The Maples
1.9.2017 - 1.13.2017
***Mark Your Calendars***
- NO SCHOOL Monday, January 16th
- Friday, January 20th , 3pm: Reading Celebration! Did you know that your Maple is a super reader? Did you know that they have super powers? Come read with us and see!
- Wednesday, January 18th, 8:20am: Community Gathering
Reading Workshop
Now that we have established all of our reading super powers (pointer power! Snap power! Sound Power!), the Maples are working on reinforcing these strategies. This week, we learned that readers take care of their reading time.
On Thursday, we also learned that we can use our singing voices to help our reading. Some books, like Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle, present patters in the text. We can change our voice to suit the pattern, which helps us remember the words and text and reinforces many reading super powers, like snap power and reread power.
Things to work on with your Super Reader at home:
- Readers never give up! Suggest a strategy to try at home.
- Try taking a picture walk - have your Maple look at the pictures in a book before reading the text. Make predictions about what happens, what the characters are feeling, etc...
- Reinforce one-to-one correspondence when practicing pointer power. Make sure your Super Reader is pointing to each word once as they read.
Math Workshop
Make A Shape, Fill A Hexagon
The Maples learned the distinguishing characteristics of rectangles, circles, squares, and triangles, and practiced making them with different materials such as clay and play-doh. We also introduced Geo Boards as an activity during Math Workshop and Work Time. For more information about this unit, see the image below!
Collect, Count, And Measure
This week, the Maples measured various things around the classroom using different measurement tools, such as unifix cubes, measuring tape, and craft sticks. We measured our feet, and then compared the lengths to those of our classmates. The longest foot in the Maple room is 14 cubes long!
For more information about this unit, see below!
Word Study
Rhyme Study
This week, our rhyming text was Oh, A-Hunting We Will Go:
Oh, a-hunting we will go,
A-hunting we will go.
We'll catch a fox
And put him in a box
And then we'll let him go!
The Maples identified the rhyming words, and followed up this shared reading activity with a rhyming word sort.
Letter and Sound Study
This week, we focused on M, R, and their corresponding sounds. As we look closely at each letter, we continue to refer back to our Handwriting Without Tears alphabet.
When we read through the alphabet, we read the letter, name the image, and then read the letter sound. For example, "A, Apple, Ah". Try it at home with your Maple!
Writing Workshop
This week, we started Unit 1 of the Teachers College Writing Workshop curriculum. This unit focuses on narrative writing, and the Maples learned that writers not only tell stories, but they write to share information. Writers write about things they know! We practiced the mantra, When We Are Done, We Have Just Begun!, and labeled strategies to keep writing, even when we feel like our story is finished.
Ask Me About...
- New greetings at Morning Meeting - the "microwave" and the "ET greeting"!
- Singing songs together at Closing Circle
- Making family webs with a guest teacher on Tuesday morning