Monday, March 20, 2017
Leprechaun Traps
Well, we didn't catch our little friend this year, but here we sure did a great job trying!
Flower Sale
The flower sale is in full swing! We have yet to get in our first order turned in. Here is more information in case you need it. I have purchased these flowers for several years and have had the best luck with them lasting over the summer during the heat and being some of the fullest flowers that I purchase!
Friday, February 24, 2017
Fun Friday Facts...
It was definitely hard to beat the weather this week! We had so much fun during recess all week long! The class even enjoyed having their gym time outside as well.
This week in class we have started our new writing unit on persuasive writing. So far, we have talked about different problems that a person could have and then we have discussed that one way to try and solve that problem would be to write it down. We have spent the week working on including a beginning sentence, reasons for the problem as our details, and then writing a closing sentence at the end of the story. This has been a popular activity all week long!
For our OG time, we are working on learning about closed syllables. These are consonant-vowel-consonant words (flip, cat, mug, etc.) The children have learned that when the syllable ends with a consonant we consider the syllable to be closed and therefore the vowel is short as well. We have practiced marking and reading real words and sill words (nonsense words) when working on this pattern. Next week, we are going to work on learning a new syllable pattern in class.
As a quick reminder, please do not let your child bring in toys to school. We have several children that are doing this in the classroom and the toys are becoming a distraction for everyone. As a rule, we ask that you do not send toys in at all unless you hear from me directly. Thanks so much for your help with this.
The updates are short and sweet today, just like our week! Have a great weekend!
This week in class we have started our new writing unit on persuasive writing. So far, we have talked about different problems that a person could have and then we have discussed that one way to try and solve that problem would be to write it down. We have spent the week working on including a beginning sentence, reasons for the problem as our details, and then writing a closing sentence at the end of the story. This has been a popular activity all week long!
For our OG time, we are working on learning about closed syllables. These are consonant-vowel-consonant words (flip, cat, mug, etc.) The children have learned that when the syllable ends with a consonant we consider the syllable to be closed and therefore the vowel is short as well. We have practiced marking and reading real words and sill words (nonsense words) when working on this pattern. Next week, we are going to work on learning a new syllable pattern in class.
As a quick reminder, please do not let your child bring in toys to school. We have several children that are doing this in the classroom and the toys are becoming a distraction for everyone. As a rule, we ask that you do not send toys in at all unless you hear from me directly. Thanks so much for your help with this.
The updates are short and sweet today, just like our week! Have a great weekend!
Friday, February 17, 2017
Friday Fun Facts!
Happy Friday! It was a great week for us to get outside and enjoy the warmer weather. Recess was an exciting part of our day this week! A big thank you to all of the parents that joined us for the Valentine party! It was a great success because of you. The class is still talking about how much fun they all had on Tuesday.
We have a couple of great activities coming up at CE. First, if you are interested in ordering a yearbook, you can do that now until March 30th. A flyer was sent home earlier with the detailed information. If you need another one, feel free to let me know. Also, next Friday night is Family Fitness Night. This is a fun activity for all of the family to come and learn about your health and enjoy participating in some healthy activities as well.
We wrapped up our socials studies unit on families this week in class. We talked about what it means to be a family and how families get along. We also learned about what kinds of activities families can do together.
The children have been working really hard on their writing over the course of this week. I have been so excited to share with the class all of the great things I have been seeing. During the past two days, we have been focused on including a closing sentence when writing a story. We talked about how a closing sentence could be a question or a feeling statement. Next week, we will begin a writing unit on persuasive stories.
During our OG time this week, we worked on the phonemes -ck, and -ed. The children learned that you would write a -ck at the end of a short word after a short vowel. We also discussed how -ed has three different sounds. Next week, we are going to bump up our instruction in class and start working on syllabication in the classroom. This is a time when we work on learning how to analyze the different syllables in a word.
As a quick reminder- No school on Monday. Have a great President's Day weekend!
We have a couple of great activities coming up at CE. First, if you are interested in ordering a yearbook, you can do that now until March 30th. A flyer was sent home earlier with the detailed information. If you need another one, feel free to let me know. Also, next Friday night is Family Fitness Night. This is a fun activity for all of the family to come and learn about your health and enjoy participating in some healthy activities as well.
We wrapped up our socials studies unit on families this week in class. We talked about what it means to be a family and how families get along. We also learned about what kinds of activities families can do together.
The children have been working really hard on their writing over the course of this week. I have been so excited to share with the class all of the great things I have been seeing. During the past two days, we have been focused on including a closing sentence when writing a story. We talked about how a closing sentence could be a question or a feeling statement. Next week, we will begin a writing unit on persuasive stories.
During our OG time this week, we worked on the phonemes -ck, and -ed. The children learned that you would write a -ck at the end of a short word after a short vowel. We also discussed how -ed has three different sounds. Next week, we are going to bump up our instruction in class and start working on syllabication in the classroom. This is a time when we work on learning how to analyze the different syllables in a word.
As a quick reminder- No school on Monday. Have a great President's Day weekend!
Friday, February 10, 2017
Fun Friday Facts!
Happy Friday! We have been busy in the classroom working on "bumping skills up!" We have just finished up our writing unit on "how-to" stories. Our next unit will focus in on opinion writing. We have also talked about how a story at this point in the school year should be what I call a five finger story. It has a beginning sentence, some details in the middle, and an ending sentence. Since it is a new month, I have sent home the stories your child worked on in January. I hope you enjoy them as much I has have.
During our Social Studies time, we have been discussing families. Right now, we are working on the three questions: what is a family, how are they different, and how can you tell they care about one another.
During our OG block of the day, we are learning about when to double the l, s, and f at the end of a word when there is a short vowel. We have also been working on our "fast writing" skills. This is a way to try and quickly, but correctly write the letters on a page. We will take a few weeks to practice this and then we are going to start working on learning about syllables.
Don't forget to keep working on your Valentine's cards. Our party is coming up and there are plenty of opportunities to come in and volunteer. There was a page that we sent home earlier this week with more information. We also have some great all school activities coming up in the next few weeks. Don't forget to check Tiger Tales for those dates.
Have a great weekend!
During our Social Studies time, we have been discussing families. Right now, we are working on the three questions: what is a family, how are they different, and how can you tell they care about one another.
During our OG block of the day, we are learning about when to double the l, s, and f at the end of a word when there is a short vowel. We have also been working on our "fast writing" skills. This is a way to try and quickly, but correctly write the letters on a page. We will take a few weeks to practice this and then we are going to start working on learning about syllables.
Don't forget to keep working on your Valentine's cards. Our party is coming up and there are plenty of opportunities to come in and volunteer. There was a page that we sent home earlier this week with more information. We also have some great all school activities coming up in the next few weeks. Don't forget to check Tiger Tales for those dates.
Have a great weekend!
Friday, January 27, 2017
Friday Fun Facts...
Happy Friday! It has been pretty hit or miss these day for our outside recess time! We have definitely made the best of the situation with our indoor recess games. We got a lot of use out of our Makerspace tubs. Check out some of the fun projects that kids worked on:
This week we continued to work in our social studies unit on Neighborhoods. We have had a lot of great discussions about what types of buildings and places you can find in a neighborhood.
During our OG time, we are learning about the sounds -ank, -ink, -unk, and -onk. We are about 3/4's of the way through our sight word list so keep practicing them at home. Our next big focus has been writing a sentence that is dictated to the class. Each child tries to write a sentence daily with me and we are looking for our sight words to be spelled correctly, capital letters and punctuation, and we are looking for the chidlren to practice using the spelling patterns of words that we are learning during the week. This is a great time of day when we try to be fluent writers and get a product on the page quickly.
Our focus this week in writing has been creating a "preview page" for our how-to stories. We have looked at several how-to books to see what information they included on their preview page. We talked about how it gives a brief insight into their story. We have also been sharing the children's how-to stories to help spark new ideas and to help make sure all of the steps have been included in their writing.
I hope to get the leadership binders back to you next week as well. I have sent off some new pages to be copied and I am waiting for them to be delivered before giving them back to you. Mrs. Rohan will also be trading out the take home books, so please make sure those are in your child's backpack next week as well.
We wrapped up our unit on penguins this week and we are going to learn about the groundhog since Groundhog's day is coming up next week. I hope you have a great weekend!
During our OG time, we are learning about the sounds -ank, -ink, -unk, and -onk. We are about 3/4's of the way through our sight word list so keep practicing them at home. Our next big focus has been writing a sentence that is dictated to the class. Each child tries to write a sentence daily with me and we are looking for our sight words to be spelled correctly, capital letters and punctuation, and we are looking for the chidlren to practice using the spelling patterns of words that we are learning during the week. This is a great time of day when we try to be fluent writers and get a product on the page quickly.
Our focus this week in writing has been creating a "preview page" for our how-to stories. We have looked at several how-to books to see what information they included on their preview page. We talked about how it gives a brief insight into their story. We have also been sharing the children's how-to stories to help spark new ideas and to help make sure all of the steps have been included in their writing.
I hope to get the leadership binders back to you next week as well. I have sent off some new pages to be copied and I am waiting for them to be delivered before giving them back to you. Mrs. Rohan will also be trading out the take home books, so please make sure those are in your child's backpack next week as well.
We wrapped up our unit on penguins this week and we are going to learn about the groundhog since Groundhog's day is coming up next week. I hope you have a great weekend!
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Welcome back to a new year! We have settled in and have enjoyed a nice three day weekend! We are definitely off and running with our new semester. It is hard to believe, but this week is our 100th week of school. The official day is this Thursday. We have a lot of fun activities planned for the week. We are going to be making books with 100 words, filling out a 100 number chart, making predictions and then actually counting to see where 100 steps will get us, drawing our selves at 100, and many more fun activities!
During social studies, we are learning about "What is in my neighborhood?" We have had a lot of great discussion to describe the many different buildings, sights, and places you might find in a neighborhood. We have had a lot of great moments when the kids realize that their neighborhood doesn't have the same things as some of the other children in our classroom.
We have kicked off a new writing unit in class. We are learning to write "how-to" stories. These are stories that teach a reader something. We have learned that these types of stories are "bossy", they have steps, the steps are labeled, and there is picture for each step. Some popular stories have been how to make a pbj sandwich, how to ride a bike, and how to build with Legos.
During some of our writing time we have also been writing about winter. Even though we don't seem to have a lot of snow these days, it has been fun writing about snowmen and all things winter. Next week, we will be working the topic of penguins. We are doing some work with being able to tell fiction stories apart from non-fiction stories. We will continue to work on this topic next week in class.
Finally, during our OG time we have been working on the -ng sound. These are words with -ang, -ing, -ong, and -ung at the end. It has been great to really challenge the children to come up with words that would have these ending sounds. We have also started to work really hard at sentence dictation. This is embedded in our OG time and it is meant to practice all of the skills that we have learned up to this point. We practice sight words, finger spelling unknown words, and practice writing a complete sentence. We use what we call our COPS rules. This is where we look at the sentence when finished and make sure there are capitals, punctuation, word wall words, and spelling in the correct spots. When we do find an error, we give that error a "ticket" and everyone has a goal of zero tickets on their sentence each day. I have told the kids this is why the list of sight words is so important to learn because it helps when writing words down quickly.
This Friday will be a binder check in day. Please have all binders turned in to me so I can update them and check in on the goals. Thanks!
Have a great week!
During social studies, we are learning about "What is in my neighborhood?" We have had a lot of great discussion to describe the many different buildings, sights, and places you might find in a neighborhood. We have had a lot of great moments when the kids realize that their neighborhood doesn't have the same things as some of the other children in our classroom.
We have kicked off a new writing unit in class. We are learning to write "how-to" stories. These are stories that teach a reader something. We have learned that these types of stories are "bossy", they have steps, the steps are labeled, and there is picture for each step. Some popular stories have been how to make a pbj sandwich, how to ride a bike, and how to build with Legos.
During some of our writing time we have also been writing about winter. Even though we don't seem to have a lot of snow these days, it has been fun writing about snowmen and all things winter. Next week, we will be working the topic of penguins. We are doing some work with being able to tell fiction stories apart from non-fiction stories. We will continue to work on this topic next week in class.
Finally, during our OG time we have been working on the -ng sound. These are words with -ang, -ing, -ong, and -ung at the end. It has been great to really challenge the children to come up with words that would have these ending sounds. We have also started to work really hard at sentence dictation. This is embedded in our OG time and it is meant to practice all of the skills that we have learned up to this point. We practice sight words, finger spelling unknown words, and practice writing a complete sentence. We use what we call our COPS rules. This is where we look at the sentence when finished and make sure there are capitals, punctuation, word wall words, and spelling in the correct spots. When we do find an error, we give that error a "ticket" and everyone has a goal of zero tickets on their sentence each day. I have told the kids this is why the list of sight words is so important to learn because it helps when writing words down quickly.
This Friday will be a binder check in day. Please have all binders turned in to me so I can update them and check in on the goals. Thanks!
Have a great week!
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