Today we read The Very Impatient Caterpillar and it was hilarious! We talked about what it means to be patient and why we need to be patient! We only have two more Mondays left in class!
This week, we listened to Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner. Everyone is working so hard on their morning work and I am so, so proud with their progress.
Today we read Worm Weather to enjoy spring! We also worked on some new skills. Kindies worked on decoding CVC words and high frequency words. Firsties continued working on digraphs--this week we added ch to our sh and th study. Second Smarties continued to work on vowel teams! This is a very tricky skill and we will probably spend the rest of the year working on these because I want them to be solid!
Welcome back! Today we worked on some new skills. Second graders worked on a tricky vowel team skill and first graders worked on consonant digraphs. We also read Grumpy Monkey Spring Fever!
Today we read The Most Magnificant Thing and discussed what happens when we get frustrated and fail. We also had some fun recounting stories about The Pigeon!
Today was President's Day, so we learned about Lincoln and Washington! Here is our read aloud for this week: President's Day by Anne Rockwell.
Today we a great time working on various station groups. Dr. Rowe listened to everyone read today and several students had their first WOW list mastered! If they did not, they will practice those WOW list again and try again next Monday!
We also listened to Grumpy Monkey Valentine's Gross Out, which everyone loved because Grumpy Monkey is pretty funny! I'm so proud of how much everyone is learning!
This week, we learned the following new skills:
K-CVC words--How many sounds do we hear in words?
1st-Blends-fl, bl, sl, st, cr, fr, etc.
2 R-controlled vowels
This week we also read The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose, which is super fun!
Today we had a great time getting back into the swing of things. We had a few new students and I want to just brag on everyone who was so friendly! All the students were welcoming and very excited to have new friends! If you are new, I realize you probably have a lot of questions. I promise the routine will get easier as we go along, but, as always, if you have a question, please do not hesitate to email!
This week, we read A Day So Gray, which is about two friends---one who sees everything as gray and drab and another who sees all the beautiful colors! We focused on color words this week. We will continue to focus on color words in our game play during class. I want to also direct everyone's attention to the High Frequency/Sight Words information above. Please watch the videos and be prepared as we will start this process next week!
Today we read one of our favorite characters---The Pigeon! This time, he wanted to drive the Sleigh! We also worked on our listening comprehension and fine motor skills with a drawing and writing activity.
Today we finished up our Thankful Turkeys and practiced our smarty spelling by really stretching out the sounds we hear in the words. They students worked on building structures to trap a turkey!
No At-Home work this week! Happy Thanksgiving!
We will have pajama day on 12/9--wear your pjs to class and we'll have some fun activities!
Don't forget to sign up for spring semester!
This week, we read Thanksgiving in the Woods and practice a variety of different literacy skills in stations. We also worked on our Thankful turkeys!
Today we read Turkey Trouble and made lots of predictions about what the turkey would do next (especially what disguise he would use). We also divided into groups and played various games.
Ks are working on identifying color words and matching letters to sounds
Firsties are building CVC words--If they work with Dr. Rowe, they are working on building nonsense CVC words. This helps us practice truly decoding and not just guessing words.
Seconds are reviewing blends and digraphs and working on learning the new skill of magic e. We are also working on the benefit of rereading and fluency practice.
Today we read There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey. It was hilarous and we were able to identify lots of rhyming words (which is great for our phonemic awareness!). Additionally, we practiced a lot of vocabulary, especially the word QUIRKY!
K-practiced vowel sounds--This is really important as each new word we learn must have a vowel sound.
1st-practiced CVC words
2nd-practiced CVCe words
Today we worked in stations and Dr. Rowe did progress monitoring of a few students. If I was able to get to your student, I will email you the results and my anecdotal notes of the progress monitoring session. I will continue to do this until everyone has been checked.
Today we learned a new skill! Everyone did so great with learning how to count syllables. This is our introduction to this skill, but we will continue to work on this skill for the remainder of the year. Knowing how many syllables are in words is very important for both and writing/spelling. Instead of clapping, which can sometimes be tricky, I have taught everyone to put their hand under their chins and say the word. Then, they need to count how many times their hands move. The biggest hurdle is getting everyone just to simply say the word and not say all the sounds in the word. Again, we will continue to practice this A LOT!
The 2nd kiddos also learned to add magic e to their words, which will change the vowel from short to long. Again, this is something that we just started and we will continue to work on for several weeks!
Our read aloud this week is The Good, The Bad, and the Spooky! Everyone has a sequence activity in their at-home work for this week, so you may need to rewatch!
Today we had a review day of most of the skills we have worked on so far thus year. Our big focus right now is:
Kindies-Letter sounds, letter formation, letter recognition. So far, I have explicitly taught--SATPINCHERKMDGO, so please keep identifying these and working on their sounds at home. We are also focusing on rhymes!
Firsties-Building CVC words and high frequency words. Decoding sentences.
Seconds-Blends, Diagraphs, Vowel sounds, high frequency words.
October Calendar
Today we read The Magical Yet and learned about the powerful word YET! We practiced saying things like, "I can't do it...YET!" We also divided into groups and practiced the following: Kindys--Finding letters in books and practicing letter sounds, Firsties- playing Headbands with simple sentences (so fun!), and Seconds-sorting between blends and digraphs.
Today we read one of my most favorite books, We Don't Eat Our Classmates! It's a hilarious book! We also played a new game called Sight Word Scramble. This one was fun and gave us all some good practice with building sight words. The Kindies are working on letters and sounds, especially vowels. Firsties are working on blends and simple CVC words. Second Smarties are working on blends AND diagraphs. We learned that blends make both sounds of the consonants and diagraphs make one sound. Diagraphs are: sh, ph, wh, th, and ch.
Have a great week and I'll see you on Monday!
Today we worked in groups--K's reviewed letter sounds focusing on SATPINCHERK. 1's worked on recognizing color words, 2's worked on consonant blends with short vowel words. Everyone did a great job! I was also able to listen to multiple kiddos read today and I was so proud of their readings!
This week, our story was about a playground bully named Jean! She was called Mean Jean Recess Queen in the book. By the end of the book, she isn't quite so mean!
Today we worked on vowel sounds and listening really closely to the vowel sounds we hear in words. We played a fun game with vowel sounds. Some groups worked on writing the alphabet and others worked building CVC words. I was also able to progress monitor almost everyone for their sight words knowledge. Continue to write notes to me about the abilities and levels on your child's work each week---it is very helpful for grouping and planning.
Our read aloud this week was another Mo Willems masterpiece called Waiting is Not Easy! We were introduced to Piggie and Gerald.
Thank you all so much for your feedback on the pages for "at-home" work! That is very helpful for knowing how to group students and moving forward with instructional work. Please continue to do that as much as possible. Today in class, we divided into groups. Some groups worked on sorting vowels and consonants, some groups worked on decoding CVC words, and another group practiced fluency phrases with sight words. Students have at home work to complete this week about our book, The Pigeon HAS To Go To School! (P.S. If you haven't read any Pigeon books yet, they are hilarous and the kiddos LOVE them!).
Don't forget---No Class on Monday!
Today we worked on identifying our names (everyone did awesome with that!) and reviewing vowels and their sounds! We rolled a dice with the vowels on them and then graphed our results. We also worked on our first packet for "at-home" work this week. As you are working on your "at-home" work, please write notes to me to let me know how your child did with the assignment. Additionally--please have lots of grace with me as I am just learning everyone and attempting to accomodate what 12 young readers need. I'm confident your reader will grow by leaps and bounds this year, but learning exactly where everyone is on their reading journey takes a bit of time. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to email!