Exciting News to Share!

This week our class reached a BIG reading goal!

As a class, we have built our reading stamina up to 20 minutes! I am so impressed- everyone is focused, practicing the skills taught in mini lessons, and not giving up! I am really proud of their accomplishment and from all the cheers I heard on Thursday when we reached 20- I think the kids are too! :)

Math Workshop and Math Tubs

Math Workshop is officially underway! Just like Reader's and Writer's Workshop, we start each workshop session with a whole group mini lesson. Sometimes I might introduce/review a math concept, or I might explain a new game/activity the kids will be doing that day. Then, the students break off into center groups and we rotate through each center. The students follow a workboard and a schedule of rotations based on what group they are in.

For Teacher's Choice, students meet with me to work on a particular skill or concept at their level. We use manipulatives, whiteboards, clipboard activities, and other tools to practice these skills. The activities for each group vary based on the needs of each group. Just like with Reading, I want students to be engaged in "just right" activities that are not too hard or too easy!

While I am teaching, the other two groups are working independently at Hands-On and At Your Seat. Both of these centers reinforce skills previously taught or provide practice for fundamental concepts we have been working on.

At the Hands-On center, students are typically engaged in a game or tasks that involve math manipulatives- either with a partner or in small groups. 

For At Your Seat work, students are working independently on an activity to practice certain skills.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, Math Tubs are always every Friday! The tubs are filled with activities/games from the week to practice. Some groups also play math games on the computer and read math books. The schedule rotates each week and the activities in the tubs change. During this time, I meet with small groups and do small informal assessments to help me plan what skills will be taught the following week with each group.

Fire Safety Week

This week was Fire Safety week. In honor of the firefighters that protect us and keep us safe, we spent some time this week learning all about them and their bravery. We read a few different nonfiction books about firefighters and created this chart together as a class:

We also talked a lot about fire safety. I encouraged everyone to sit with their families and make a plan in case there was ever a fire at home. Please talk to your child about an escape route from your house and a safe spot to meet should there ever be an emergency. 

Writer's Workshop

In Writer's Workshop, we are working on our small moment stories. Here's a look at what some of us are writing about!

I am loving all the stories about hitting home runs, scoring soccer goals, losing a tooth, and sledding down a hill. The students are keeping all of their stories in a Writer's Workshop folder, which I will be sharing with you at conferences in the coming weeks!

Picture Day Tomorrow!

Just wanted to remind everyone that we have school pictures tomorrow morning! I received a few picture pose forms back, but not many. Please be sure to send in that form tomorrow if you there's a particular pose you would like your child to do. We will also be taking our class picture too.

I reminded everyone to pack their best smile tomorrow! :)

Literacy Centers

Our literacy centers have been underway for a few weeks now. Each day, the students engage in a variety of literacy activities. We follow a rotating workboard so that students get to each activity two to three times a week. Each group does two centers per day and each center lasts around 20 minutes or so.

During Read to Self, students read from their book bags and practice the strategies we've discussed during Reader's Workshop. As I mentioned yesterday, these are the skills we've been practicing this week:

One group each day also book shops for new books to put in their reading bags. Students pick five "just right" books at their level and two interest books from the class library. This just started this week and has been a huge hit!

During Read to Someone, buddies practice their reading with each other. We've also been working on talking about our books too!

If a group has Word Work, they are working on one of the following activities to practice reading and writing our five sight words for the week:

When we start our Word Study groups next week, students will also engage in word sort activities with their own sets of word cards to practice spelling patterns and skills.

At the Work on Writing center, students are engaged in different writing activities including writing a letter, making a list, labeling a diagram, or writing sentences about new facts they have learned about our science/social studies topic for the week.

Finally, we have the Listening to Reading center. Right now, I have been using Storyline Online (storylineonline.net) which allows students to listen to popular stories being read aloud. Shortly, we will starting using other reading programs on the computer like Raz-Kids.

Thank you to all of the parents that have come in to help so far! I truly appreciate your help as it gives me the opportunity to stay focused with my guided reading groups. :)

What We've Been Up To!

Reader's Workshop: This week, we have been talking about how good readers get their minds ready before they read. We learned that we always read the title, study the cover, and think about what the book will be about prior to reading. We talked about how strong readers also take a quick picture walk to think about what will happen and who will be in the story. Then, we hold all that information in their minds as we read! We've been practicing these strategies during read to self time and with our reading buddies. You can help make this automatic for your little one by encouraging this while you are reading at home too!

Writer's Workshop: We are working hard on our small moment stories. We are writing true stories from our own lives, and I just love hearing and reading about the unique experiences each one of us has had! We've been doing a lot of talking about how writers plan for their stories by touching and telling what they will write on each page, quickly sketching to hold that idea, and then imagining each part carefully before they start to write. We have been also adding to this anchor chart each day. Yesterday, we talked about how good writers go back and write more details for each part of the story by thinking about who was there, what happened, when did it happen, how did it happen, and why did it happen?

Math Workshop: In math, we are working to build our number sense. We did some work with dominos and made these domino dot cards that we used to play a matching game. This helps us quickly recognize numbers and develop a sense of how to represent different numbers.

Today we did a lot of talking about the hundreds chart (a 10 x 10 grid that with numbers 1-100) and what we notice when we study it. We colored all kinds of patterns on our own hundreds chart (10s, teens, numbers that end in 8, etc.). These will be a great tool for everyone to use throughout the year because we will use it for all sorts of purposes.

Science: We've been integrating learning about pumpkins in literacy and math this week. We will continue our pumpkin learning into next week as well.

Just a reminder that reading logs are due tomorrow along with book bags. I will fill the bags with new books and the folder with a new response sheet. They will return home on Friday. Remember, I encourage reading books from your house too! It was wonderful to see from last night's homework how many books everyone has at home. Music to my ears. : )