Week of May 17, 2010

The students had a very exciting week because they met the P.E. teacher and some of the fourth grade students. The fourth grade students excitedly shared their P.E. time with the kindergarten students on Tuesday. They practiced Field Day games, so the kindergartners will know what to do when they participate in Field Day on June 1. I think it is safe to say that they truly enjoyed themselves. The students also had an opportunity to get fingerprinted by the local police department as a part of the "Safe Kids" program. The students thought this was very exciting.

In math, the students learned how to play, "Dice Addition." This game requires two dice. The first player rolls the dice and adds the total amount of dots. The second player does the same. The person with the highest sum gets the point. The person with the most points at the end of the game wins. We also learned about the ones and tens in place value by bundling craft sticks. Ten sticks is one bundle. We've been practicing this skill informally throughout the year as we count the number of days we are in school. We also started number scrolls, which are number grids. The goal is for the students to reach 100. I've included a picture of a number scroll below.

In reading, we read, "The Stranger" by Chris Van Allsburg as we practiced "thick" questions. Thick questions require the students to think deeply about the story. We preface every "thick" question with, "I am wondering..." Unfortunately, we were only able to have Reader's Workshop on Thursday this week because we had P.E., but it was worth it because the students had a great time.

In writing, we learned how to write a letter by looking at examples in, "Dear Mrs. LaRue Letters from Obediance School" by Mark Teague. The students then practiced by writing a letter to a friend in our class. The students learned how to write the lowercase l and k this week. We practiced with Wet, Dry, Try and in our workbooks. In phonics and word study, we learned that you can make some words plural by adding -s. We made an anchor chart together of words we commonly use in our writing.

Workstations:

Listening workstation: The students listened to, "A Trip to the Library."

Computer workstation: The students practiced math skills on www.educationcity.com.

ABC/Word Study workstation: The students played, "On the Trail," which focuses on recognizing the sound at the end of the word.

Writing Workstation: The students had to describe their families.