY-Homophones  (Words that sound alike but are spelled differently)    “pear/pair “

SPELLING WORDS-  top   hop  shop  drop  my  play  on

SOCIAL STUDIES-Maps and Map skills all week

MATH-Subtraction within 5  Drawing pictures, modeling with Base 10 blocks, manipulatives

-On Thursday & Friday we will work with building/making numbers with Base 10 blocks and recording the numbers

BOOK BAGS are now coming home.  Please make sure to have your child read the books with you every night.  I can really see their reading improving.  Writing too.

February Reading Lists are due.  I will accept the lists through Monday (for Pizza Hut Coupons).

On Monday, Nancy Worchester, a ventriolquist from Waco Texas, will offer a program.  This fantastic lady is sponsored by our PTA.  Thank you PTA!!!

If you’d like to be a guest reader for March, please come in and sign up on my schedule.

Thank you to Mrs. Beydoun, Mrs. Chami, and Mrs. Moustafa for book donations to our classroom from the Book Fair.  I read the books today and they loved them!!!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Parents,

March is READING MONTH !  During the month of March I would like to invite you to be a guest reader in our classroom.  The story may be your choice (perhaps one of your child’s favorite books) and should be about  5-10 minutes long.  I have a sign-up sheet in my room with available dates and times.

AM times are either  9:00-9:15 or  11:00-11:15  Mon., Tu, Wed

PM times are either 12:15-12:30 or 2:45-3:00   Mon.,  Tues., Wed

Sign-up sheets are just inside my door.  If I am busy with the class, please sigh yourself up for on eof the time slots.

We’re looking forward to some great stories with our favorite readers…our Parents!!

Mrs. Smith