Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had a great few weeks celebrating Fall, harvest,  and Thanksgiving!

First we learned all about corn--how it grows, how it's harvested, and all the ways we get to enjoy it!  We read Corn by Gail Gibbons and wrote our own teaching books. 

      

We all agreed that popcorn is one of the yummiest ways to enjoy corn, and from the looks of our class popcorn graph, cheddar popcorn was our favorite!  

We even Lego engineered some technology that might help a farmer get his corn from the field to the store.  SUPER FUN!!  We had trucks, ships, and even some flying crafts!  

Next, we spent a week learning about the Pilgrim's, Indians, and the very first Thanksgiving; and even got to enjoy a special Thanksgiving Feast here at school!

This week has been dedicated to the turkey! We have read about sneaky turkeys, surprised turkeys, little turkeys, and fat turkeys!  We have done some turkey writing too!

      

Anyway you carve it, I hope you and your sweet kiddos have a great Thanksgiving!  

Pumpkin and Halloween Fun!

We have been SUPER busy the past few weeks!  We have been learning all about pumpkins and how they grow.  We became experts and decided to write our own teaching books!  Then we planted our own pumpkins!  We are anxiously looking for growth in our little pumpkin patch! 

 

We are starting our patch from the seeds we dug out of the largest of our classroom pumpkins!

 

But we didn't plant them all!  Some were for roasting!

We enjoyed our pumpkin seeds, but not nearly as much as we enjoyed our fresh baked pumpkin bread!  Just in case you are wondering, pumpkin bread is even better with your reading buddy! 

We learned about how pumpkins grow and even how to eat them, but we also read and wrote some make believe stories about pumpkins!  One of our favorite sources of inspiration was Spookley the Square Pumpkin!

And finally the long awaited holiday arrived--HALLOWEEN!  We celebrated with some witchy writing and a little witches brew!

Stretchy Snake Strategy!

We all have a new reading strategy--Stretchy Snake!

Stretchy Snake will quickly become one of your child's go to strategies and involves touching each letter of the unknown word, making the corresponding sounds, and then pushing those sounds together to identify the unknown word.  

Check out the link below for a video explanation!  Happy reading!  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DweEdXTw6fk

How to read with STAMINA!

We have spent much of the first quarter becoming acquainted with books.  We have learned how to use the pictures on the pages to help us understand what the book is about.  We have learned that all those letters on the page make all the words the author needed to tell a story, and we have learned how to use what we know about letters and sounds to help us read that author's words. We have a few of the basics--now we are ready to put our skills and knowledge to use!  We are ready to stretch our reading muscles and build some stamina!

We have learned that stamina is the ability to do something (by ourselves) really well for a really long time.  As a class, we are up to almost three minutes of reading stamina, and every day we are working to meet or beat our current time.  We have worked hard to understand what reading with stamina should look, sound, and feel like.  Encourage your child to talk about the things that good readers do and work to build stamina at home.  

Have fun learning to read longer and stronger!  

An Apple A Day

I am a mountain girl, so nothing says Fall, or home, to me like APPLES!!

We have used our senses to describe how apples look, feel, and taste; and we made a classroom graph to show our favorite varieties.  

We learned about how apples grow, and how apples get from the orchard to our house in the form of apple cider, applesauce, and apple pies. 

We even made our own applesauce!!  YUM!!

We also made a classroom graph to show how we like to eat our apples after an apple-riffic taste test!

I can't believe the apple cider beat our homemade applesauce!!

As you and your family get ready for the long weekend, consider a trip to do some apple picking.  Have your child spell the color of their favorite apple, use our new apple vocabulary (like blossom and orchard) to tell you how apples grow, or try out an apple recipe at home!  Your child should know all about making applesauce, or try out a new recipe together.  Be ready to use the words first, next, and last to talk about the steps you take.  Or just head to the library and look for some apple books (Apple Farmer Annie, The Apple Pie Fairy, or The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree are great choices).  

Fall Has Arrived!

Autumn is definitely in the air, and we are taking full advantage of the new season! Take a look at some of our fun fall activities!

We have also concluded our unit on shapes.  Here's a look at some 3-D marshmallow fun!

Be on the look out for some upcoming apple fun!!

We have spent a lot of time talking about self control and what it means to be a good listener this week.  Ms. Elliott, our school counselor, came earlier this week and told us all about a little bunny named Howard B. Wigglebottom and his adventures learning to listen, 

You will find the following activity in your child's homework folder this weekend.  

Take this opportunity to talk with your child about what good listening looks and sounds like.  You do not have to return your work to school.  Try keeping this resource in a special place at home for a  quick reference for home and school.  

Lips the Fish

We have a new reading strategy--Lips the Fish!

Using your Eagle Eyes is great, but sometimes it's not enough to accurately determine an unknown word.  

Use your Eagle Eyes to check out this picture.

Is the boy building, or is he playing?  We will have to use Lips the Fish to be sure.

He likes to play.

I can see that word begins with the letter p.  I will get my lips ready and make that sound.  Now I know that word must be play!

You can watch a quick video explaining this strategy here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LWDdOa3ie0

Reading Buddies

We met our Fourth Grade reading buddies on Friday!  Kindergarten students were matched with a Fourth Grade buddy for a half hour of reading fun!  Fourth Grade students brought a book to share with their Kindergarten buddy, and Kindergarten students had an opportunity to share some of their newly acquired reading skills with an old pro!  We are looking forward to lots of new learning opportunities with our Fourth Grade friends!  

Ms. Rachel had a Farm E-I-E-I-O!

Things have been farm-tastic in Kindergarten the past few weeks!  We have read, sung, and wrote about animals and farmers both real and make believe!

We have read about Joy Cowley's Mrs. Wishy Washy and all her muddy farm friends.  We even made and ate some mud of our own!  (Don't worry it was just chocolate pudding!)  We made some muddy little pigs of our own using 2-D shapes, built some really cool barns for our farm friends, and created some wishy-washy tubs for our favorite characters!



We have spent the past week learning and writing about cows!  We read Click, Clack, Moo! Cows That Type and several other silly farmyard tales by Doreen Cronin and The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons exploring the differences between make believe and informational texts. We decided to follow in the path of Gail Gibbons and create our own teaching books about cows. We also began exploring the states of matter by using heavy cream, a liquid, to make butter, a solid.  It was even better that we used the "milk" from our very own classroom cow!

Your child will have two pieces of work in their "Homework" pocket this afternoon.  This is work that we started in class that you can use for extra word work practice at home.  

Discuss the object of the drawing lesson.  Practice "stretching out" the word to see how many sounds you can hear in the word.  Then practice "sounding out" the word.  Read the sentence at the bottom of the page with your child, and then let them try to put all the words in order to re-create the sentence.

You will be receiving one or more of these pages each week.  Try keeping them in a special basket or tub for your children to practice over and over again. 

Mid-Week Check In

It has been a busy week already!  We have been busy reading, writing, and counting!

When you are reading at home, continue to encourage your child to use their "Eagle Eyes" to help you determine unknown words.  Have your child "read" the pictures in books.  Make sure your child is able to tell you who is in the story, where they are, and what is happening.  Remind your reader that the characters and events they love so much began in the mind of the author.  Authors are always thinking about who will be in their stories and what those characters will do, and you should too! 

Readers write, and writers read!  The reading-writing connection is an important one that should be established early on.  The more children understand the books and authors that they read, the easier it will be for them to become authors themselves!

 

Keep counting!  Everyday we work to count objects and show what we know about numbers in our classroom.  You can support this math work by having your child help you count and organize household objects.  Have them create drawings to show how many plates, cups, forks, etc. you will need for dinner.  Encourage children to think about what will happen if more people come for dinner.  What if someone is missing tonight?  Begin using the words more and less intentionally at home, and have your child make predictions and estimate.

Shapes, Shapes, Everywhere!

Today we had a shape-filled Fun Friday!  We have painted shapes, built shapes, and built with shapes!  

We have spent a lot of time talking about how to identify shapes and count the sides and corners of the shapes we are learning about.  Be on the look for shapes all around you!  What kinds of shapes to you see?  How did you identify the shape?  How many sides and corners does it have? 

What if Everybody Did That?

Yesterday Ms. Elliott, our school counselor, visited our classroom for our monthly Guidance Lesson.  She talked to us about expected and unexpected behaviors.  We took time to think about how our actions can effect other people and the environment around us while reading the book What if Everybody Did That?.

Your child is bringing home a "What if Everybody Did That?" sheet today in their PIRATE notebook.  It would be great to use this opportunity to talk about behaviors and consequences.  You can use it for home, school, or both!

If you want to revisit the book, you can find it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVH5XsNDZw4&list=PLxFL7d8QuO02yXlnznNRLUqIIfJNOluy5

I hope everyone has had an opportunity to do some reading and use their "Eagle Eyes" at home this week!  

"Eagle Eyes" are just one the many beginning reading strategies your child will be using as they learn to become confident, successful, and independent readers this year.  Using your "Eagle Eyes" is easy, and something every reader should do.  

First, I'll take a good, long look at the pictures on the page. 

Now I'll start to read.

Yikes!!!  I don't know that word!

Oh, wait!  I already used my "Eagle Eyes" to check the picture!  I saw a cow--so this word must be cow!

Now, I'll read the whole sentence one more time, and use my "Eagle Eyes" one more time just to make sure the words I read match the picture!

Whooo!!!!  Hooo!!!!

I did it just right!!  

HAPPY READING!!!