Songs from Ms. Hilary!

Hi everyone!   Ms. Hilary recorded some songs for you and asked that I send them along!  Happy singing!

Funga Alafia Greeting Song

Over in the Meadow

Red Clover Read Aloud

Hi Everyone!

I've been missing you so I decided to share a story with you!  Enjoy!  
If you want, email me those pictures of your fancy potato pants!  Click on the link below to access the video!

https://youtu.be/sS97OnPV3z0

Nearby Nature!

This month in Nearby Nature we learned about deer.  We learned about what deer eat and how they are connected to other living things in the woods.  We also had the chance to look at deer skulls, a deer pelt, and even a deer leg!  Then we learned that deer can leap more than 20 feet at a time...amazing!  We tried to leap like deer and most of us only got to 4 feet!  Thanks Jackson and Christine for coming in this month!

In Writer's Workshop, we continue to work on Opinion Writing.  We are working on stating our opinion and backing it up with a clear reason.  This week we had fun reading a book called Duck! Rabbit! In this story we had to decide if the character was a duck or a rabbit and then write a reason for our opinion.  What did your child decide...duck or rabbit?  Make sure they tell you why!  We also wrote about our favorite Essential Arts class.  Each child chose P.E., Music, Library, or Art and then wrote why they enjoy that class.  We have a lot of friends who like Art!
  

We have also been busy reading three more Red Clover Books this week:  Counting on Katherine, The Day You Begin, and Hawk Rising.  After reading these three, we did some opinion writing about the book we liked best from the week.  Many children enjoyed Counting on Katherine.  Be sure to ask your child about his or her book choice from the week!  Next week we will read three more!




In Reader's Workshop,  we continued with literacy stations and are excited to start our small reading groups and practicing reading strategies with our just-right books next week!  We also learned about how patterns in the books we read can sometimes have a break in the pattern.  We practiced using sound power and picture power to help us when the pattern changes.  Ask your child to show your some of their reading powers at home this weekend with their books in their book baggies.  We also read a new Scholastic Let's Find Out Magazine about Frogs this week.  We learned about the life cycle of frogs and that tied into a new song they learned in music!

   

In math, we worked with more 3-D shapes.  We played a game of I Spy in the classroom and looked for spheres, cubes, rectangular prisms, pyramids, and triangular prisms.  This would be a great game for you to play at home too! We also played a 2-D and 3-D Shape Bingo Game, listening to the attribute clues about each shape.

   
Jocelyn, our school nurse, came for a visit to remind us about good hand washing practices.  She read us a story about hand washing and then we had the chance to practice.  She squirted an orange paint-like liquid on our hands (pretend germs) and we had to do our best hand washing to get it off.  Then she checked each of our hands with a black light to see if any of the "germs" were still there.  We had some great hand washers in here....she couldn't find any "germs" on their hands after washing.  Way to go!
 

Lastly, you will notice a new addition to our Friday Folder: Baggie Books!  Each Friday, your child will bring home 2-3 books that are at his or her "just right" reading level.  These are books that they can read mostly independently, but may need a little support at times.  Please have your child read these books multiple times over the weekend and then return them in the baggie on Monday.  I will refill the baggie and send more books home next Friday.  Thanks for supporting your child in this reading adventure!

Red Clover Books!

It is great to be back!  March is always a wonderful time of year as we have some new activities and new learning happening....and I get the opportunity to meet with you all to share your child's accomplishments since we last met!  I am looking forward to seeing you all soon for Parent Conferences.

This month we will be reading the Red Clover Book nominees. These ten books are chosen by a group of Vermont teachers and librarians across the state.  All children in grades K-3 read the books throughout the year and then vote for their favorite book in April. We started by previewing each book with a picture walk and talked about the genre of the book.  This month we will read each book and write about our favorite ones and why we enjoyed them.  This week we started with The Wall in the Middle of the Book by Jon Agee.  Ask your child to tell you about the book and their opinion...was it one they liked or did not like?

During Reader's Workshop, we talked about that the books we are reading are becoming bigger and longer.  We sorted some books in the classroom from easier to harder and noted characteristics of books as they get more difficult: more words, smaller print, and longer sentences.  However, we did noticed that many early reader books have patterns.  If we can figure out the patterns in the sentences, then the book becomes easier to read. For example, "Mouse finds a cookie.  Mouse finds a strawberry.  Mouse finds a carrot".  If we do not know the word that changes at the end, we can use the picture to help us figure out the unknown word. See if your child can notice the patterns in the sentences he or she reads. 

We also continued to celebrate reading with our Scholastic Let's Find Out Magazine that honored Read Across America Day (which happened on March 2nd!).  In our magazine, we learned about different genres of books that we can find in the library: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, mystery, comics, biographies, and fairy tales.  Ask your child which genre he or she likes best?




Next week, we will be starting Reading Groups at Reader's Workshop.  During this time, I will be meeting with small groups of students to practice reading books at their appropriate reading level. We will be focusing on using our reading superpowers and building reading fluency.  While I am working with groups, the children who are not with me will be going to Literacy Stations.  This week I introduced all the stations and we practiced the literacy activities.  The stations include writing, listening to stories on the ipads, reading from book boxes, and word work.  We are looking forward to getting started with this next week!  As we will be using ipads to as our listening center, your child will need his or her headphones.  If you have not sent those to school yet, please do.  Thanks!

We have also begun a new writing genre during Writer's Workshop: opinion writing.  We are working on stating an opinion and backing it up with reasons by following three steps:  1. Think   2. Decide   3. Explain.  This week we talked about favorite recess activities.  As a group, we brainstormed recess activity ideas and then each child had to decide on a favorite and write about why that was a favorite activity.  We even had to learn a new sight word....and it's a really long word:  because!  This word helped us to explain why an activity was a favorite.  What's your child's favorite recess activity?



Lastly in  math, we are continuing our study of shapes; however, this time we are focusing on 3-D shapes.  We have discussed the characteristics of spheres and cylinders and then searched for them in the classroom.  Can your child find any spheres or cylinders at home?

Have a wonderful weekend!