October Updates

Room 11 is like a well oiled machine.  We have routines in place, friendships forming, and learning blooming.

Parent Information

• Conference sign up is on the top tab of the blog.  Please be sure to sign up for a slot for your child.
• On October 30th we will have our Halloween parade at 9:30.  We will have our Halloween party in the afternoon.  Please send your child's costume to school in their backpack.

Literacy

• Introduced word work center. Students have been sorting words and building words.  Choices for this center will continue to grow.
• Talked about two reading strategies:

• Talked about character traits.  We learned that we can look at characters actions, words and feelings to describe  their traits.  We tried it on ourselves!

• Continued to work on tapping and blending three-sound short vowel words.
• Introduced the trick words (high frequency) the, a, and, is, his & of.  These need to be read and spelled correctly.
• Introduced the digraphs wh, ch, sh, th & ck.  Digraphs are two consonants that work together to make one new sound.
• In writer's workshop we learned the difference between watermelon and seed stories.  We learned to zoom in.
• Worked with partners to plan our stories
• Took a "museum walk" and looked at our friends stories to celebrate the first bend of our writing.

Math

• Learned addition strategies to help solve problems:  count on 1, 2, 3, count on using the number line, doubles, near doubles, facts with 5 on a tens frame, facts to make 10 on a tens frame.
• Learned that you can change the order of the addends and still have the same sum.
• Learned subtraction strategies to help solve problems:  count back 1, 2, 3 & count back on a number line.

Social Studies

• Read two stories about Johnny Appleseed.  Looked at how the authors illustrated the details in different ways.  One told a tall tale version.
• Read and learned about how Christopher Columbus discovered a new world.

Wow...September flew by!

I can't believe how quickly September flew by!  The children have done a remarkable job learning how use whole body listening looks and developing class rules.  It was important to have them come up with the rules to help create a class community.

Parent Information

• October 9th we have no school.  It is a teacher professional day.
• I am continuing to send poem notebooks home on Friday...however do not feel that you need to do them on the weekend.  Please return them on Tuesday of the following week.


Literacy


• Continued to build stamina for our two literacy centers; Read to Self & Read to Someone.  They are able to do these centers for 15 minutes each.





• Introduced writing center and word center introducing the expectations for each.
• Fundations - finished reviewing letter sounds and formations.  Began working on "tapping words to read" & "tapping words to spell".  Look for the unit two parent letter to come home.
• Continued writing small moment stories in writer's workshop. Learned that "When we're done; we've just begun".  We are learning to go back and ask question words (who, what, when, where, why & how) to add more detail to our stories.
• Looked at different ways to spell words that challenge us during writer's workshop
Math


• Continued working and reviewing math concepts: add to, put together, take from, and comparing
• Learned how to solve for missing parts
• Learned how to use pictures, numbers and words to create a math argument
• Whole-part-part mats are a helpful too we are using.  Here is a picture.