Math Centers Week of November 11

Take a look at our math centers this week!

Spin and Graph Brown Bear Characters

Number order cut and glue. This can be a hard skill when trying to figure out the number sequence when you are not starting at one!

Tens Frame spin and color. Ask your child about this work!

Roll and Graph

Mathematicians rolled a dice and traced the shape that went with the dice. Great fine motor and math work!

Sound Power!

We have been working on using our Reading Powers to help us read! We have Pointer Power, Picture Power, Heart Word Power, Re-Read Power AND Sound Power!
We learned that our pointers give us the power to read the words we are pointing to. We discovered that pictures are a great clue to help word-solve. We also discovered that Heart Word power gives us the strength to find and read our heart words! This week we learned about sound power. The first way to access this power is to look at the beginning sounds in words. Readers practiced this with letter books. These little books all had pictures that began with the same beginning sound. Using beginning sound power our readers were able to read the words in the book by looking at the pictures and the beginning sounds!
What a great week as readers!

Heart Word Rings!

This week your readers were given heart word rings to keep in their private reading baskets. Each time they pass to a new set of heart words they will get another ring added. They are very excited to have these new reading tools!

Take a look at us using them!

Practice these heart words at home to help launch your reader into higher level texts!

Writing Pattern Books

We are getting ready to wrap up our first writing unit with Pattern Books. We have been learning that readers can read pattern books but they can write them too! Your writers have taken the many diagrams they created and are turning them into pattern books. For example, if using the sunflower diagram, their pages might read;
I see a seed.
I see a stem.
I see a leaf.
This work allows for great success as they are using the most common heart words we have learned. The focus is on spaces and writing all the sounds they hear! As you saw at conferences, we will be adding a final piece into their thinking and learning binders as we wrap up the unit. We will be moving on to writing personal narratives in the coming month. Be looking for their pattern book and diagram writing pieces to be coming home.

Monster Squeeze (math)

Your learners worked to develop the concept of more than and less than by playing the game "Monster Squeeze". In this game one partner thought of a number and the other had to try to figure out what the number was. The guesser would say a number and their partner would either say it's more or less than the given number. Then he or she would move the correct monster to cover the number while keeping the secret number between the two monsters. Thus making the monsters "squeeze" the number... You can play this at home easily by making your own number line and two monsters!!
Take a look!

I love hearing them laugh while they learn!!

Thinking and Learning Centers Week of Nov. 4

We are starting to do Lexia- and IPad APP that allows readers to practice a variety of skills that will support them on their journey to becoming avid readers!

Building CVC (Consonant/Vowel/Consonant) Words

With the middle vowel sound /a/

Ask your child to tell you the sounds in each word and then show you how we pinch and blend.

For example- CAT

They will touch pointer finger to thumb and say the sound /c/

Then middle finger to thumb and say the middle sound /a/

Then ring finger to thumb and say the sound /t/

Then swoop their hand and blend together to say the whole word "cat"

This is how we start learning to sound out words with 2, 3, and 4 sounds!

Next week your learner will bring home work with the middle sound /o/

 Readers and writers worked to unscramble words and glue them together to make a sentence. Then they practiced tracing and writing the words. After that, these learners illustrated a picture to match the words!

Practicing writing "heart word" sentences! All the pink heart words came home this week!

Brown Bear Retell bag- After reading and rereading this story many, many times your thinkers made a retelling bag! They worked to carefully color each character correctly to put in the bag. After that, they glued the story to the front and circled all of the heart words! Have fun retelling the story with your learners at home!

Halloween Fun!

Halloween Pattern Block Creations-

Making Bracelets-

 Spooky Playdough Faces-

 Haunted House Drawings-

Enjoying Witches Brew-

 Fun in the Large Motor Multi-Purpose Room-

Mummy Making-

What a Day!