Week of November 15-19, 2010

The Book Fair was a highlight of our week with our preview day on Monday and our shopping day on Wednesday. Those Wish Lists will come in handy for future books to borrow from the public library or purchase at a local bookstore! In Reading Workshop we have been enjoying Buddy Reading (see post below) and continue to add sight words to our Word Banks. We began our unit, “Writing for Readers” where we will focus on writing clearly, using correct capitalization and punctuation, writing as many sounds as we hear in words and using less “and’s” to connect our thoughts. In Math we had fun with the hundreds boards and began our study of geometry. We ended our week with “Colonial Day” on Friday and made toys and played games that were popular during the colonial period in history. We wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving!!

Differentiation in Action!

Playing “Guess the Number” on our hundreds boards was a great opportunity to design ways to play the game that would challenge our brains. Some of us preferred to play the game in our workbooks; some of us wanted to hide the numbers on a board that showed all of the numbers; and some of us wanted to play on the side of the board that had no numbers at all! We could also play on a board with the numbers 1-50 and a board that with the numbers 101-200. We didn’t know it but we were differentiating our instruction!

Conflict Resolution

Our guidance counselor visited us this week along with her special friends Kelso and Kirby. We compared how they were alike and different and realized that we are all unique but sometimes our differences can cause conflicts. We are learning about the differences between small and big problems and how to solve them. WE also found out that we have Peer Mediators in our school who are older students that help us work out our problems.

Geometry

In Math Workshop we started our unit on geometry by exploring pattern blocks and other shapes both in the classroom and in the Computer Lab. There are so many interesting things we can do with geometric shapes including making designs and patterns, sorting them by attributes and solving puzzles like tanagrams and pentominoes. When we work with geometric shapes, it helps us develop our spatial and problem solving skills.

We LOVE to Read!

Buddy reading is a fun way to practice our reading skills. Each week we have one or two books that we read over and over to work on decoding strategies, word recognition and fluency. One of our favorite ways to do this is to read with a buddy. Sometimes, we take turns reading to each other and other times we read at the same time.

Colonial Day

As part of our Past, Present and Future Social Studies unit, we focused on the lifestyles of people that lived in the Colonial period in our country’s history. We learned that made their own clothes and toys with materials they had on hand. We wove a paper quilt, and made spinning tops, Bilbo catchers, fans and finger puppets. We also enjoyed a snack of apple cider and ginger snaps.

Weeks of November 1 – 12, 2010

In the past two weeks, we have been busy in and out of the classroom. Our efforts to raise money for the homeless were rewarded with a beautiful day for our walk around the field. We walk through the Courtyard Garden as much as possible to see what we can find and you’ll see our latest discovery below. We finished up our science unit with our own inventions and started our Social Studies unit on “Past, Present, and Future.” In Writing Workshop we prepared our “Small Moments” story for publication and in Reading Workshop we are enjoying reading a variety of books and adding new sight words to our Word Wall. We are getting lots of practice with subtraction using games on our iPads and iTouches in addition to our workbook and games from our Investigations curriculum. We have mastered addition facts to six and will move on to sums to nine.

Homeless Walk for ASPAN

Our Homeless Walk for ASPAN was a great success! We had fun carrying the banners e made during art class on the walk. The entire school came out for the walk and we raised nearly $4,000.00 for our homeless neighbors in Arlington!

Pavos!

In Spanish class we learned a song and made a turkey to help us remember the color words in Spanish.

First Publishing Party

We were excited to see so many parents at our very first Publishing Party on Friday. We enjoyed sharing our “Small Moments” stories with them. To get ready for the party we practiced reading our stories to each other.

A New Addition to our Classroom

On our way back from the Library on Friday we discovered a swallowtail caterpillar in the Courtyard Garden. He will stay with us in the classroom where wee hope he will make his chrysalis and then change into a butterfly in the spring.

Mystery Reader

Our Mystery Reader for the week read some of his childhood favorites to our First Graders. We LOVE to guess who our Mystery Reader will be each week!