The Wag
Mrs. Edelman and Mrs. Block's Weekly Newsletter
January 25th - January 29th
Literacy
Last week we had so much fun reading Tacky The Penguin! This story was the perfect way for us to continue working on the important comprehension skills that we have been learning all month. We learned about predicting and about how good readers make predictions as they read. We also discussed that to make a smart prediction, you have to use the clues that the story is giving you. Making our retelling strips was a lot of fun and it really helped us remember all of the important details that happened to Tacky. We each gave our own opinions on our favorite part of the story and made connections to Tacky.
Phonics
This week in our word study we learned three new word families, -ill, -ell, and -all. We loved using our expo markers to write the three word families on our desks. Next we timed ourselves as a class to see how quickly we could all sort our words into the right box. The whole class was able to finish in under 2 minutes. We are amazing word sorters!
To continue helping us become strong and confident readers, we learned about another important phonetic rule, hard and soft c. This seemed a little tricky at first, but throughout the week we did such a great job recognizing c's that should be said like /k/ and c's that say /s/.
Math
Pennies, nickles, and Dimes Oh My! There are so many things that we wish we could buy:) This week during math, we began exploring money. We learned a poem that would help us remember each coin and what it was worth. We started the week looking at pennies and nickles. We learned that skip counting by fives last week was very helpful as we learned how to count our nickles. The children loved finding the mint date on their coin to see who had the oldest coin in the room. They were shocked to discover that there were even coins older than Mrs. Edelman! We talked about the various pictures and people that are each coin and discussed who we might want to have on a coin. It was so fun playing Piggy Bank Exchange with a partner and practicing how to exchange pennies for nickels. Many of us were very excited to give our five pennies and get a nickel in return! Later on the week we moved onto dimes and played lots of games with all our new coins.
The highlight of the money unit was definitely our classroom store. Throughout the week students earned pennies, nickles, and dimes for good behavior and were able to go shopping during rest time. Everyone was so excited when they reached 5 cents and could visit the 5 cent basket! A few of our friends have decided to save up their coins and wait to visit the 10 and 25 cent baskets.
Writers Workshop
In Writer’s Workshop we have started discussing that writers write so that readers can enjoy their work! We talked about three very important things that every easy to read writing needs: neat handwriting, spaces between words, and many letters in every word. We also began discussing important punctuation marks that help our stories make sense. In the next few weeks we are going to be focusing on creating pieces of writing that others can enjoy and understand.
100th Day Reminder
Upcoming Dates
-February 4: 100th Day of School
-February 5: 101st Day of School - Please join us for a special Shabbat singing
-February 10: Field Trip to Temple Emanu-El
-February 12-15: Mid Winter Break
-April 14: 12:00 - 1:15: Our Classroom Seder