December 15th-19th

Pajama day and gingerbread house decorating tomorrow!! Do not forget!

Thematic Centers:

This week we did not have a specific theme. We wrapped out gifts for our families, worked on a gingerbread house made of paper and just enjoyed the week before break! We got out some of our favorite old centers like legos, blocks, cars etc. We were able to practice our cutting skills as well!

Reader's Workshop:

This week we really worked on organizing our writing folders. We examined all our books and writing pieces. We took books home that were finished and made a pile of things that we need to finish. We also chose one book to edit with an adult. We worked on adding punctuation, making complete sentences and making sure we have capital letters and adding details where necessary. We also worked on another acrostic poem and talked about other styles of poetry (including couplets like last year at Valentine's time).

We did not do word sorts this week but we did get our leveled book! Work on that this week.

Word study words this week are:
school
street
mother
time
hand

*There are LOTS of tricky phonograms in the words this week. TH makes a different sound in mother and the CH makes a different sound in school. There were lots of questions about these phonograms this week.

Math Workshop:

We have really been working hard on subtraction. We are working on finding what strategies we are most comfortable using. We played 3 games this week. The first two games we already knew how to play. Instead of adding we subtracted. The second game was brand new. We played:

5 in a Row: Roll a number cube and a dice. Take the bigger number and subtract the smaller number. Place your counter on the the number. You need to get 5 in a row.

Roll and record:  Roll a number cube and a dice. Take the bigger number and subtract the smaller number. Record that number on your sheet. Once you fill a whole row, the game is over.

Sports Ball: Roll two cubes. You can either add or subtract those dots to determine what number you want to land on. The first person to cover 10 numbers wins the game! This works on adding, subtracting and it helps with strategizing/solving problems!

Enjoy your long break! See you in 2015!
Emily Schultz

December 8th-12th

Hello families!

We were so excited this week that we got to attend two plays at school. We got to see the Nutcracker and our book buddies play. How special!

Announcements:

1. Please get your scholastic book orders in soon! They are due TODAY. This is a great time to order books for holiday gifts! The more you order, the more we can get for our classroom (which is really neat). We are doing online orders only this year.

2. Gingerbread house making and pajama day is December 18th. Please join us at 1:15 to decorate gingerbread houses! We still need mini milk cartons to pull this off. So far, we do not have any!

Thematic Unit:

This week we studied Wilma Rudolph. What a phenomenal women to study! Did you know that she had polio disease when she was younger? She later became known as the fastest women in the world. She had many brothers and sisters and overcame many obstacles in her life before she became a star. Even with her fame, she remained  humble and true to herself. We rotated through 4 stations.

1. Complete an obstacle course and try to bear your time with each round.
2. Illustrate your Wilma Rudolph fact book.
3. Create your championship medal and create 3 personal goals.
4. Trace and paint the olympic rings and study what the colors mean.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we have been looking at our writing in addition to our individual reading goals and word sorts. We have been discussing what it means to edit our own writing. Adding punctuation, capital letters where appropriate (and in some cases a brief synopsis on the back of what your book is about) are just some of the things we have been discussing. We have also working on our new phonograms. The tricky part here is not necessarily learning the rules....the tricky part is recognizing these in our reading and in our own spelling!

This week we went over "oo," "oy" and the silent e. We call the e on the end of words "strongman e." He is so strong that he makes the vowel in words say their name. In the word 'home' this week, strongman e makes the o say its name. Pretty neat!

Words this week are:
home
boy
dog
book
man

Math Workshop:

We have moved on to working on subtraction! We have learned various strategies and we also learned a new game called "counters in a cup". This game needs two players. The two players decide how many counters they are working with. They put some secretly in a cup and then the other player counts how many are outside the cup. That player then has to decide how many are in the cup. Students are likely to use their fingers or do this mentally. They also record their combinations. We are looking for several things with this one game. How do students figure out how many counters are hiding? How do students record their work? Do students understand that the number showing and the number hidden always equal the total number? Right now we are just trying to understand that subtraction is the opposite of addition. The total at the end will shrink instead of grow like in addition.


Our activities this week in math have addressed the following standards:

-Solving a problem in which the total and one part are known
-Finding and exploring relationships among combinations of numbers up to 10 (or higher for children who need a challenge)
-Developing counting as a strategy for combining two numbers
-Learning the (-) sign

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week and great weekend!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

December 1st-5th

Hello and happy December!

Last week we had a blast. We learned about the first Thanksgiving. We discussed the roll of the Pilgrims and Indians and even made a few crafts to go along with it! We made stone soup (so yummy), apple turkeys, thanksgiving placemats, toilet paper roll turkeys and a card for someone we were thankful for.

This week we were just as busy!

Announcements:

1. Scholastic orders are due December 11th so we can get them in before the holiday break! Please let me know if any of the books are gifts and I will be sure to get them to you another way! This is a great time to order holiday books. I will ask for you to please not order the "First Grade Friends Forever: The Gingerbread Cookie Mystery" book as I am ordering that to give as a gift to everyone! :)

2. Pajama Day and Gingerbread House Decorating December 18th (decorating begins at 1:15). We need the mini milk cartons like last year! Send those in if you have them! Send those in if you have them! We need 20 total.

Thematic Centers:

This week we have been studying golf! We have learned how complicated the game of gold truly is! We learned about gold courses, clubs, tees, attire for golf and some of the rules. We rotated through 4 main centers:
1. Design your own gold course, name it and decorate it by rolling a gold ball in green paint and rolling it on your golf course to look like grass.
2. Make your own patterns in your golf tee pattern book.
3. Turn a golf ball into something else using whatever materials you need!
4. Choose a fact about golf that we have learned in class and write that rule down and illustrate it. This is a hard one because we have learned so much!

Reader's Workshop:

We are still working on our individual reading and writing goals. We are still doing word sorts as well! This is really improving our spelling. For writing this week, we focussed on writing a brief synopsis on the back of our books like we have seen on many books! This is hard but we are just learning. We are also still encouraging students to spell words based on what they hear when they say the word. This is called phonetically spelling. I would encourage you to do the same at home! If your child asks you how to spell something, first tell them to write what they hear. We learned three new comprehension strategies this week. We are already getting so much better with our comprehension while reading and these strategies will really help!

1. Iggy the Inferring Iguana: Infer as you read! Make predictions while you read, draw conclusions as you put information together and reflect while you read.
2. Jabber the Reteller: Synthesize and retell! Put the information together and think about what you read and retell the story or what you learned in your own words.
3. Fix Up Bear: Monitor and fix up! Think while you read to figure out when you do not understand and use the meaning, word clues and picture clues to help.

Math Workshop:

This was our last week to study geometry. Tuesday we filled out the December calendar. Mastering calendar skills is so important this year! Looking at dates, months and days of the week, we were able to learn many new things about a calendar.

We also completed the sheet "three ways to fill an outline." This sheet came home today. Children were to place pattern blocks in the outlines three different ways.
*The standards for this particular assignment were: finding different combinations of shapes that fill the same area, decomposing shapes in different ways and altering designs to use more or fewer pieces to cover the same space.

Students also received a paper with dots and had to connect the dots to make triangles and quadrilaterals. We practiced first on geo-boards (with rubber bands and boards that have pegs) and then again on paper so we could take it home!

We are also learning the Frosty the Snowman Song and it is super fun!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

November 17th-21st

Hello families!

Announcements:

We will be reading the book Stone Soup next Tuesday and making our very own soup creation. Look for a sign up genius tonight! We will be needing bowls, spoons, veggies, vegetable broth etc.

We are out for Thanksgiving break next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. There will be no volunteer sign up genius for next week because there are only two days. There will also not be a newsletter next week. No books or word lists either! We will be busy but because of a short week, we cannot maintain a normal schedule.

Scholastic books....place those orders! They are due soon!

Please remember to send your child to school with a coat! Gloves, scarves and hats are welcome as well. It is cold on the playground!

Thematic Centers:

This week we were studying football. We learned about the Manning family, equipment needed, field regulations rules and more! Mr. Jack came to talk to the class about football as well. He brought several different levels of jerseys, cleats, shoulder pads, gloves, a helmet, mouth guard and some of his ECU bowl rings. It was neat! We really learned a lot.

 

We rotated through 4 centers:

1. A mini book about the Manning family

2. Creating your own football helmet

3. Making your own cheer for a football game and presenting it

4. Creating a pennet for your favorite football team

 

Reader's Workshop:

This week we are still working on our individual reading goals and group word sorts. We also started thinking about how to dig deeper when reading. We are thinking about how to comprehend text and we are learning several strategies to help us. The following strategies have been discussed and practiced both individually and whole group:

 

1. Spinner Spider: Make connections as you read to what you already know (text to text, text to self, text to world).

2. Digger the Dog: Determine important ideas! Dig for important details, dig for important information about the author's message and dig/determine the facts.

3. Rocky Raccoon: Visualize as you read! Put pictures in your head as you read. See and think about the story like a movie going on in your head (What do the characters look like? The actions?)

 

Math Workshop:

 

We are still studying geometry! This week we learned a new game called "Fill the Hexagons." The goal of the game is to fill each hexagon with pattern blocks. To start the game the first player rolls the game cube. The player then takes that pattern block (on the game cub) and puts them anywhere on the game board. You need to think carefully because you cannot move later after your pattern blocks are already down! This game requires a little bit of luck but a lot of strategy and thinking.

 

Students also had to create their own shape using any 12 pattern blocks. This was tricky! Coming up with a design without a pattern was challenging but fun. Both of these activities worked on describing, comparing and naming 2-D shapes and decomposing shapes in different ways.

 

We also went on a shape hunt looking for shapes in and around the school! This was a blast. We found both 2-D and 3-D shapes and we are much more aware of why shapes are important. We even talked about the DMV and how the signs test relies on shapes!

 

Happy weekend and happy early Thanksgiving!

Mrs. Schultz



November 10th-14th

We have had a great week this week!

Thematic Unit:

We are studying basketball this week and learning about Michael Jordan. Mrs. Jennifer Stevens who works at our school, played basketball for Texas Tech and came to discuss her career in this awesome sport. We read many books and learned about the uniform, rules, player positions and more. We rotated through 4 centers. 

1. Michael Jordan biography book.....You will notice that the book said Michael Jordan was part time owner of the Bobcats. We explained to the students that the Bobcats are actually called the Hornets now! We discussed what it must be like to convert from being a player to an owner and how much leadership Michael displays. 

2. Basketball Bread making....Take biscuit dough and roll it into a ball. Roll it in cinnamon and sugar. Bake in the toaster and enjoy! This was a hit! Please use the recipe that we sent home and make this at home. So yummy!

3. Design your own basketball jersey!

4. Base ten jersey number....we introduced base ten blocks and discussed the tens place and ones place. Using tens and ones, students had to make their own jersey number.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we are reviewing all beanie baby reading strategies and trying to practice using them! We are reinforcing this by reading in small groups, large groups and one on one. Often times when students come to an unknown word they still want to say "I do not know what that word is!!" We want students to get in the habit of trying to solve the word first using the strategies and then if they still cannot figure it out, they can ask for help. It is always so surprising to them when they can figure it out on their own!

Word sorts are still going well this week. Word sorts work on short vowels, long vowels, blends, digraphs and more. Each week we take two days to get through all the reading groups and we send those books home. Then it takes two more days to get through word sort groups. Your child is receiving small group and one on one instruction in both reading groups and word sorts groups. You will see their first word sort in their word study binder behind the "Extra Work" tab.

Word study words this week are:

up

on

over

at

of

*Of is tricky and it sounds like it would be spelled ov. But that f is making a tricky sound in the word of!

Math:

This was the first week where we started studying geometry! This week we worked on: describing, comparing and naming 2-D shapes and decomposing shapes in different ways. We started with the basic shapes like: hexagon, square, triangle, trapezoid, circle etc. We studied the characteristics that these shapes have and looked at similarities and differences. We also learned how these shapes can fit together to make a new shape. We did not learn any new math games this week. We did complete geometry "quilts" and those went home today. Students were given a blank shape and then asked to fill in that blank shape with many different pattern blocks. Everyone had a different combination which was neat to see! Then students had to count how many of each shape they used and total up all the shapes together. We snuck a little more addition in there! 

Questions we were asking this week for assessment were:

What features of shapes do students notice?

What shape names do students know?

Can students identify shapes in their environment?

Announcements:

1. Next week we will be studying football! 

2. November 26th-28th there will be NO SCHOOL. 

3. We have our first trip to the Laurel's Nursing home December 3rd 9:40-12:00 if you want to join us. Mark your calendars!

4. Sign up genius for next week here: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0C4FA5A82BA4FF2-novembr 

5. Scholastic orders must be placed online this year! Order those books in time for the holidays! :) Class code is: MG2XP

Hugs, 

Mrs. Schultz

October 20th-24th

Hello families!

We have made the switch from fairytales to sports! Our first week of studying athletes and sports was centered around soccer. We learned rules, had Ms. Cory come in and talk to us, got to learn about Mia Hamm and more.

Thematic: There were four centers that everyone got to rotate through. We read many informational books about soccer as well.

1. Make a Mia Hamm fact book. Mia Hamm was an amazing soccer player that we enjoyed studying!
2. Make a foosball game using your shoe box, straws, a ping pong ball and cut out soccer players. This   was a hit!
3. Write a soccer rule that you learned from the book we read or from Ms. Cory. Use your best green line writing and illustrate that rule. These rules are going to be put together in a big book for the class.
4. Make a soccer ball out of a paper plate by tracing/cutting black hexagons. Glue those black hexagons on in the pattern you would see on a soccer ball.

Reader's Workshop:

Our three beanie baby reading strategies that we learned this week are:
*Chunky monkey- He reminds us to look for chunks of words that we already know within the word we are trying to solve. Example: -art, -old, -and, -er
*Skippy Frog-He reminds us to skip the word we do not know, read to the end of the sentence and then go back to that word.
*Flippy dolphin- He reminds us to try the other vowel sound if it does not sound right. Try the long sound or vice versa.

We have also been gluing things into our 'poetry, songs and more' books. This week we added a mini book about the 3 ways to read a book. The 3 ways to read a book are..... read the words, read the pictures or retell the story. Gluing this mini book into our journal will help us remember the 3 ways but it is also a safe place to keep it to frequently remind us.

We have enjoyed practicing our word study words. We have used play dough, paint and we even used these really cool letter cards and put them on string to make word necklaces.

Everyone should have received a book to read at home! Please have your child practice the strategies we have discussed in class if they come to an unfamiliar word.

Math Workshop:

We pulled out the hundreds mat from last year and started working with those higher numbers again. Looking at patterns and how numbers work together. The hundreds board has two dice. The children roll the dice and add together. Then move their marker that many spaces on the hundreds board. The first one to 100 wins! For a challenge children are asked "How many more to get to_____?" This works on adding using many strategies we have been practicing.

We also worked on the "3 Towers" game. This is where there are 2 different colors of unifix cubes.. A dice is rolled and then whatever number that is you place that many cubes to make a tower. The partner then rolls and places that many cubes on top. Your goal is to make 10. Example: I rolled a 5. I take 5 yellow cubes and place them on the bottom. My partner rolls a 4 and then places that many on top. I have to roll again. If I get a 1 then my tower is done. If I roll more than a 1, then I place 1 on top and then take the leftovers and start a new tower. The game is done when 3 towers of 10 are built.

The final game we introduced this week was called "Heads or Tails." You get 7 pennies. You shake them and then drop them on the table. You count how many landed on heads and record that under the "heads" column. Without counting you should know how many tails there should be. After you figure that out, you check your math work by looking at the remaining pennies. After the you master 7, you go to 8, then 9 then 10. For children who need a challenge, we have added more pennies. Working with different materials is always fun!

Parade of Fiction: Next Wednesday morning...do not forget! It starts at 8:30 and should not take long. PLEASE BRING A CHANGE OF CLOTHES!

Box Tops: Please bring in box tops if you save them! We can earn money for our school and Abbey (from our class) has a special box that she brought in for us to keep them.

Conferences: Conferences have been going well! Please remember that if you do not see a time that works best for you, I am more than happy to make other arrangements.

No school October 30th & 31st. No volunteers needed next week since we have a short week!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

October 13th-17th

Hello families!

Remember that the fairytale ball is tomorrow! 8:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m. The first grade dance will start at 8:30 and after that the kids will go through 8 stations revolving around fairytales! Please remember your costume can be ANYTHING related to fairytales. Think of all the stories we have studied the year and last! The possibilities are endless. :) If you can sign up to help run stations, please do that. I think we only have 2 signed up to help and each class should have 4.

Parade of fiction: October 29th-Dress like your favorite character out of a book!

**Remember if you are ever wondering what we are doing in class each day because nothing is coming home, this is the place to check! We try to do hands on activities and avoid worksheets as much as possible. We also keep many things to display in the classroom!

The conference sign up went out last night! Sign up for a time that works best!

If you took a pink piggy to help raise money for the breast cancer walk they are due back TODAY!

Thematic Unit:

This week we are reviewing all the fairytales we have studied and enjoying our last week of this unit! Our 4 stations this week were:

1. Make a mirror out of tin foil and glue it on a piece of paper. Write "Mirror, mirror on the wall, What is your favorite fairytale of all? I liked_________ the best."
2. Jump rope to "Cinderella dressed in yellow went downstairs to kiss her fellow, how many kisses did he get?" I think this was the favorite center of all!
3. Make a venn diagram and compare two of your favorite fairytales. Write what is the same and what is different about the two.
4. Make a torn paper crown. This is great for fine motor skills! Use whatever colors you wish and then write at the bottom which materials and colors you used.

Reader's Workshop:

Now that our reader's workshop is all set up we can finally get to the good stuff. We are learning about all the different reading strategies and relating them to beanie babies to help us remember them. These are called "beanie baby reading strategies."
-Tuesday we learned about 'Stretchy Snake.' He helps us remember to streeeeetch the word out slowly. The put the sounds together to figure out the word.
-Wednesday we learned about 'Eagle Eye.' He helps us remember to look at the pictures for clues to help figure out the word.
-Today we learned 'Lips the Fish.' He tells us to get your lips ready. Say the first few sounds of the word out loud. Read to the end of the sentence and say the sounds again.

*We are still working on individual reading and writing goals as well. This week we focussed on making sure that during our 1 hour long reader's workshop that we were getting both writing and reading done. Students have individual writing goals as well. Some students need to spend more time on making sure they have a beginning, middle and end. Some need to spend time on adding details to pictures. Some need to add words. There are many goals that are being achieved each week! We are still working on handwriting as well. Each day we learn how to correctly write a letter.

**Please feel free to use these phrases at home when reading with your child. We will learn others next week.

Word Study Words:
beg
bog
big
bug
bag
*Watch those tricky vowels changing in the middle and listen to each sound.

Math Workshop:

We learned a new math game this week and changed some of our tubs. The new math game is called "10 plus what?" There is a 10 frame already filled with 10 dots. You roll the dice. Then place that many counters on the other ten frame. Then add 10 plus that number together to get your total. After that you record your equation. Eventually everyone will be really quick with their "10 plus____ math facts." For children that need a challenge, we have them adding 8 and 7 to numbers. We have also been  doing addition equations with multiple numbers. For example: 1+4+5+6=? We also have these multi step equations mixed into word problems. This is where strategies (other than adding in our head) come in handy! In relation to adding we have also been given the sum and had to figure out different combinations to get to that sum. For example: "I have 12 pieces of candy. Some are lollipops and some are peppermints. How many of each could I have?" Each child could come up with several combinations to get to 12 and then show their work and prove their answer. These are fun to come up with and solve!

SCHOLASTIC ORDERS DUE TOMORROW!!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

This week!

Happy Thursday!

Announcements:

October 17th: Fairytale Ball: You will need a "costume" for this. Please do not worry! If you need help making anything or coming up with an idea I will gladly help. Any costume related to fairytales is great: prince, princess, fairy godmother, fairy, little red riding hood, a knight, etc. Get creative but do not make it too hard! An email was sent out earlier with details regarding this event. Unfortunately siblings will need to stay home due to limited space. So sorry!

October 29th: Parade of Fiction- Dress like your favorite character from a book! Please come to me if you need help with a costume. :) Last year there were many cool costumers! I saw Fancy Nancy, Matilda, Amelia Bedelia, Junnie B. Jones and so many more.

October 30th & 31st: Parent Teacher Conferences *A sign up genius will be sent out later. I will offer these all throughout the week.

November 5th: Yearbook pics...dress your best! :) We take these at 8:30 in the morning thank goodness.

Thematic Centers: 
We are still studying Cinderella and reading many different versions! I hope everyone can come into the classroom at some point and see all of this beautiful artwork displayed. We have not been sending things home lately because we need to decorate our classroom! We are also saving items for portfolios and conferences. 

The 4 centers were:
1. Create a menu for the ball! Include an appetizer, main course and dessert. This was hilarious! :0 My favorite menu was: dough for an appetizer, pizza for dinner and a cookie cake for dessert. Yum!
2. Decorate an invitation for the fairytale ball and give it to your parents.
3. Create Cinderella's castle using attribute blocks. Trace the shapes and come up with a castle!
4. Make Cinderella's necklace using a pattern of your choice! Then write what your pattern is using green line paper. 

Reader's Workshop:

We have finally introduced all 5 stations for reader's workshop and we are good to go! Everyone really enjoyed learning about the listening center. This week we are focussing on punctuation in our writing AGAIN! This is something that is so hard to remember in our writing. We are working on individual reading goals in reading groups as well. Reading goals look like this (they are different for every child) : working on stretching out the word and putting it back together, looking at non fiction features, taking a picture walk before reading and pointing out unfamiliar vocabulary, learning site words etc. Reading groups take place each day. After your child reads the book in their group, the book is sent home so that they can read it to you at home. Then it goes in their book box for a familiar re-read.

Math Workshop:

We have been saving each math "sheet" that we do for conferences. That's why we're not sending much home! But we also try to avoid doing worksheets. Our math tubs are all hands on! This week we are continuing to work on math story problems. Everyone is still struggling with how to "show their work." Every good mathematician has two strategies to solve each story problem. One can be in their head but the other needs to be shown physically so that they can always double check their answer. Strategies can be: counting on, using fingers, using manipulatives  drawing a picture, grouping or skip counting to get an answer quicker, breaking apart numbers to the math is easier, using a ten frame to prove the answer, etc. Each day we have a math talk and discuss the MANY ways to solve a problem. The important thing here is that everyone can prove it! We also played double compare. This is very similar to the game we played a few weeks ago that I wrote about. This time instead of turning over one card, you turn over two cards and add them together. The person with the biggest sum, gets to keep both cards. Students who are really great at adding have cards that have more dots. Students who need a challenge have more dots so they are adding higher quantities. We continued to review "Fix It" and "5 in a Row". We also learned how to play roll and record a different way from last year. This year the kids are rolling dice and adding them together and then recording their answer.

Word study words this week are: a, an, the, good, last

**Do not forget to order scholastic if you would like! Orders are due by October 17th. Class code is: MG2XP

Enjoy the weekend!
Hugs, 
Mrs. Schultz

September 29th-October 3rd

Happy Thursday! Please see the list of important dates that are coming up.

October 17th: You will need a "costume" for this. Please do not worry! If you need help making anything or coming up with an idea I will gladly help. Any costume related to fairytales is great: prince, princess, fairy godmother, fairy, little red riding hood, a knight, etc. Get creative but do not make it too hard!

October 29th: Parade of Fiction- Dress like your favorite character from a book! Please come to me if you need help with a costume. :) Last year there were many cool costumers! I saw Fancy Nancy, Matilda, Amelia Bedelia, Junnie B. Jones and so many more.

October 30th & 31st: Parent Teacher Conferences *A sign up genius will be sent out later.

November 5th: Yearbook pics...dress your best! :) We take these at 8:30 in the morning thank goodness.

Thematic Unit:
This week we are studying Cinderella! We painted a glass slipper and wrote what we would ask for if we had a fairy godmother, we "transformed" a pumpkin into something new and wrote about it and we also decorated a real pumpkin like Cinderella's carriage (thanks for bringing in the pumpkins). It was so much fun! We read a Cinderella book each day and read many other versions like our other fairytales. Our main questions for this unit are:

1.What are the fairytale story elements?
2. How have fairytales lasted so long?
3. How can you compare and contrast the different versions of all the fairytales we have studied?

Math:
We learned a new game in math this week and we added it to our math tubs. The game is called "5 In a Row" and it is very similar to BINGO. You get a game board with many different numbers in a grid type of format. You roll two dice and then add the numbers. After that you find the sum on the game board and place a marker on that number to show you already rolled that sum. Your goal is to get 5 in a row on the game board. This works on addition, finding the total of two or more quantities up to a total, comparing two quantities and counting on/using number combinations.We also worked on addition story problems again in our math groups. It is so important that mathematicians are able to tell how they get their answer and justify their answer by showing their work/showing what addition strategies they used. Story problems are difficult to solve if you do not have a strategy for picking out the important parts of the problem. They are also difficult if you do not have any strategies for adding numbers. We are working on both pieces to solve story problems efficiently!

Reader's Workshop:

This week we introduced our second to last option. We learned how to do "word work." At this station there are different activities to complete related to word study. We work with many different materials to help us remember the word study words. We write our words in sand and shaving cream, we rainbow write words, use wiki sticks, stamp our letters, use chalk, write them on whiteboards and so much more. This is a fun station that we will be able to visit each time we have reader's workshop along with reading to self, writing, parter reading and listen to reading. We also met with our reading groups on worked on individual reading goals. Everyone is working on something different. We are reading fiction and non fiction. We also talked about punctuation in our writing (again). Punctuation is hard to remember but we are working hard. Everyone is still reading out of their individually designed book boxes, reading with partners and writing books, passages, letters, poems etc. during this time.

**If you see punctuation being left off of sentences at home it is ok to gently remind your child to add it to the end. It may be a period, exclamation mark or question mark!

**Do not forget to order scholastic if you would like! Orders are due by October 17th. Class code is: MG2XP

**Please remember tomorrow is sprit Friday. So wear your spartans apparel!

** We have a piggy bank in our class and we are collecting any spare change that you may have. CSD does this fundraiser every year and the money collected goes towards the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. Bring any spare change if you wish to donate it to our class piggy.

**Please bring in your parade of fiction book next week. We will be doing an activity with this with our book buddies! If you have not picked your book and character yet, go ahead and do that this weekend. If you cannot get your book to class by next Thursday, please let me know and I can make arrangements to choose one for your child for this activity.

SIgn up genius link: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0C4FA5A82BA4FF2-october5 

Have a happy weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

September 15th-18th

Happy Thursday!

We have a short week next week so there will be no volunteers needed! We are off September 25th and 26th. I will probably send home an email with an update rather than posting a whole blog post for the short week. Look for that email Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.

Thematic:
We have been studying Rumpelstiltskin this week and discussing names. We played a game where we took an index card and wrote our real name on the front and then a new name we would give ourselves on the back. After that we tried to guess who would be who! The next day we made a huge chart and compared our name to Rumpelstiltskin's. His name was the longest by several letters! It was interesting to see this difference on paper. The last day we sequenced the story. We read several different versions and compared this fairytale to the others we have read so far. We may even attempt to weave a basket out of construction paper this week or next! We need to practice that skill and it would relate to this story really well.

Reader's Workshop:
We are still practicing writing, reading with a partner and reading independently during reader's workshop. We added another poem to our poetry journal and highlighted "colorful words" (words that we can visualize in our mind). We practiced many site words and our word study words doing various activities during this time. We have magnetic letters, shaving cream words, play dough words, stamping words, scented markers to rainbow write etc. Feel free to repeat these methods at home with word study words or frequently missed site words while reading. We also met with our reading groups and worked on reading strategies with Mrs. Schultz. If a leveled book comes home, look for the sticky note on the front cover. That will tell you what strategies we are working on for that particular book and your child. Sometimes we send home a book that may appear "easy" but we have a specific goal. We may be working on fluency, stopping at punctuation, comprehension or expression. There are so many things that we are working on right now! Reading is about so much more than a "level' or a challenge. We want kids to enjoy reading, learn to comprehend what they are reading, learn new vocabulary, feel confident and so much more. We are working on being independent but it is still hard so thank you to the parents who have volunteered so far!

Math Workshop:
This week we worked on ordering numbers from least to greatest and greatest to least. We started by using math manipulatives and then moved to number cards. Each child was given 4 number cards and they were to order the numbers from least to greatest. We continued to play "Fix It" from last week. This game is really powerful and addresses many great concepts. One child calls out a number from the number strip and another child "fixes" the amount of cubes that are on the game board.
EX:
Number caller: 2
Number Fixer: I will add 2 to make 2.
Number caller: 6
Number Fixer: I will add 4 to make 6
Number Caller: 1
Number Fixer: I will take 5 away to make 1

We also began to learn greater than and less than. We introduced the official sign. EX: 6<9 (that would read 6 is less than 9). An easy way to remember the way the sign goes is that the "alligator" always wants to eat the bigger number. So the < sign would need to have the "mouth of the alligator" eating the 9 and not the 6 since 9 is bigger. Use this language at home because it helps! This is a very new and somewhat difficult concept, so practice as much as you can.

Each day your child brings home a book for you to read to them. Please take the time to do this every night. Reading aloud is so important! If you do not have time to read a book that evening, keep it for one extra night.

Have a great weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

September 8th-12th

Hope everyone enjoyed curriculum night. It was great to see everyone! If you were not able to attend and you did not receive a packet of papers, let me know. Hopefully it was informative and well worth your evening! :)

Important Message!
Please do not send your child to school if they are not fever/vomit free for 24 hours! I know this is very tough when you are working but this is a school policy that helps keep our children and teachers healthy. Even if you think they may not be sick anymore, they need to stay home just incase! This is crucial as we enter the “sick months.” We do not want to spread germs! We would rather them miss an extra day of school than possibly spread anything in the classroom.

Thematic Centers:
This week we are reading Little Red Riding Hood and learning about all the different versions that exist. We are also learning about wolves. There will be 3 centers for this fairytale. A nonfiction book about wolves, a graph (which will continue into next week) and a torn paper plate wold (which addresses fine motor skills, direction following, cutting and interacting with multiple art supplies). This classic story has also shared the same story elements as our other fairytales. You can discuss these with your child and look for them in other stories you read. We have seen: "once upon a time" beginnings, "happily ever after" endings, hero vs. villain, beginning/middle/end, sometimes a moral etc. These are great conversation starters to get your children thinking about what they are reading.

Reader's Workshop:
This week we started pulling groups of readers to read out loud to teachers. These small groups are so helpful. In these small groups children receive one-on-one reading attention, they are able to practice and learn reading strategies and have meaningful discussions about books. While teachers are pulling reading groups, everyone else is either working on a writing piece using their individual and class word wall, reading with a partner or reading from their book box. The room is quiet and focused. Everyone is working the whole time. In the future there will be 5 choices to choose from during reader's workshop. We are starting out with two and working our way up. Soon the 5 choices during reader's workshop will be: read to self, read to a partner, word work (working on word study words), work on writing or listen to reading. While students are working, teachers are pulling reading groups and individual readers. At the end of reader's workshop the class comes together as a whole to work on our handwriting without tears lesson for the day. This is where we also practice our word study words.

Math Workshop:
The mini lessons that we focussed on this week were: counting forward and backward, comparing quantities, developing/analyzing visual images and comparing two quantities to see which is larger. Children were pulled in small groups and pulled individually to work on these concepts through games and lots of practice. 

The math tubs that children could choose from were: mystery bags, race to 100, start with, get to (counting backwards this week), quick images. Each game focussed on one of the mini lessons that were taught for the week. A fun game to play in the car to practice counting backwards is called "start with, get to." You shout out a number to start with and then you shout out a number to get to and your child has to start at that number and count backwarrds and stop when they get to the final number. Example: Star with 18 and get to 5. Your child would count 18, 17, 16, 15 etc. until the reached 5 ad stop.

We start walking to the park next week! Sign up to help us if you can. The sign up genius will be sent out soon!

**Please have your girls wear shorts under their skirts and dresses every single day even if it is not a PE day. It helps on the playground and on the carpet when kids are sitting cris-cross applesauce!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

September 2nd-5th

Hello and happy Thursday!

Here is the sign up genius for the week. We are starting light and easing back into having volunteers in the classroom. We will start going to the park the week of September 15th. But if you would like to sign up for something this week, you may! www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0C4FA5A82BA4FF2-september1


We have been busy studying Jack and the Beanstalk and learning many new procedures for reader's workshop.

Thematic Centers:

We have read many versions of Jack and the Beanstalk including Kate and the Beanstalk! On Tuesday we planted our very own lima bean. We wrapped the bean in a wet paper towel, placed it in a ziplock bag and taped it to the window. Hopefully the begin to grow soon! On Wednesday we studied the 4 phases of a lima bean as it begins to grow. The first stage is the seed, then seedling, sprout and finally a plant! Today we will be practicing putting Jack and the Beanstalk themed words in ABC order. We will also be comparing and contrasting the different versions of the story.

Math:

Wow have we been busy! This week we have worked to master several concepts: counting, ordering, representing and comparing. We worked on counting out of mystery bags and trying to remember to use one of our accurate counting techniques (grouping objects, skip counting, counting on etc). You may have seen this mystery box (we used bags) come home! We also worked on making our own staircases on a graph. In class we built staircases out of unifix cubes and worked on counting on and trying to determine which staircase was missing when Mrs. Schultz made us close our eyes and removed one. This worked on ordering a set of numbers and quantities up to 12. Today we will be playing a game called "Compare." This game works on comparing numbers and developing an understanding of how the quantities in the counting sequence are related. Each set of partners is given a set of dot cards with different dot patterns (similar to dominos). The cards are laying face down and when students flip their cards over at the same time they have to quickly determine which has more. The person with more dots gets to keep both cards.

Reader's Workshop:

We are still building stamina and learning procedures for reader's workshop. By the end of this week everyone will have built up to reading quietly and independently for 20 minutes. Yahoo! We have added a new procedure this week to our workshop time and that is independently writing. We are learning that it looks much different than writer's workshop. We are also learning to brainstorm topics on our own. If we do not know how to write a word, we are working on underlining that word and moving on rather than staying stuck on it. We have been practicing our word study words, reading individually with teachers and we worked on our first poem in our poetry journal. Each child has received a book that is on their level that was chosen for them. They also got to pick two books on their own. This is great motivation to keep reading! Because this is an independent activity, teachers are able to meet with students individually to work on reading!

Mark you calendars for curriculum night! September 10th from 6-8. At 6 pm there will be a welcome session in the elementary gym and teachers will run 30 minute sessions from 6:30-8. We have sessions starting at 6:30, 7 and 7:30.

Remember if you have a birthday coming up, the school has asked that you bring a healthy treat for your snack (if you choose to bring a treat at all). Fruits and veggies are welcome! If you do not want to bring a treat but still want to celebrate your child, please feel free to come read a book to the class! :)

Have a great weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

August 24th-29th

Hello families!

Second week down. We did it!

We do not have school on Monday as it is a holiday. Please do not forget this!

Math Workshop: We have had several mini lessons for math this week before we break out into math tubs. We played "Start With Get To" where children receive a starting number and ending number and they have to count from the starting number until the reach the ending number. Example: Start with 25 and stop at 41. This is hard! We discussed counting accurately and went over many strategies. We also played a staircase game where students had to count on, use addition/subtraction and determine how many cubes to add to the bottom cube. Our math tubs still consist of race to 20, roll a tower and roll and cover. A new tub will be added where students are ordering unifix cube staircases from least to greatest according to size.

Reader's Workshop: We have been working all week to set up our reader's workshop. Each day we take our book boxes (which consist of 1 book chosen by Mrs. Schultz and two books kids choose) and practice reading quietly to ourselves. We had a few mini-lessons on choosing books, ways to read, building stamina, and decoding words.

We learned that there are 3 ways to read a book in first grade:
1.      Read the words…following the words that the author put on the page.
2.    Read the pictures: using the pictures to guide you as you create your own version of what is happening in the story
3.     Retell the story from memory: reading a book you already have heard and using your memory and creativity to recreate the story. We demonstrated each way and will continue to demonstrate them as the kids become more fluent in each method This is the time where Mrs. Schultz will pull reading groups and meet with children individually for reading. After we practiced reading quietly we went to reading stations. These stations were: free writing, scrabble, alphabet soup, stamping word study words, reading out of book boxes, spelling matching puzzles and a spelling matching game. In the future these stations will be more structured but for right now we are just getting used to the structure. After this was over we were able to practice writing letters correctly in our handwriting without tears books each afternoon.

Thematic Centers:
Our first unit of the year is fairytales. This week we are studying Rapunzel. We are reading several versions of this story and comparing them (including Tangled). We are also learning what components make up this genre. There are 3 Rapunzel centers. One center is comparing the length of your hair to Rapunzel's. Each child gets to make their own Rapunzel locked in a tower using construction paper, yarn, glue and art utensils. Another center is graphing. Each child receives a pack of character cards from the story and they have to graph how many cards they have of each character. The last center is sequencing the Tangled version of Rapunzel. We may have to continue these centers into next week as they are taking much longer than we anticipated.

Quick Note About Word Study:


Why Word Study?
In word study we look at each letter of the alphabet more closely and study the various sounds that each letter can make.  We are not doing “traditional” spelling words, instead we are looking at the phonemic system we call English.
My Kid Can Spell “Mississippi” So Why Is He/She Having To Spell “have?”
In the word study program we are not just looking at how to spell one single word.  Instead we are helping the kids to see the whole picture by studying smaller words and using them to explain the rules of our system.  When we study the word “have,” for example, we are stressing to the kids that English words do not end in the letter ‘v’ and that the ‘e’ at the end of the word is doing one of its many jobs  (in this case it is the ‘supporter e’  for the ‘v’).
Why Does My Child Only Have 5 Words Each Week? My Neighbor/Nephew/Older Child Has 20 Words Each Week.
With our program we aren’t just memorizing a list of words that we’ll possibly never see again, but are learning the rules of English spelling.  Word Study is one part of our literacy program and isn’t the only time that we are working with words and spelling.  We also use spelling in our writing workshops, in our literacy block and during word work.
Why Are There Three Columns On The Green And White Paper?
1.       Column 1: In class we instruct as we write the new words in the first column.  After this first week you will notice that some letters and word will have some word study “markings” in the first column.  In this column we are showing the kids how to write the words and then we mark specific letters and talk about the job that letter is doing.
2.       Column 2: “The Better Column”: In class the kids are then to write their words neatly, focusing on letter formation and spelling.  They are not to make the markings on the letters.
3.       Column 3: “The Best Column”: at home, the kids are then to write the words in their best handwriting as their first assignment with the words.
What Should We Do At Home Each Week?
The first job each child should complete each week is to neatly write their 5 words in the third column on the green and white paper.  After that, we have included a list of suggested activities for kids to work on during homework time.  This is a suggested list, so be creative and come up with your own ideas, too.  If the homework is sized appropriately, put it behind the “homework” tab.  If not, you can put in a sheet of paper and explain what you did.  For example, this week a parent wrote a quick note that said, “We wrote the words on our hands to practice.”
A few ideas from this list and off the top of my head: write the words on white boards, write the words with colored pencils, write the words in sand, paint the words, spell the words while in traffic, write them on mom’s iPad or make the words with magnetic letters.  Have a competitive child?  See how many times they can write the words neatly and correctly in a minute. Bounce a ball and spell a letter for each bounce.  Jump for each letter.  Hop for each letter.
My Child Needs a Challenge…
Have your child brainstorm other words that match our spelling pattern.  Search in their books for other words that have the same rule and words that look the same BUT DON’T follow that rule. Have them explain the rule and why words fit or don’t fit.


We got together with our book buddies for the first time today. We gave each other interviews and then enjoyed reading a book. This is really great for building school community.

Look for volunteer opportunities sometime after Labor Day.


Have a great weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

August 18th-22nd

Welcome back!

I am excited to say that we have made it through our first full week as a new first grade class. We have been working hard this week and we have been learning new procedures and routines.

Below are a few pictures from our first week.

Our principals Ms. Marianne and Ms. Leslie came to welcome us back to school and read us a story. Thank you!!

Libby wore her hair just like Mrs. Schultz. Complete with a top knot and headband. We were twins today. I loved it Libby! ;) 

Our first class picture on the first day of school. They have grown so much!

Reading on the couch! Thanks Wolding family!

Sadie was the first one to lose a tooth at school this year! She signed her name on our new tooth poster. I think Megan is going to be next!

As you may have noticed we have been busy. We started learning how to write on green line paper. Of course this has been difficult but everyone has been doing really well. We have talked about in the house letters, basement letters and attic letters. Ask you children to explain this to you. Many of the kids are actually enjoying this more than I thought! Today we had a class discussion about expectations and dreams for this upcoming year. On our green line paper we wrote "Our class should be________" and then everyone came up with their own expectation for how the class should be. It was great to set the tone for the year with ideas from everyone!

We also started math workshop this week. Math workshop is a really neat way to learn math! Each day  there are 8 math tubs that everyone gets to visit. You can move around whenever you want and change tubs when you are ready. During this time small groups are pulled to work on lessons and individual work. This week we have been exploring math manipulatives from last year (and a few new ones) as well as reviewing math games from last year. We also learned a new math game this week called "Race to 20." Super fun!

We have had free choice center time in the afternoons and we are hoping to start thematic centers next week. Our first unit will be fairytales. Exciting!

We played a lot of games and participated in lots of "community building" activities. We completed a scavenger hunt, a 'Hello School, Goodbye Summer' chart, played Guess Who (with real facts from kids from the class) and made goals for the year.

I will be sending more about word study (and those huge binders) soon! We will start having parent volunteers after Labor Day.

Thanks for your support! Get some rest this weekend. Everyone is SUPER tired!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

First Week

Hello families!

Welcome back and welcome to first grade!

I will post weekly updates here throughout the year. Do not forget to bring in your supplies if you have not already (including the 2 pocket folder). Remember to bring all of your forms as well.  The first week back to school will be spent reviewing classroom procedures, practicing on our new writing paper and catching up from the summer. My email has changed to: eschultz@csdspartans.org and phone number is the same. Contact me if you need me!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

If you have not had a chance to view the "The Night Before First Grade" video, you can do that here!

May 27th-May 30th

Good morning!

I am so glad that everyone could come to the Author's Tea yesterday! It was a blast. Each child truly did their best and worked very hard on each page. Creating bare books is an ongoing annual tradition that you will see each year at CSD. By the time they end their journey at CSD they will have 6 books and they will get to see how they have grown as a writer. Each year bare books look slightly different. This year we decided as a team that bare books should be child centered and child selected therefore they will not look "perfect" as some bare books in the past (which were more teacher driven). The children took great pride in selecting their top 5 writer's workshop books to feature in their bare book and we hope you enjoy this memory book of kindergarten!

Water Day:

Please remember to send your child to school with sunscreen already applied. They should be wearing shoes that can get wet, a bathing suit with an outfit over it and they also need a beach towel. They also need a change of clothes to change into after water day is over (do not forget socks, underwear and tennis shoes)! Please do not forget to send snack and lunch as well. We will be out from 9-11. Thanks to everyone who has signed up to help so far!

This week we have been working on math stations and reading lots of stories! We have also been enjoying lots of free time playing in our centers. Because dramatic play and sensory table go away next year we are also spending lots of time in those specific two centers!

Have a great weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

May 19th-23rd

Hello!

Our play was a success! Thank you for practicing with your child and encouraging them throughout the whole process. They were so proud of themselves. :)

This week we are now focusing on bare books. We have picked out our top 5 books to include in our bare books and we are working on putting the finishing touches on them. We cannot wait to reveal them at the Author's Tea next week (May 29th at 1:30 in our room).

Math:
We have been working on skip counting. We have been skip counting by several numbers to prepare for first grade (gasp!). You may have seen an under the sea skip counting by 5 sheet come home. This was hard but we are still learning! We are doing many exercises to help us learn how to skip count by 10's, 5's, 2's etc. We are jumping, hoping, clapping and dancing as we count. Any time we can move our bodies it helps us learn the information! We also worked on range cards, skip counting by 10's and several addition/subtraction equations. The past 2 days we have been rotating through math stations to get all of our work done and it has worked out well!

Reading/Writing:
This week we talked about writing in something other than our writer's workshop books. Each morning we are writing in our day books. Some mornings we had a prompt but most mornings we got to write/draw whatever we wanted. Writing each day is important next year so we are introducing that now! We also read a lot. We read books, words around the room and reviewed old site words. We are also learning a new stanza each day to an end of the year poem that we read in the pocket chart during reader's workshop.

Even though we are not sending home the little readers anymore (as we are trying to collect them all) we are still reading here at school. We are focusing on the reading strategies we have learned, practicing fluency and checking for comprehension. Please read every day this summer! Read to your child and have your child read to you. This will help us so much next year!

We are allowing the kids to enjoy all their favorite centers the next couple of weeks as we call small groups for bare books. It is so fun to see what the "favorites" are!

The sign up genius that went out last week is for the rest of the year. Feel free to revisit that and sign up where there are empty spots. I will also let everyone know what is needed for the water day event. I have not received that information yet but when I do I will send an email or sign up genius for what we need.


Two reminders for the next couple weeks:

Aquarium Field Trip: May 27th 10:30-2:00 (Please let other parents have a chance to sign up first if you have already been on a field trip with us.)

 
June 3rd: Water Day/End of Year Party

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

My 5th-May 9th

Lots of announcements....so grab your calendar and pay close attention!

The Laurel's Field Trip: May 13th 9:30-12:00 (Sign up to come with us if you can.)

Commotion in the Ocean Play: May 20th @ 11:00 (elementary gym)

Aquarium Field Trip: May 27th 10:30-2:00 (Please let other parents have a chance to sign up first if you have already been on a field trip with us.)

Author's Tea: May 29th @ 1:30 (in our classroom)

June 3rd: Water Day/End of Year Party

Please sign up for a conference! I would really like to meet with everyone this time! :)
Conference Sign Ups:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0C4FA5A82BA4FF2-conferences 

Half Day May 9th

Half Day May 15th
No School May 16th
No school May 26th
Last Day of School June 4th

Thematic Centers:
We are still studying oceans and learning a TON. We have labeled parts of a fish, studied a whale's habitat and started on our play costumes. Each child received a poster board cut out of their animal that they have started decorating on their own (in class). We have started on these this week! Each child will wear kakis (skirt, pants or shorts) and a bright colored shirt to wear under their animal that they wear around their neck. Super simple...so no worries!

Literacy:
Writer's workshop this week was choosing one of the styles that we have written in the past. We are focussing on finishing our books from throughout the year and enjoying the last few writer's workshops that we will have for the rest of the year! We are going back to working on CVC words using Legos and playing many games. We have also been practicing for the play!

Math:
We are still working on range cards and lots of addition! We are using many strategies, playing lots of games and doing many activities throughout the day to help us attach equations with quantities and adding numbers together. We are working with many different numbers, equations and strategies. This week we discovered that 8+1=9 is the same thing as 9=8+1. The equation is just flip flopped! Cool!

Take care and hold on for a crazy schedule until school gets out! :)
Hugs, 
Mrs. Schultz

April 28th-May 2nd

Hello!

We are still studying oceans this week and we have learned a lot. On Tuesday we made a fish out of an old CD and studied the many different fish that live in the sea. Some of the fish we studied were: angel fish, clown fish, puffer fish, beta fish (actually do not live in the sea but many children have them for pets) and more! On Wednesday we made a Jello Ocean! We took blue Jello, placed it in a cup and added Swedish fish. We studied the different layers of light through the ocean. We made the top layer of ocean where we often swim when we visit the beach and we are able to see many fish because the ocean is closest to the sun. That zone is called the euphotic zone. The bottom layer of the ocean has no light and we may often find fish who do not even have eyes! Today we are making an ocean using a water bottle. We will study the different layers of the ocean as we add sand, blue water, oil and confetti fish. Fun, fun! We have also started learning our ocean play songs and practicing our lines.

Literacy:
We had our last writer's workshop pertaining to our unit on author's as mentors. It was great to study the different writing styles of other author's but we are excited to move on! We are also still studying story elements. Yesterday we did a character sort between the Commotion in the Ocean book and Goldiclocks and the Three Bears book. Today we will do a sort of characters VS setting.

Math:
We are really working hard on addition. We are using many different strategies to solve addition problems. On Tuesday we partnered up and completed several math problems. Wednesday we worked for almost an hour on range cards (record set there!). Today is the park day so we will solve addition problems as a whole group and have a mini math talk before we head to the park.

ANNOUNCMENTS:
**Do not forget to order Scholastic books if you wish! This will probably be our last order for the year and you will want to stock up on lots of books for the summer! :)
**Please return all "little readers" that your children bring home to read to you. We have a lot of books still missing and we will need those back before we are out on summer break. Thank you for your help with this!
**Please do not forget to practice the play lines with your child each night. We are all super busy right now, but this is important! The correct lines were sent home yesterday and highlighted for your child with their lines. If you had the incorrect copy, I took it out and gave your child the correct one. If they already had the correct copy, I just left it! Sorry for the original confusion.

*We will head to the Laurel's on May 13th. If you can help with this, sign up when the sign up genius goes out for that week. Please also look for conference signs up soon. I would really like to meet with all of you this time! :) Conferences will most likely be the week of May 12th-23rd. I will do my best to get that out soon and offer a variety of times for your convenience!

*May 9th is a half day. May 15th is a half day and May 16th we have no school. May 26th will not have school as well.

*The Author's Tea will be held in our classroom on May 29th at 1:30. This will be a blast! Each child will be able to reveal their bare book to you and show you all their hard work!

Sign up genius: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0C4FA5A82BA4FF2-my5thmay
Commotion in the Ocean Play: May 20th at 11:00 (just another reminder to put it on the calendar)

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

April 21st-25th

We have had a great week in kindergarten!

Math:
We are diving into our new math unit on addition! Using lots of different strategies that we have learned we are able to solve these problems. We have ten frames, tally marks, manipulatives and several basic math facts memorized from range cards that all help us solve equations! On Wednesday we got into groups to solve many addition problems using dot markers. Add paint and it makes everything fun! :) We are also still working on tally marks. At the end of the day we play a game where a certain amount of tally marks is shown, and everyone has to jump that many times. Cool!

Literacy:
We are learning a new site word tomorrow...where! Look for this word while reading and while out and about. A great conversation to have would be the difference between where and wear. We are also still working on examining characters, setting and the main events of stories. We completed a foldable yesterday that will go home today and we will be working through a character, setting and main event sort in groups today. As you are reading with your child, pause and discuss some of these story elements this week. That will help! Writer's Workshop was fun this week as we focused on writing Eric Carle style (he is the author we are looking to as a mentor). Some students also decided to write a "how to" book about how we planted our flowers on Earth Day. We are also enjoying adding onto our bare books. We are thinking and writing about our favorites of kindergarten. Our favorite field trip, center, movie etc.

Science:
On Monday we did two experiments with Peeps. We put a Peep in water as well as in the microwave. We predicted what would happen with both experiments and found that Peeps float in water and often lose their color. We found that when heated, Peeps just expand similar to marshmallows (as several kids figured out). They do not explode!

Thematic:
Our unit on Oceans is off to a great start! We made sand dough and discussed the items we may find in the sand. We started a two day project yesterday about many different types of fish! We read the Rainbow Fish book....a class favorite! Next week we will continue to study oceans and begin to really start learning the songs and play lines for our upcoming play called "Commotion in the Ocean!" Your child will receive play lines next week. Practice with your child each night and remember to keep them in their purple folder as we will often practice her at school as well!

Our Commotion in the Ocean play will be May 20th at 11:00 in the elementary gym. Details to follow regarding costumes and other various play things. ;)

If you have not brought an empty water bottle and old CD, please do so soon! We will need those for our centers next week!

Here is the sign up genius!
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0C4FA5A82BA4FF2-april1

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz