St. Patricks Day

Having some Irish heritage, I of course have to celebrate big on St. Patty's day. Our classroom had so much fun reading an Irish legend about the gift of Blarney, making hats for leprechauns, writing How to's on how to trap them and building traps with their buddies. While we didn't catch any leprechauns this year they left our classroom in quite a mess, took all the gold, left rainbow treats, and shrunk our hats. It was a fun day for the students to really use their imagination and creativity to build their traps.

Readers Workshop:

This week we took a look at new author, Peter Reynolds. We are starting an author study for our next reading unit. This is a great way for students to be inspired by famous children's book authors. Each K/1 class is picking an author to study, at the end of the unit we are going to have a fun read-a-thon celebration. This week we read the story Ish and talked about how the characters in this story were feeling. Ask your child about the character Ramone!

Writers Workshop: We finished our opinion writing last week. Students ended the week by writing their own opinion piece. Many students were able to write their opinion, give multiple reasonings, and restate their opinion with a great ending. The students really grew as writers throughout this unit. They were able to add more and more to their writing. Our next unit will be persuasive writing. Ask your child to read their opinion piece to you!

Science: We just received our new science kit, ORGANISMS. Students brainstormed with their partners last week what do living things need to survive. In the next couple of weeks students will take a closer look at seeds and different plants. We also will learning about two types of fish, snails, and a variety of bugs. This is a fun unit for students to take a closer look at organisms.

Since Friday was the first day of spring the students wrote about some signs of spring. We then had a special guest, Baby Eadlyn!!! The students read about about the first signs of spring to Eadlyn

Forestry/Garden Club:

This was our first forestry day. We will have a lesson each month for our fabulous forestry/ garden club teachers Jana Robbins and Kim Blakemore. We learned about organisms in the forest (peppi's park). The students sang a great little song about " Is it living, does it eat, breath, and grow?" This is a great conversation to have with your child about what things are living/organisms we see each day.

Geography: This week we studied Turkey. Students learned about paper marbling and were able to taste test a few turkish foods. The students tried pita bread, hummus, tzatziki, and carrot/raison salad. We also watched a video on how these foods were made. Ask your child which one they liked the best and maybe try it at home.

Star Student: Zoe is our Star Student this week. Zoe has been very welcoming and a great friend to students in our class. This week I saw her working with new friends and showing them new works. Zoe also has been challenging her self in readers and writers workshop. She has moved up reading levels and is continue to try and write more and more! She has really been a welcoming and supportive friend to our classroom and school community. Keep up the great work Zoe!

Worktime: Sorry that I've been so behind on our classroom news. There is a lot to catch up on and celebrate. Wow the growth students have made during worktime is amazing! This past week was the best week students have had all year. They were incredible focused and driven. Many students are starting to really challenge themselves and set high goals. Students have been very motivated to finish their work plans, learn new works, move up reading levels, get a math binder and learn new math works. It is great to see the whole class helping to motivate each other and working together to meet their goals. Ask your child what they feel has been their biggest accomplishment lately?

Readers Workshop:

This week in Readers Workshop students were working on practicing re-tell strategies. Students learned about the character, setting, problem/solutions and events (Beginning, Middle, and End). We learned how to stop and check in through out the story to make sure you know whats happening. After reading students learned how to tell across their fingers to recap important parts/characters in the story. We also took a look at different ending sounds such as "ed" and "ing" to help us tell if something is happening or already happened. Practice looking for those endings and retelling while you read with your child.

Dr. Seuss Day:

Last week students ended our week of celebrating Dr. Seuss by doing a fun activity in each K/1 classroom. During the week students read Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Tere's a Wocket in my Pocket, and If I ran the Zoo. Students participate in an activity that matched each book such as making their own Wocket, creating their own crazy animal for the Zoo, making their own Hat, and trying green eggs and ham! It was a fun way to celebrate Dr. Seuss while visiting other classrooms!

Writers Workshop:

We've embarked on a new writing unit, opinion writing! Students were able to watch four movie previews and then write about which movie they thought was the best and why. Students did a great job adding more details and really trying to convince me their favorite movie. Ask you child which movie they choose? Last week we also did a fun lesson with Oreo's where students Planned with a partner Oreo opinion writing. We imagined the top the cookie our opinion, the middle the reasons/details, and the bottom where we restate our opinion. After students planned their writing, they got to eat their Oreo and get started writing. Students did a great job going back and planning their opinion, reasons, and then restating. We are going to continue opinion writing over the next week and really dive into giving great reasons to support our opinion. Brainstorm with your child about some ideas they could write about, this is a great conversation to have and ask them to support their reasoning.

Geography:

Last week students took a closer look at South Korea. Students learned about their flag and a fun game called, Yut (Four-Stick Game). It was fun for students to learn about a different culture and games they play for fun. This week students have been learning more about Turkey. They learned that Turkey is surrounded by three seas, is part of Asia and Europe, and more about some of the amazing food they eat! Students have had a chance to decorate their own textile square using crayons and water colors. We'll continue studying Turkey this week, while getting to end the week trying some traditional Turkish dishes.

ROE: Roots of Empathy we've been learning about safety. Baby Sam came to visit the other week and it is amazing to see how much he has grown. The other week he crawled for the first time while visiting us! Since then he is crawling much more, using his pincher grip, and really working on developing his fine motor skills. Students are helping to recognize how to keep babies safe and making more and more connections to Baby Sam's emotions.

Star Student:

Violet- Violet these past few weeks has really pushed herself. She has become much more independent during worktime. She is able to look at her workplan for the week and see what she needs to do to finish it. She has been practicing everything we talk about in readers and writers workshop and applying it to her own reading. She has moved up several reading levels and continues to challenge herself. Yahoo Violet!

Robbie- Robbie really set up as a great role model in the class. He has been welcoming in class and making new friends as well as joining in with others at recess. He has been focused during worktime and learning new works to add to his workplan. He has been participating more in our readers/writers workshop and sharing out his great thinking. Way to go Robbie!

Sarah- Sarah really stepped up this week as a leader in our class. She was following directions everyday and really setting a great example. She also challenged herself with new work. She finished a whole section of her language work plan by working on it everyday. During writers workshop she was focused not only on adding more to her opinion writing, but really stretching out her words to do her best guess spelling. She has become much more independent in trying her best. Keep up the great work Sarah!