Weekly Review

This week was a short week, but we continued to work hard. We learned a new concept in Phonics, which focused on hearing, saying, and clapping syllables in words. The students quickly understood this concept, and I was pleased. To reinforce this skill at home, I challenged the students to find items around the house, say the name of the item, and determine how many syllables were in that word. The Thanksgiving feast is a good place to start when looking for items to count syllables. We also worked on matching pictures that have the same initial sound in our ABC/Word Study workstation. You can find clip art pictures, print them, cut them apart, and play the game using the same format as "Memory," which is also known as "Concentration." We also worked on building and writing Thanksgiving words in the Pocket Chart and Writing workstations. Also, we continued to practice our journal writing skills by writing a journal message at the end of each day.

In math, we played oral counting games and practiced pencil strokes in preparation for continued practice with writing numbers. The oral counting games were a big hit with the children. The first game is very similar to "Follow the Leader." To play, the students and I sat in a circle on the carpet, did an action (such as clap our hands, tap our heads, wiggle our fingers, etc.), and counted as we did the action. I started counting and it moved around the circle. When a student said the magic number, he/she changed the action that we did. The other game required that we all stand up in a circle. We counted (a student started and the count continued around the circle) and when a student said the magic number, he/she had to sit down. The last person standing won the game. The pencil strokes that were practiced included a circle, a cloud, vertical lines, horizontal lines, and figure eights. In handwriting, we practiced the number 3. In Math workstation, the students played "Turkey Memory" using numerals 11-20. The children had to match turkeys with numerals 11-20 to turkeys with dots (11-20). The student with the most matches won.

I hope you enjoy the pictures from this week. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!