I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing long weekend full of family, fun, and delicious food! Welcome back! We have been busy as usual!
This week, we began a new unit in writing – pattern books! The cherubs were thrilled to start this new unit and did an amazing job with it! One way to encourage the kids to write is to give them a purpose to compose by presenting to them the kinds of books they like to read - ones that are often predictable and follow a certain type of pattern. To begin, the class and I read a variety of these types of books, and the kids were quick to notice the patterns. The boys and girls picked several subjects on which to write: what dogs play with, all about themselves, their siblings, what he/she likes to play, animals, what they see, where they go, etc. I cannot express how engaged, involved, and excited they were to do this writing – it was incredibly refreshing! We will continue with pattern books for a week! On the horizon are pattern books with a twist (the ending page is slightly different), and seesaw pattern books: the pages follow an ABAB pattern (e.g., I saw a ball. I played with the ball. I saw a jump rope. I played with the jump rope). How fun!
As Room #7 learns how to read, we’re listening to the ending sounds in words and connecting them to letters. The children are learning about last letters in words as they listen for, say, and recognize the consonant sounds at the end of words and attach the sounds to these letters. They are understanding that
• Some words sound the same at the end.
• You can connect words that sound the same at the end.
Moreover, as they read during Reader’s Workshop, the students are learning how to problem-solve unknown words by paying attention to BOTH the beginning and ending sounds, and if they match the word they said aloud.
Additionally, we are in our Super Readers unit in Reader’s Workshop, and the kids are pumped! So far, they have discovered that they have both pointer power and reread power when they are reading their books. Using their Pointer Power Popsicle People, they learned to tap each word only once, even if it’s a longer word. They also discovered that sometimes this is tricky work, and if they get an “uh-oh” feeling, they activate their reread power and try again. Keep it up, super readers!
As we continue to work with counting, shapes, and teen numbers, the boys and girls are becoming more comfortable and more importantly, more confident within our Math workshops. It is always amazing to see the progress they are making as every day passes!
- Counting on Cup - In this game, one person turned over the top number card and put that number of counters in the cup. Next, he/she rolled the die (+1, +1, +2, +2) and placed that many counters next to the cup. Finally, he/she decided how many counters there were in all and filled in the record sheet.
- Teens on the Ten Frame – more practice breaking apart their teen numbers! After representing a teen number on two ten frames, the students filled out a sentence showing that the teen number was 1 group of ten plus ______ more (e.g., 12 is one group of ten and 2 more). This is great practice!
- iPad – Friends of 10! – The mathematicians were beyond excited to start using our iPads this week ****
- Highlight Teen Numbers – Teen numbers start with a one! Using highlighters, the mathematicians of Room #7 worked to highlight all the teen numbers they could find on their recording sheets. They had to be careful, though, because there were many 2-digit numbers with the number one in them! Everyone had to remember that teen numbers start with a one, not have a one in them! Tricky, tricky!
- Race to Trace – At this independent station, students had a deck of ten frame cards. Each card represented a different number, from eleven – twenty-two. As the children turned over the cards, they had to find the numeral that matched that number and then they practiced writing it. Students received a lot of practice recognizing what various higher numbers looked like when represented on ten frames!
- Give and Take – At this station, Mrs. Manfra hid a specific number of cubes under a tub. Then, she lifted the tub and either added a cube (or two!) or took one (or two!) away! Next, the boys and girls wrote the numeral that represented the number of cubes under the tub. Finally, they counted to see if they were correct!
- Shrinking Number Monster - Are you ready for a challenge, cherubs? This week, some students were completing this center without the counting aspect! Because many of the boys and girls are really understanding the concept of teen numbers and their sequence, we had to make the exercise trickier. The kiddos tried independently (and succeeded!) to figure out one less than the number they rolled! Way to go – this is hard work! If students still need to count as well, that’s perfectly all right! Students rolled dice to determine how many “eyes” belonged on their monster work board. They then took away one eye, recounted them, and this week, wrote the number that was one less!
Enjoy your weekend!