Mrs. Franklin's Fabulous Firsties
December 5, 2015
Our Busy Class
This week in phonics, we've focused our attention on reading and writing words with long /a/ spelled a_e. Next week, we will follow the same pattern with the long /i/ spelling. That "sneaky e" is really a trickster. He sneaks over the consonant to pinch the vowel and the vowel says it's own name!
In reading, we launched our third unit on Folktales. Students are retelling stories using key details from the beginning, middle and end and are determining what lesson can be learned from the folktale. We read The Foolish, Timid Rabbit, Chicken LIttle and The Big Yuca Plant. Ask your child to tell you what lessons have been learned in each story. We will continue working on those skills next week when we will read two similar stories, The Nice Mitten and The Mitten. There is a link below that will take to you Jan Brett's website. She is the amazing author and illustrator of The Mitten.
In writing, we are knee deep into writing our non-fiction book about the animal we researched. I will be meet with small groups to work with students as they create their books.
In math we continue to work on solving addition and subtraction story problems. Students are also working on problems called, "Today's Number" where they have to create addition or subtraction problems that, when solved, equal "Today's Number". For example, if the number is 12 the students can write 10+2 or 15-3 or 2+2+2+6. This is an easy and quick game that you can play with your child at home or in the car.
Finally, we began a science unit called, Magnets and Electricity. The students have explored with a variety of magnets and have learned that magnets will stick to metals with iron. Next week, we will shift our focus to learning about electricity!
Delicious Turkey
Candy!
More Smiles
Experimenting!
Sharing Materials
Deep in Thought
Odds and Ends
A great big thank you to everyone who contributed to my fantastic gift card to Target for my birthday! It is greatly appreciated and will be used quickly :).
Here are some upcoming events:
- JES Winter Concert - Tuesday, December 15th.
- Cockeysville Middle School band/orchestra assembly will take place on Friday, December 18th at 10:00 am.
- Look for information regarding our Winter Party which will be on Tuesday, December 22nd.
- Pajama Day - Wednesday, December 23rd (more information to follow).
Bear With Me!
Email: jfranklin@bcps.org