Toys at Choice time?!

What an exciting week we had this week, even though it was only 3 days! We have so many fun events coming up including Valentine's Day and our Hundredth day of school, so stay tuned for all the fun!

Toys for Choice Time

As some of you may know our school sent out a newsletter saying toys were no longer allowed at school. Well students came to me and said that they didn't think that was fair saying that they would keep their toys in their backpacks until Choice Time so it didn't distract them. I then told students that we could write Mrs. Hudson (our principal) a letter asking her if we could still bring toys for choice time. In the letter students promised to keep their toys in their backpacks until choice time and that they wouldn't bring them out any other time of the day. After we wrote the note all the students signed it and 3 students chosen at random took the letter and read it to Mrs. Hudson. A few days later we received her response:

Students were overjoyed! So small toys may come to school for choice time once again!

The Mitten

We have read the Mitten for the past weeks and been using it to discuss characters, setting and to practice sequencing a story when we retell it to someone else. One activity that we did with The Mitten was making our own mitten sequencing craft. Students colored the different characters and using their mitten were able to practice retelling the story. Hopefully they brought them home to share with you too!

A student pulls his story telling strip through to practice retelling the story.

Snowy Owl Adventure

This week we were learning about snowy owls as part of our arctic animals unit. We made snowy owl masks and went on an adventure of the school seeing what "owls" see by using our masks. The students loved it and it was such a fun way for them to use their masks and see from an owl's perspective. I heard "Wow I have to move my head a lot to see" or "I like my eyes better I can see more!" It was great to see and hear!

Write the Room

One activity that students are loving is our write the room activity. Basically I post cards around the room and the students get to walk around answering questions about the cards on their recording sheets. You may notice them coming home about rhyming, segmenting, addition (and soon subtraction) and even with missing letters. The students work so hard and want to share them with you so you will probably see a few of those popping up on SeeSaw as well!

Well that is all for now. We are finishing up our arctic animals unit this week and getting ready for Valentine's as well as starting our community helpers unit!

Cheers to a great week ahead!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Arictic Animals Poems and more

Weekly Poems

Each week as a class we learn different poems. This weeks' poem was Up In the Arctic since we started our Arctic Animals unit this week. Each week students learn a new poem and we use their knowledge of the poem to find words or letters or rhyming words in the poem. We do this as a class and then students also circle words and letters individually in their small book versions of the poem that they bring home every Friday.

To help students with their fluency re-read those poems with your child having them point to each word looking for sight words or going on a hunt for capital letters or lowercase letters! If you have any questions please let me know!

Here is a picture of our big version of the poem that students practice with during centers and also a picture of the student poem book.

Our big version of the poem where we have circled and underlined sight words.

A student circled the sight word and and then bears and hares (rhyming words!)

Writing

This week students have really jumped into writing cards. We have talked about what cards are for, when you have something important to say to someone, and how to write cards. I'm sure you have seen a few come home but we have been working on saying more than just I love you. We call it making our sentences "juicy." This week a student made this card for a friend in class and I had to share it with you:

Arctic Animals

This week we kicked off our arctic animals unit by learning about arctic foxes and caribous. Students have an arctic animals journal that they record fun facts about each animal in, as well as labeling the parts of the animals so we can see what features the animals have in common. I can't wait to keep learning about more arctic animals as well as learning about their different types of shelters, food sources and of course doing some fun crafts along the way!

This has been a great few weeks back from winter break and I can't wait for more fun in the next few weeks with valentine's approaching and our 100th day of school! 

Smiles,

Miss Adams