Week 31 Highlights!

What a great week!

Here's a peek at our week:

This week we had two Mystery Readers!  Thank you Mr. Simoes and Mr. Draper for sharing some of your favorite children's books with the class.  

Our Shared Reading this week was Plant Song.  We sorted by vowel teams and beginning blends.  We also introduced the word wall word will  Please practice word wall words with your child at home. 

We continue to explore independent early literacy skills during our Daily 5 word work stations.  This week we introduced new word sorts.  We cut, colored, and raced to sort beginning sounds, short vowels, blends, or long vowels.  We also reviewed sight words by sorting, coloring, reading, and spinning a word wall word.  We worked on writing labels and stories, developed phonemic awareness skills using Lexia, and read to ourselves in our book boxes.  Please ask your child to share with you their favorite Daily Five station this week.

In Reader's Workshop, we reviewed how to be an avid fiction and nonfiction reader.  We had reading playdates and finished our week by building personal reading stamina.  We are up to 15 minutes of stamina reading.   Take a peek at our avid readers!

Our Read Aloud this week was Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens.  Our comprehension focus was identifying the character, setting, and main events.  We sequenced the story by identifying the beginning, middle, and end.  We also discussed the author's word choice, specifically "spicy words".  Please ask your child to share with you the events of our story.

In Writer's Workshop, we began our small moment narrative writing unit.  We began our unit by sharing our green writing folders with our partners.  We were able to tell many stories with all the pictures provided.  Next, we discussed how small moment narratives must have a who, what, and feelings in the story.  We can't wait to share our small moments with our classmates and families.

During Math Tubs, we reviewed one-to-one correspondence, addition to 10, subtraction, subitizing, BUMP, and number words.  In whole group Math, we completed the forth module of our Eureka Math curriculum.  We also practiced core fluency sprints.

In Science, we introduced our April STEM tubs.  This month we are creating structures using plastic eggs, playdough, peeps, jellybeans, and water bottles.  We also planted borage seeds this week and discussed the life cycle of plants.  We can't wait to watch our seeds grow!

On Thursday, Mrs. Brown joined us for Active April.  We moved and stretched our bodies like various animals.  We even played leap frog!  We can't wait to incorporate more movement breaks into our school day!

We ended the week with a visit from our Book Buddies.  We began our shared research projects all about animals.  We can't wait to teach our classmates all about our favorite animals.

UPCOMING DATES:

Spring Book Fair--April 23rd-26th
Ethnic Festival and World Languages Day--May 5th
District 97 Adventure Run--May 5th
Peter Dankelson Visit--May 8th
Art Fest--May 10th
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Field Trip--May 11th
Irving Sleepover--May 11th
Pizza and Play--May 30th