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