Maple Room Maple
3.16 - 3.20
Exploration
Writing Workshop
We are continuing to work on making our writing more clear and interesting for our readers. We reviewed our "easy to read" writing chart and reminded ourselves that writers need to leave finger spaces between words, sound out tricky words, and write in a straight line.
We started writing our own class story about something really exciting that happened to all of us. We understand that writing from our own lives helps us come us with ideas for stories. We decided to write about the time that a little mouse visited the Maple classroom.
We learned that it is important to sketch out the drawings before we put down our words. That way, if we are really focused on sounding out and writing tricky words, we won't forget what the whole story was about...we can always look back at the picture to help us!
At the end of the week, we all worked hard on writing sentences. This was a push for many of us, but we realized that our readers needs clear words to understand what is happening in the story. Imagine if we just wrote "mouse came" on one page. Our readers wouldn't know that "the little gray mouse came into our classroom."
You can support your Maple with this type of writing work at home by having them share many stories with you. They can tell the story across their fingers and even practice putting the words down in sentences.
Reading Workshop
This week, we learned that readers see more than just the text on the pages that we read.
When we are reading we may come across words that we have never seen or heard before. When we come to these words, we should stop and ask ourselves, “What might this word mean? Are there any clues in the picture? Do any of the other words help me figure it out?”
When reading at home, you can practice asking these questions with your child.
We also worked a lot with our reading partners this week and thought about questions that we can ask them. Partners don’t just sit and listen to our partners as they teach. We pay attention and ask questions when we are curious.
In shared reading, we read an information book called A Bed for Winter. We practiced reading this book together so that our reading sounded more fluent. We also practiced pointing under each word. The Maples worked with their partners to retell this book and even shared what they learned about the different homes that animals need in the winter.
Our sight words this week were: read, run, she, sit, then
Project Time
Some of us don't eat meat...Some of us do...
You can walk barefoot on Fire Island. You can also lose your sunglass there.
Some of us eat cornbread on New Years Eve.
In Texas, they make yummy guacamole.
Some of us make paper hats out of newspaper, and these hats can not be made from circles.
Some of us sing songs before dinner.
We're looking forward to family shares in the weeks to come. If you've not yet signed up for your share, please do so by clicking on the link below.
Math Workshop
Following our first observation walk, we started going on more purposeful community and garden walks. During these walks we looked for pattern within buildings, roads, and objects in nature. We're beginning to see that patterns are everywhere.
Please take some time to ask your Maple about the patterns they found this week during our walks. Look for patterns at home.
Family Potluck - April 2 (3:00-4:00)
Come eat delicious food and celebrate what the kindergarten classes have learned during their family study unit!