Here's what we were working on in the classroom last week:
Reading : Last week, we went into much more depth with text-to-self connections. The students are recording their connections on post-its as they read. When they meet with their reading partners, the students are having great discussions about the connections they made. By now, the students know that they only want to spend time thinking and talking about meaningful connections, ones that lead to deeper understanding of the text. When discussing connections at home, have your child follow the script we use at school, "when I read about _______, it reminded me about _______. So, it helps me understand ________."
Word Study : The students are beginning to get a good grasp of long vowel sounds and spelling patterns. So far, we've gone over the long a and the long i. This week, we'll go over the long o.
Writing : Last Monday, the students published their how-to books! The students had a great time reading their published pieces to Mrs. Aday's kindergarten class. After publishing, we started a new unit - an Opinion Unit. In this unit, the students will be working on writing pieces in which they give their opinions and support their opinions with reasoning. So far, we've gone over the difference between facts and opinions and the students completed graphic organizers to organize their opinions and reasons about whether or not a boy should squish an ant in a book we read.
Math : Last week the students learned all about base-ten blocks and comparisons (greater than, less than, and equal to). Unit 5 is a big math unit, with lots of new topics being introduced. Please don't worry if your child hasn't mastered any of the concepts in his/her homework.
Social Studies : We started our new social studies unit about Mexico last week. So far the students have learned some of Mexico's geography and some Spanish words. Luckily for them, Ms. Callahan took lots of Spanish in high school and can pronounce the words a lot better than Ms. Buttery ever could!
Here are some pictures of the students reading their published how-to pieces to Mrs. Aday's kindergarten class: