Oak Room Newsletter
Week of October 5, 2015
Reminder: NO school on Monday!
This week, as told by the Oaks:
We got to open the boxes in math. We discovered how many blocks there are. Some of us sketched out what we think for the job chart. Because we've been having snack inside most of the days, today we finally got to have it outside.
On Wednesday Pascale left early because she wasn't feeling well and we forgot to record what happened!
We played with whiteboards and wrote silly things. We have new recess rules to be safe. In dramatic play we built a humongous sculpture.
People went to snack at different times. We made a new October calendar. Elizabeth lost her tooth at first recess.
Upcoming share dates
Tuesday 10/13 : Jada, Twyla, Will
Thursday 10/15: Amaya, Ellie, Owen
Friday 10/16: Georgia, Isaiah, Kelsey
Monday 10/19: Francis, Reed, Soren
Math
In math this week we focused on combination work. Groups of Oaks were each given a mystery box with 7 blocks inside, some red and some blue. They then had to work independently to guess how many were red and how many were blue. The next day the Oaks had mystery boxes with 9 blocks inside. Some Oaks used Unifix cubes in red and blue to represent what was inside. On their recording sheets, some Oaks used number sentences (for example, 3+4=7) while others used pictures and words. When we discussed our results all together, Oaks noticed how some combinations were the same but with the number switched around. We will continue this work next week!
AT HOME: Encourage your child to think of number combinations for totals up to 10. For example, if you are eating chips and pretzels while watching a movie, pause the movie and ask your child to pass you 8 snacks, some chips and some pretzels. Then have them explain other combinations they could give you!
Literacy
In Writing Workshop we got writing partners! Writing partners are another tool to help writers with their writing. Our partners can help us by listening as we "touch and tell" our story on each page, and then asking us questions about it after. Then we can answer those questions by adding more to our writing.
AT HOME: Be your child's writing partner! Tell a story to your child and ask them to listen to it. Have them ask you "Who? What? Where? When? How?" questions after. Then switch!
In Reading Workshop we learned to use meaning to figure out tricky words. Instead of just saying what we think the word might be, we asked ourselves, "Does this make sense?" and payed close attention to the meaning of the word. We also worked on double-checking our reading. Lastly, we learned that when we are reading we can try to say vowels two ways and listen for what sounds right. We can try the short vowel sound first, and if that doesn't make sense, then we can try the long vowel sound.
AT HOME: Please continue reading with your child every night! Pretend to get stuck on words and model any of the strategies your Oak learned this week.
***Book baggies will be coming home very soon, hopefully next week!