Good-bye February....weekly update

Seuss Madness 

Think basketball March Madness, but with Dr. Seuss books!

Hallways are decorated based on the book they chose (Kindergarten chose Green Eggs & Ham) and voting began this week!  We started with the "Elite 8" and are now down to the "Final 4" after 2 rounds of voting.  Our final round of voting will occur next week and on Dr. Seuss' birthday, March 2nd, we will find out which Dr. Seuss book is the most popular at Beulah Ralph!  

We will also celebrate with a dress up day for Dr. Seuss' birthday on Thursday, March 2nd.  Kiddos can dress as their favorite Dr. Seuss character or in Dr. Seuss apparel.  

I included some pictures below if you need ideas. 

A look at our learning...

Miss Nemechek did most of the teaching this week while I observed, popped in and out of the classroom and only worked one-on-one or in small groups with the kiddos outside of the classroom.  She did a great job and the kiddos learned a lot!  Next week we will go back to sharing teaching duties.

Fundations- we continue to focus on words with a "silent e that tells the first vowel to say it's name."  Every morning we read a chart that has 3 letter short vowel words on it and use our "magic e" wand to add a silent e to the end to change the way we say the word.  

Examples:

pin---pine

bit---bite

rat---rate

mat---mate

The kiddos do a great job with this in isolation, but it is still more difficult for them to apply this knowledge of the silent e when reading books.  When they are in their guided reading groups and come to a word with a silent e on the end most of them do not remember to make the "silent e tell the first vowel to say its name" without teacher support.  We will keep working on this and any practice at home is great as well!  Look for words with a silent e on the end when you are reading books and talk about the rule with the kids and have them read the word to you applying the rule.  

We will continue to work on this daily at school in little ways, but next week in fundations our focus will shift to blends and digraphs at the beginning/ends of words.  Check your child's Friday Folder for the fundations packet and more information on this and how you can help at home.

Shared Reading- we continue to learn about non-fiction books during Shared Reading and tie it into our learning of non-fiction writing later in the day at Writing Workshop time.  This week we read the non-fiction big book Push and Pull, which is about force and motion.  This book taught us real facts and also taught us how non-fiction books have a table of contents page and headings throughout the text.  We are learning how to include headings when we write our non-fiction penguin books at writing time.  

We also read a couple of books and a poem called Snow that incorporated our new word wall words.  

Next week's spelling word: 

have

(only one word this week because it is tricky...it also doesn't follow the "silent e tells the first vowel to say it's name rule" but it is a word they are using more in their writing of non-fiction books and a good one to know how to spell correctly...please talk at home about how it doesn't follow this rule)

Daily 5 & Reading Groups- ask your child to tell you about their Daily 5 papers that are graded and in their Friday Folder.  Ask your child what new books they read in their guided reading groups this week.  Beginning on Tuesday, they will bring home their newest guided reading group books to read to you.  This will happen every Tuesday/Thursday.  Look for a detailed note to come home this Tuesday.  

Math- I hope you have enjoyed playing the math game Double Compare at home with your child!  This week we learned 2 more math games that help us to understand addition: Collect 15 and Counters in a Cup.  Ask your child to show you their Counters in a Cup game board that is in their Friday Folder and explain how to play.  It is an easy game to play at home and you can create your own form similar to the one they show you in their Friday Folder.  

Writing- we are well on our way to finishing our first informational book on penguins.  Every child has worked hard on their own 6 page book this week (cover page, opening page, 3 pages of facts and a closing/ending page). We have also learned how to add headings to each page, just like we learned about in Shared Reading.  Ask your child what facts they are including in their book!  Next week our focus will shift from penguins to butterflies.  This will tie in nicely with our Service Learning project.  

Thank you to Ellie's mom, Becky, for coming in today and presenting a dental health lesson to all 5 Kindergarten classes!  This ties in nicely with our Health Unit. She is a dental hygienist at Dentistry by Design and they provided all 100 Kindergartners with a goodie bag to bring home! We greatly appreciate it!
(click on photos to make larger)