Room 235 Newsletter
10/5/15-10/9/15
Interactive Read Aloud
Workboard
Leo the Late Bloomer
The Art Lesson
Regina’s Big Mistake
Winnie the Witch
What Color is Nature?
Checking details in illustrations, explaining how characters
feel using the illustrations and meaning of the story,
noticing the use of color, looking for evidence to tell the
setting, time of day, season and weather, trying the best
you can, learning from mistakes, the value of lots of
practice, fiction books vs. non-fiction books and
describing something from nature. We had a discussion
comparing the similarities/differences about the stories
read this week.
Writing: writing letters to main characters and our
families, observation of a scallop shell
Interactive/Shared Writing, Word Study
Math: Top-It, working with numbers before, after and
between using dice
Poetry: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5”
ABC: Follow the Path game (providing a word that rhymes
with a picture card)
Also: read around the room, chart reading, independent
reading
Shared Reading
We made more weather words using interactive writing.
Interactive writing helps us learn to hear syllables in
words, say words slowly in order to hear many sounds,
learn about new word parts and notice letter formation.
Fundations: We completed our review of letter sounds and
handwriting practice on the formation of lower case
letters. We’re looking closely to see how some letters are
similar such as: r, n and m; c, o, a and g; l, h and k. We had
the Unit 1 assessment and will begin Unit 2 next week.
“1 2 3 4 5”
Besides reading and noticing words that rhyme, I asked
the children to think about who’s telling this story, how
many people are in it and how you know. We’re working on
providing evidence to support our ideas. We spent some
time dramatizing this poem for a better understanding of
the give and take between the characters and how our
voices might sound. This rhyme provides a good
opportunity to discuss different types of punctuation and
what happens to our voices when we’re asking a question
versus telling something.
Writing Workshop
Math
Small Moments: We reviewed the steps of how to write a
story: think, plan (touch & tell, sketch), and write; using
pictures to add to our stories, rereading for
understanding and spelling the best we can.
Math explorations with pattern blocks, geoboards and
grab bag subtraction, working with number stories and
sharing strategies to solve them. We reviewed our work
with Unit 1 and had the progress check.
Science
Conferences
We had a demonstration lesson on using our science
notebooks, making observations of an object and using our
senses to determine how something feels (rough, smooth,
hard, bumpy), looks (size, color, shape, holes, similar to
something else) and smells. We also talked about
hearing/tasting and when we might need to use those
senses. We began with everyone observing a variety of
scallop shells using a magnifying glass (after a
demonstration using that tool) sketching our pictures, and
then writing what we noticed.
See my email from Friday, 10/9, for the link to sign up for
a conference. Thank you.
Notes
*Things to work on at home: months of the year, days of
the week, writing both 1st and last names, writing letters
from the top down and using a crocodile pencil grip (the
pencil is between the thumb and pointer, the middle finger
supports the pencil in back and the ring/little fingers are
closed and providing support in the palm of the hand.