Welcome back! I hope everyone had an enjoyable and restful vacation and a very happy New Year! It was so wonderful to see all of the cherubs’ smiling faces on Monday morning; they were full of great stories and excited to be back in school! It’s been a terrific week; here are some of the highlights!
A new month, a new self-portrait! For January, the boys and girls of Room #7 utilized a mixture of mediums to create their unique self-portraits. While reading ABC, I Like Me! by Nancy Carlson, the boys and girls focused on completing the borders to their newest self-portrait. They worked so hard to write each uppercase letter of the alphabet beautifully. Next, using the same fancy marker, they outlined and then colored in themselves. Lastly, employing an abundance of vibrant water colors, the cherubs painted in their borders. The results are nothing short of gorgeous! Moreover, the kiddos had a blast using their art creatively to make their self-portraits one of a kind!
The students of Room #7 were also hard at work on their January calendars. On Monday afternoon, we read Caralyn Buehner’s Snowmen at Night, and the kiddos loved brainstorming all the activities their snowmen could possibly do at night when everyone else is asleep! After our discussion, they created their very own “droopy” and “melting” snowmen using construction paper and crayons. Some of these snowmen certainly had a fabulous time when it was dark! Lastly, everyone wrote what their snowmen did at night to make them look so “tired” the next day!
We are back in the routine with Math in Room #7! This week, students worked diligently and did a fantastic job with measuring, adding and subtracting, and continuing to practice more and less!
- Fix-it Strips – At this center, students encountered a new and tricky concept of “changing numbers”. Independently, the kiddos received a fix-it strip. Using cubes, they built a tower that represented their first number. Next, they changed that tower to match the second number. I asked them to articulate what they did by telling me if they added or took away cubes and how many. The pictorial representations really enabled the students to visualize what they had to do. I was super impressed with how quickly the students caught onto this skill!
- T-Shirt Game – This partner activity required students to put either six or eight buttons on the t-shirt. Next, the first partner closed his/her eyes, while the other student took away a certain number of buttons. Then, the first partner opened his/her eyes and had to determine how many buttons were in his/her partner’s hand! Students used a variety of methods to arrive at the correct answer! The students took turns closing their eyes and recording the answers. They had a great time with this activity and are eager to play again!
- Bump! - A new addition partner game! Working with a friend, each student took 10 cubes of the same color (e.g.: Player 1 = green, Player 2 = blue). Next, Player 1 rolled the two dice and added them together. That player then put a cube on the circle with the matching sum. The game continued in this manner; however, if someone achieved a sum that was already marked, that player could “bump” the cube off the game board. Players could also “freeze” a number by rolling the same sum twice. Once a cherub used all ten cubes, the game was over! So much fun!
- iPad – a new game! - Addition! – For this new game, the students practiced their addition skills by adding two groups of ducks together!
- Domino Concentration – In this fun game, students spread face-down both dominoes and number cards. Working either with a partner or independently, the kids took turns trying to match the domino with its corresponding number card. It was neat to watch them come up with strategies to keep track of all the numbers!
- How Long is it? – Given a variety of different-sized pieces of string, the kiddos used Unifex cubes to measure and discover how long each string was. Next, they recorded their results!
- My Number Book – Before vacation, the boys and girls worked on a number book from 10-20 where they represented the number with ten frames, practiced writing the number precisely, and then illustrated said number. Although the cherubs are working from 1-10 this week, now they are asked to name one more, one less in addition to all the other tasks. Room #7 is really concentrating on attention to precision and accuracy!
Room #7 continues to tackle some very tricky sounds – the “h” brothers: “ch,” “th,” “sh,” and “wh” and the sounds they make. The class and I made an anchor chart to show the different ways our mouths look when making the specific sounds as well as brainstormed all the different words that belong in each category. During Word Work in Reader’s Workshop as well as Morning Work, the kiddos practiced sorting various words and figuring out what brother each picture depicted. Ask your child to tell you all the sounds!
The boys and girls in Room #7 are concentrating on their writing! As they continue to focus on first, telling their stories; second, planning them on their 3-page stories; and third, writing and illustrating those stories, they are also thinking about including as many details as they possibly can! The goal is to have the reader feel as if he/she is right there in the author’s story. The class and I talked about how adding to one’s pictures and one’s words can really help with this endeavor! The kiddos agreed that stories with lots of details are way more interesting and fun to read!
As the children become more aware of the sounds in words, they learn to separate and identify the last sound they hear. This ability is the foundation for connecting sounds and letters beyond the first letter, knowledge that will help the children begin to solve words and also monitor and keep track of their reading as they read a whole story. They’re learning that
- You can hear the last sound in a word.
- You can say a word to hear the last sound.
To help your kiddo fully understand that meaning of last as it relates to letters in words, here is a simple word game. The focus of the game is on matching last sounds in words.
- While you’re going about your daily activities with your child – driving, shopping, cooking – say a word and emphasize the ending sound.
- See if your child can think of other words that end the same. So you might say, beet; then you child would think of words that end the same: pot, hot, mat, sat, and so forth.
Room #7 boys and girls are also learning to recognize words that rhyme and make connections between the words. This is helping them take words apart to solve them, and helps them understand sound/letter relationships. The class is learning that:
- Some words have end parts that sound alike. They rhyme.
- You can make rhymes by thinking of words that end the same.
Enjoy your weekend! Stay warm!