Mrs.
Swales Love-Bug Weekly Learnings
March 21st, 2014
eading, Bucket $illing, and %eace
This Thursday, we had a reading month assembly with members from the &ucket Filling team from the book. )ave you Filled a &ucket Today/ 0ach child received a book to keep, The 1&2!s of &ucket Filling. It was a great reminder to all of us on how important it is to fill buckets rather than dipping into peoples buckets. Many children have chosen to write non3fiction bucket filling tip books during our writer!s workshop time this week as well. #e also had a great time Friday evening with our visitors from ne 2ommunity, ne book. 4our child also received a book to keep even if you were not able to attend our event Friday evening.
Math! Su#traction $ast Math $riday
This week we dug in with learning more concrete subtraction strategies. The children learned that one subtraction strategy is crossing out the smaller number from the bigger number. To do this, they must first make a picture to represent the subtraction problem. The picture could be as simple as dots as on a domino. They have learned that we start with the larger number and take away the smaller number. Next week we will begin new independent math centers to practice our new skills. In addition to our math lessons and centers, I will be starting up Fast Math Friday. The kindergarten common core states that children must be able to add and subtract fluently to five. n Friday!s we will practice for addition and subtraction speed and fluency to five. This number will be increased for children who are able.
Word Work and Sight Words
This week(s new sight word was here. )ave your child sing you the new sight word song. For word work, we continued with word sliders. #ord sliders help give practice with the reading strategy of looking through the whole word and looking at the chunks in words. Next week we will take looking at chunks in words a bit further by studying word families *at,it, et for example+. Taking it one step further, the children will create lists of words that have this ,chunk- at the beginning, middle, or end of words * cat, attitude, %aturday+. This will be done as brainstorming independently and then as a shared experience creating a chart whole group so we can learn from each other. This will help children think about chunks while reading and writing independently.
Shared
eading!
eady, Set, Bike"
This week we practiced our reading strategy of looking at the chunks in unknown words and thinking about what makes sense. ur comprehension strategy was classifying and categori"ing information in a text. #e chose $eady, %et, &ike because it is a story about a little boy getting his bike safe and ready for spring riding' #ithin this text, children also practiced how to read a sentence that ends with an exclamation point, and how to read fluently as we talk.
Classroom Newsletter
Love Bug Learnings
March 21st, 2014
Writers Worksho&! 'nde&endent (on-$iction Stories
5ast week and this, the children became experts, writing about topics that they know a lot about. This is their time to show me what they have learned about writing non3fiction. I am seeing children independently choose a topic, write at least three details related to that topic, organi"e their information with a table of contents page, include items such as diagrams or maps as well. %ome started writing about animals while others chose to write books on being a bucket filler. ur next writing unit of study will be persuasive writing'
Mr. ;ye!s fourth graders came to celebrate writing with us' It was a great experience for all of the children as our children shared their 1merica books and the fourth graders shared a published piece of non3fiction as well. Together, they created a poster of what they had learned. Mr. ;ye was even so sweet to bring us all hot chocolate or fruit punch as a treat. The children are very proud of their work and know that writing is an important way to share what they know and their creative thoughts and ideas.
Writers *ele#ration
Weekly Schedule
Monday 7>8 1rt Tuesday 7?8 @0, 2omputers #ednesday 7A8 Music Thursday 7B8 1rt, library Friday 7C8 @0 0on1t -orget to return your li#rary #ook so you are a#le to check out a new one"
Mystery
eader
6+ I have traveled all over the world. 7+ My favorite movie is %tar #ars8 The 0mpire %trikes &ack. 9+ I consider myself an amateur topographer. *)e likes to make treasure maps+. This week!s Mystery $eader was :arrett!s dad' #e were so excited to hear him read poems by %hel %ilverstein. )e also created a treasure map and hidden clues around our room which led us to a tasty surprise treat' #e learned that his favorite color is orange and his favorite letter is , for his family!s last name. If you would like to sign up to be a Mystery $eader in our room, or know of someone else who might be interested *sibling, grandparent, local celebrity+ %lease visit! htt&!))vols.&t)*12+,d to sign u& -or Mystery eader on ./olunteerS&ot today"
2&-*o3ing 4vents
March 7C8 &ook &ingo 1pril 6637D8 %pring Eacation F No %chool 1pril 778 0arth ;ay May 778 International Festival of 2ultures May 7A8 Memorial ;ay F No %chool May 7B8 1ll3%chool Trip to a Music 2oncert at the 05)% May 7G8 Festival $ain ;ate
;on!t forget to make time to read, Melissa %wales %wales<mr=elps.us
