Week of February 15, 2010

I hope you are all enjoying the February vacation thus far. It looks as if we are supposed to get some snow, but generally the week is going to be warm. Let's keep our fingers crossed for decent weather!

The students worked on several new concepts in reading and math this week. In math, the students practiced one-to-one correspondence with multi-sensory counts. For example, I clapped my hands or stomped my feet a certain number of times. The students had to listen carefully, count the claps or stomps, and write the correct number on their white boards. The students had a great time with this activity because it is always an exciting time when we get to use our white boards. Also, the students used a new manipulative this week. They used attribute blocks, which are plastic shapes (circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and hexagons). The blocks come in different sizes, colors, and thickness. We practiced sorting these blocks as a whole group and in small groups. The students then had to share how their group sorted the blocks. Also, we played a new math game called, "What's My Rule?" I went "fishing" by tapping children on the head that had a certain attribute. Initially, I made the attribute very obvious. For example, I picked children wearing the same color shirt or pants. After several rounds, I made the attribute less obvious. For example, I picked children with the same eye color. Last, we practiced reading two-digit numbers.

Practicing our sorting skills with attribute blocks

In reading, we continue to practice our sight words during our class meeting and during workstations. We finish our class meeting by reading a special announcement. After I read the announcement, I invite children to come to the easel to find sight words that I've used in the message. Also, the students practiced building the sight words and reading them at the overhead workstation. We also practiced reading our sight words during our phonics lesson. In addition to reading the sight words, we practiced recognizing word features. For example, I placed in, it, and is on the right-hand side of the pocket chart. The students had to determine the feature that was the same in all three words. After it was identified, we read the words together. Identifying word features will help the students as they are reading books independently because they can use a word that is already known to determine an unknown word.

In writing we continued writing in our journals this week. Also, we practiced writing the letter "z." We practiced the letter first using a technique known as "wet, dry, try." I wrote the letter on a little slate, the student then traced the letter with a wet sponge. Next, the student traced the letter with a dry sponge. Last, the student traced the letter with chalk. The following day we practiced writing the letter in our workbook.

Week of February 8, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day! We had a great time celebrating on Friday. I think it is safe to say that we all slept well Friday night after a party filled with games, crafts, and treats. I want to thank all of the parents for bringing in goodies and supplies. The students and I truly appreciate all of your support.

Before we could have our fantastic parties on Friday we had plenty of work to do throughout the week.

In reading, we continue to work on matching words to their initial consonants. The students are really getting good at this skill. We played Initial Sound Bingo. The students truly love playing Bingo! We also practiced our sight words by building the words with magnetic letters in the ABC/Word Study workstation. Also, the students had to find the sight words that I used in the class message each day. The students really like this because they get to use "Handy Hand" (a hand-shaped pointer) to point to the sight word. We also incorporated writing into reading this week by writing about our reading. I read a story to the class and the children had to draw and label a picture detailing a connection they had to the story. These pictures are displayed proudly in our classroom.

In math the students continued practicing their addition skills by playing, "Roll and Record" with two dice. Each child had a chance to roll the dice. We colored in corresponding blocks on our graph paper for each number that was rolled. Also, the students began to practice their subtraction skills this week. I told them number stories, and the students had to remove the correct number of chips to determine what was left. This is a tricky concept for the students, but they did a great job!

"Roll and Record" with two dice

Pictures of workstations:

Finding sight words in a Valentine's Day poem at the Overhead workstation

Playing "Memory" at the Games and Puzzles workstation

Building sight words at the ABC/Word Study workstation

Finding "R" words in our classroom at the Writing workstation

Week of February 1, 2010

It was another busy week in Room 1. The students and I learned a lot of new things!

In math we learned how to add and what the addition symbol looks like. I said several number stories, and the students had to re-create the story using counters. For example, I said, "I had five seashells and found two more, how many seashells do I have?" The students put five counters on the left side of a popsicle stick and two counters on the other side. Then they remove the popsicle stick and count the total number of counters. The students did a remarkable job with this lesson. Also, the students practiced pattern making with pattern blocks. In addition to practicing patterns, the students practiced their shape recognition skills. We also used a new math tool this week, which was a pattern block template. This is a stencil with a variety of shapes (trapezoid, hexagon, rhombus, triangle, circle, and square. The students created designs using these templates.

In reading, we learned about a comprehension strategy, making connections. When making a connection with a given text, you use your schema (background knowledge) to connect with the story and gain a stronger understanding of what is being read. To practice making connections, we read "What Mommies Do Best" and "What Daddies Do Best" by Laura Numeroff. Also, we continued practicing our sight words.

In writing we continued to write in our journals. The students seem to truly enjoy this time in our day. As we write in our journals, we practice creating simple sentences, using letter sounds to spell words, and create pictures to support our writing.

Our phonics lesson for the week focused on using the beginning letter sounds in words to identify what letter the word starts with. We practiced sorting pictures in a pocket chart using the beginning letter sound. After practicing this on Wednesday and Thursday, the students tried a picture sort on their own. The students were very successful with this task.

Pictures of the week's workstations: