April 24th-28th

We celebrated poem in your pocket day by singing a special song and sharing poems. How fun!

Bead counters for adding and subtracting in math. 

Play dough cutting to learn about halves and fourths. 

Happy to see the sun on Wednesday so we celebrated with a class picture!

Sharing poems today!

Practicing for our play!

Michael, Liam and Landon loved counting the mystery change jar. $47.62 is what they counted. We will see what coin star says. ;)

This week we focused on passion projects and play practice.

Thematic Centers:

We have been finishing up art centers for the art show and practicing for the play every afternoon. There were no must do centers this week.

Reader's Workshop:

This week there were new spelling words and leveled book.s Hopefully everyone had a chance to read with their child this week! Ms, Alicia and I pulled children individually to read rather than in groups.Everyone is still working on their bare book.

Math Workshop:

This week we continued to learn about fractions. We added in learning about thirds and practiced fractions within word problems. Some friends even learned about reducing fractions and adding fractions.

Writer's Workshop:

This week we focused on poetry again in honor of poem in your pocket day! Many children asked to share their poems.

**We are in need of glue sticks! If you have any extras, send them in.

**If your child did not have any special paper for their bare book, now is a great time to send some in! We are starting to finish editing writing pieces and the kids are excited to glue their writing onto special scrapbook paper. Each child should have between 12 and 16 pieces of special paper that matches their topic.

**If you are able to volunteer to help us cut paper/glue for bare books just send me an email with what time you can come and I will set you up! It is a very easy task that can be done anytime during the day in the resource room and we are thankful for the help.

**Our play is next week (Thursday) May 4th at 11:00 in the black box. Don't miss it!

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Schultz

April 17th-21st

Hello!

We have had a busy week. I just want to say thank you again for making my birthday so special. What a treat.

Earth Day stations: On Wednesday we learned all about plants in honor of earth day on Saturday. Even though it rained and we had to move it inside, we still had a blast!

Math Workshop:

This week we learned all about fractions! We practiced on white boards and then with yummy cookies. This year we focus on halves, fourths and quarters. We continued to rotate through review math tubs.

Dividing cookies in haves and quarters! So fun.

Reader's Workshop:

We did not do leveled books this week with the hopes that you would use that time to work on play lines. But there were new spelling words! Passion projects are still going well.

Writer's Workshop:

We took a break from passion projects to work on writer's workshop. This week we wrote poems! We wrote a class poem about spring. Here it is:

Spring

The sun is shinning bright.
The bees are buzzing delight.
Olaf is melting in a pool.
Olaf is trying to be cool.
Butterflies are flapping in the wind.
The end!

Thematic Unit:
This week we are studying Renior. He liked to paint outside and liked to paint people talking and doing things like having a picnic, watering flowers, washing clothes etc. We rotated through 4 centers:

1. Flowers in a watering can painting (these are at school for the art show)
2. Renior painted China plates (we used paper plates and these are at school for the art show)
3. How to Spot Renior book illustrations
4. Boating party water color pencil painting with speech bubbles. The water color pencils are so neat! These are drying at school.

Play Lines: Please, please, please help us by practicing play lines. We started to practice this week and it was difficult because many kids had not started practicing their lines at all yet.

*So sorry about the calendar mix up. For some reason, my copy did not save. Hope that helps though!

*If anyone is able to send in one more pack of baby wipes, we can use them!

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Schultz

April 3rd-6th

Hello parents!

We have had a great week before spring break.

Math Workshop:

This week we finished part/part total fact families. We finally rotated through everyone! We also made "bead counters." Each child received a string with 20 beads of two different colors. 10 dark beads and 10 light beads are strung onto a necklace. We use these for even/odd numbers, counting by 2s and 3s, addition and subtraction, tens and ones, and more. It's a tangible way for kids to experience the math topics that we are learning. We practiced using them with addition and subtraction this week.

Reader's Workshop:

We have many kids who have started working on typing their bear books pages! Lots of kids are editing their writing pieces and publishing things. It's so neat to see them working so hard on such a big project.

Each child received their leveled book this week. There were no word study words this week. It was a short week and we are ahead of the other classes so we took a short break this week. :)

Thematic Centers:

We are still studying artists and this week we studied Henri Matisse. He "painted with scissors." He made bright and bold pictures as well as more serious/darker pictures. Two of his art pieces are at the top of the blog. We rotated through 4 centers:

1. Make a replica of the dancing woman (these are at school)
2. Make a replica of the flower vase using bright colors, paper and tissue paper (these are at school)
3. "Dance" with scissors. Use bold paper and cut out different shapes to make a paper collage
4. Make a replica of Matisse's fish bowl using paper cut outs, paint and tissue paper (these are drying at school but will be sent home next week)

Play: We are working on songs here but need your help practicing play lines at home! Thank you for working with your child on their lines each week. It doesn't have to be "homework." You can simply practice while riding in the car, waiting at the grocery store etc.

Earth Day: We will need a few supplies for this day and we will be sending out a sign up genius soon. We will also need a few volunteers for that day so sign up if you are able!

I  hope everyone has a wonderful break!
Mrs. Schultz