Week 12

December is in full swing. It was wonderful meeting with you last week for conferences. I love sharing stories and perspectives.  Ms. McMahan and I have been amazed at how hard working and motivated this group of students is. Let's keep up the momentum.[

We will begin to give the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessments) assessment for the district next week. This will help establish guided reading groups for all students in anticipation of January. Please continue to work with your child on letter formation and work level work as directed by Fundations newsletters. We will spend slightly less time in class on that and more time decoding words for fluency and confidence in reading.

Last Week...

Our important read alouds were The Gingerbread Boy and The Gingerbread Man. This is such a fun traditional tale for this time of year. We have continued to develop and understanding of story elements. The student have already sequenced events, identified the characters, and discussed the impact of the setting on a story. We have begun to look at proble==ms/solutions (Remember those thanksgiving tales.). In addition, the class has connected problem and outcome of a story to endings.

Examining different versions of this classic, Gingerbread, tale will help student make the connection between ending and outcome.  I am looking forward to introducing students to the Gingerbread Girl next. She is one smart little cookie.

In Phonological Awareness:
We are learning to isolate beginning and ending sounds.
For example, "man", begins with the sound, /m/. The last sound we hear in "man" is /n/.
This skill will help students sound out words and recognize patters in similar words for spelling.

Previously taught skills: rhyming, syllabication, alliteration, onset and rhyme.

Phonics:
Letter identification, sound association, letter formation: t,b,f,m,n,a,g,o,c,p,j,r,u,e,d,l,h,k,i,s

Songs:
We all Celebrate, Counting by 10's, Months of the Year

Writing:
The students are learning to persuade...watch out parent they can be very convincing at times. Our first task is to create a poster persuading other kids which toys is the best. We looked through some toys books and newspaper ads to collect just the right toys. We will then work to identify statements of opinion and fact. ( This race car can loop-de-loop). This race is awesome.

Math: 
Understand the teen numbers
Writing teen numbers
Using a tens frame to count on
Identify what number comes before and after

Social Studies: 
Family traditions
Needs vs wants

Science:
Changes in the season, environmental observations and animal behavior

Guiding Questions: 
What are some of the similarities between the Gingerbread Boy and the Gingerbread Man?
Why do you think people use the phrase; as sly as a fox?
Do you remember any other books with repeated text?
What are some of our families traditions?
What are some things we need?
Why do people give gifts?
What are things we want but don't really need?
What changes in the winter?

Reminders: 
Friday, December 18th.  Build and Grow Workshop
 Thanks to all of you for volunteering, the more the merrier for this project, it's not too late is you  would like   to join.
Wednesday, December 23rd Polar Express Day, 
 More information to come, we will need four volunteers to help with craft projects.
 Thursday.