I
hope you are having a wonderful weekend with your families. The past two weeks we have really settled
into many of our routines, and we are working nicely as a classroom
community. Below are some highlights I’d
like to share…
Daily
5 is off and running great! The children
now have 4 choices to make during our language arts blocks. Those choices include: Listen to Reading, Work on Words, Work on
Writing, and Read to Self. We are doing
3 “rounds” each day, each lasting 15-20 minutes. It’s neat to see kids working on a variety of
tasks independently for such a lengthy amount of time. Now that we have our Daily 5 routines down we
are excited to begin reading groups next week!
At
this time they have 2 choices for Listen to Reading: Raz- Kids and Tumble Books. Hopefully you all received your login
information for Raz-Kids. This is a great program to use at home
because it is tailored to your child’s reading level. Also, the kids can use their Raz-Kids time
towards their 15 minutes of reading. Tumble Books is a free program offered
through the JV Fletcher Library where children can listen to 100’s of picture
books! As long as you access the website
through the library page http://www.westfordlibrary.org/pages/JVFletcherLibrary_JustforKids/index you can use the program
without a username and password.
In
Social Studies we completed our Apples Economics Unit this week. The children had several opportunities
throughout this unit to work in groups and do some fun, interactive activities
that helped them learn the concepts. I
hope your child enjoyed learning all about apples- what a fun way to start off
the fall!!
We
have been talking about Personal Narratives during our writing time. We learned that these are true stories about things that have happened in our lives. We have begun writing a personal
narrative about a celebration as we learn about the structure of personal
narrative. After that the children will
be able to write about other topics of their choice.
In Math we have begun our Guided Math rotations and it is going really well! The kids are excited to have 3 different activities during the math block. The various activities are: Teachers Choice, Technology, At Your Seat, Hands-On, and Math Facts. "Teachers Choice" is when small groups of kids working on a similar skill level meet with me. For "Technology" the kids have the choice of Prodigy Math, Games on the Everyday Math website, or various math apps. "At Your Seat" is typically math journal pages that reinforce the day's lesson. Finally, "Hands-On" is usually a math game that is part of the Everyday Math program.
Over the next few weeks we will be turning our focus back to Science. On Friday we started an investigation to see if plants need water and sunlight in order to survive. We will be watching our plants throughout the upcoming week. We are also lucky to have a chance to visit the Living Lab at the Day School on Monday to explore more about Plant and Animal Survival. We will be taking a bus to get there. The permission slips were sent home at the end of the year. I have already received a signed permission slip from everyone so we should be all set! We may spend some time outside by the Reed Brook, so please keep an eye on the weather so that your child will be comfortable during the outside portion of our visit.
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