Happy Friday Room 202 Families!
There’s so much to tell about all that we have been up to lately in room 202! You have some very hard working children! Make sure you read all the way to the end to see reminders about upcoming important dates and events for our Weckies!
Phonics
In Phonics we have been working on common spelling patterns in words (aka rhyming patterns). We have spent time looking through several different books and zoomed in on a book called, “Knight School” which was filled with rhyming words. We have found that some rhyming words are spelled differently (more and floor) and we have found that sometimes there is one spelling that is more common than another. We have tried even fixing up our own writing to make sure we have spelled words correctly that have those common spelling patterns.
Readers’ Workshop
Our focus the last two weeks has been on “Keeping Track of Longer Books”. We are finding that as we grow as readers, so does the length of the books we are reading! As a class we just finished the book, “Dragons in a Bag” by Zetta Elliott. This chapter book has a long and at times complex story and plot, which we were able to refer to often when brainstorming strategies for keeping track of our reading with longer books. We created the chart pictured below with four steps for retaining info when reading longer texts. I encourage you to use these strategies with your child at home too as you read longer books. Stop and ask them: What is happening so far? What is this mostly about? How has the character changed? Are there any lessons to be learned? And if they are unable to answer these questions, use the strategy we practice of re-reading for information. Oftentimes the kids are so caught up on figuring out words that they are not even following the events of the story!
We also took time the last two weeks to work on our iReady Reading Diagnostic! I have seen such growth in so many of our hard working readers! I will reach out soon with information if your child has qualified for an IRIP and will also send the scores home as soon as we get everyone done with reading (some are moving very carefully and very slowly) as well as the math scores completed too!
Writers’ Workshop
In Writers’ Workshop we celebrated our Informational Unit TODAY!! We took time to share our non-fiction expert books in small group rotations and then with anyone else we wanted to share with! Kids were eager to show off their different styles of writing and knowledge about a given topic. It was fun to circulate around and hear all that our kids know about and all that they wanted to teach each other in their books. Our kids are SUCH experts on so many topics!! We have decided to keep a basket of these books in our classroom library for another week or so, so that everyone has a chance to see/read them all! We toasted our hard work with mini-cupcakes and a round of applause for all of our great work!
Math Workshop
Money, money, money… MONEY!! We have money on our minds in Math right now! We are doing all sorts of work with coins. It is important that you review coin values at home and even let your own Weckie try paying for things with coins when you go places! We are learning to count coins to find total value, we are learning to pay for things by making the exact amount in coins and we are learning to make change from small amounts of money, like from a quarter or from a dollar. This is a tricky but important concept for our young mathematicians to tackle and learn! Unit 4 Math Assessments went home at the end of last week/beginning of this week. Lots of great growth on those tests. The unit test tends to be a higher score for most than the cumulative test, but the cumulative test is most important as it shows all your child has retained this year. Concepts like filling in blank boxes on hundreds grids and solving for odds and evens were concepts that were still tricky for many.
Social Studies
We are in the midst of our geography unit in social studies! We have explored all sorts of local and Michigan maps, noticing features, our neighborhoods and even our school! We have created classroom maps including important map characteristics like: a title, a compass rose, a key and symbols! We have now moved onto a look into different types of landforms that we have here and around the world!
IMPORTANT Reminders/Dates:
Friday, February 10th - Hundreds Day - Please make sure to send your child to school on this day, in their senior citizen form! They’ll want to come dressed in their best hundred year old outfit ready for an exciting day! We will be playing BINGO and are counting on each child to donate one small prize to our BINGO game! This should be a new, unopened toy (think dollar store) that would be enjoyed by all.
Monday, February 13th - Send in Valentines/Valentines Holders - You can begin to send in all cards/boxes on this date. A note has already come home with a class list and details on the box. Please do not send these in before the 13th!
Tuesday, February 14th - Valentines Party - We will be having an ice cream sundae/movie party and appreciate ALL of your help filling the Sign-Up Genius! Please wait to send in food items until the day of the event. Anything else can come in on the 13th. I am looking for 2 parents to help with this party! We will need help from 2:30-3:30pm on the 14th! Thank you!! Please email me ASAP!!
