We had the pleasure of having Lisa Dyer drop by to talk to us about how to turn Huck's wonderful book into our Extravaganza play. She gave us such great ideas and talked to us about the importance of collaboration. We are very excited to create the script and start practicing.
This week we visited our Reading Buddies and played outside with them. We had fun exploring, building and creating with them. They love being with the big kids!
We are so excited because we have a great idea for our end of the year Extravaganza! With the help of Lisa Dyer we will be turning one of Huck's fantastic stories into a class play. Lisa will teach us what we need to know to turn Huck's words into something to perform for families and friends. We are currently working on our creative writing and adding a narrator to our stories which can be dialogue heavy at times.
We met with our reading buddies on Tuesday and together we illustrated the great creative stories that we collaborated on! We are such great mentors to our reading buddies. We are learning to give instruction, keep them engaged while modeling great reading and writing skills. Not an easy task! We will give our books that we created to our reading buddies to keep in their classroom! What a fun project to do with them...enjoy the photos!
Spelling
-igh = Long i
I am so proud to say that everyone did really well on the spelling test Friday! This was our last spelling pattern of the year that we will investigate (which means there will be no more spelling tests). We are going to focus on grammar and reflecting on our learning for the remainder of the year. Please let me know if you have any questions about this.
We were so busy during Readers and Writers Workshops this week! We continue to work on final drafts of our creative stories. We put together our "Inspiration Station" this week. We made a place to go if we need to experiement with different art mediums to help inspire our creative minds.
We are working with our Reading Buddies to write a story together. We met with them and took notes about things they want to include in the story. It will be our job to write the story and then we will meet again with our buddies to illustrate.
Here is our new Spelling Pattern for next week:
Lesson 10 I Spy: Long i Vowel Sound spelled with –igh
The vowel grapheme igh is used for /i/ before /t/ and at the end of a few words (light, sight, high).
The –est turns and adjective into the superlative form, indicating the most of a quality.
Sighed
Might
Brightest
Tight
Flight
Slightest
High
Higher
Highest
Fight
Sunlight
Midnight
Tonight
Right
FYI...Here is a summary of what our reading instruction looks like during Readers Workshop. Students in our class are working in different areas of this reading instruction list. It takes a lot to aquire reading skills and students need to be encouraged to practice and we should celebrate their reading acheivements.
Effective Reading Instruction
Awareness
Hear, identify, and manipulate sounds of spoken words
Phoneme
Isolation
Recognizes individual sounds in words.
Identity
Recognizes word with odd sound in a set of words
Categorization
Recognizes word with odd sound in a set of words.
Blending
Combines sequence of sounds into a single word.
Segmentation
Breaks a word into separate sounds.
Phonics
Know relationship between letters of written language and sounds of spoken language
Explicit and Systematic Instruction
Identify useful series of sounds.
Teach them in a logical sequence.
Apply sounds to reading and writing.
Fluency
Read text accurately and quickly
Bridge between word recognition and comprehension
Provide models of fluent reading.
Provide repeated and monitored oral reading.
Increase practice through audiotapes, peer guidance, tutors, and use of technology.
Provide a variety of short text passages at student's independent reading level.
Vocabulary
Words used to communicate effectively or use/recognize in print
Indirect instruction
Students engage in oral language, listen to adults read to them, and read extensively on their own.
Direct instruction
Teach individual words and word learning strategies.
Teach use of dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses; how to use word parts; and context clues.
Comprehension
Understand what is read
Comprehension strategies
Teach students to be aware of what they do and do not understand, & the fix-up strategies.
Use graphic and semantic organizers.
Use text explicit/implicit and scriptal questions.
Teach students to ask their own questions.
Teach story structure.
Use summarizing
We have been working with money daily so I thought this is something that can be talked about at home. Bringing personal finance to the attention of children by reading a great story can start all kinds of discussions. It is worth noting that no book will single-handedly transform your child into a financial genius. These books focus more on a good story and the love of reading above all else, with financial lessons taught through the actions of the characters and the experiences they share. Good children’s literature makes a story come to life for the reader, while teaching lessons and being highly entertaining.
Here are five books that teach valuable money lessons and remain favorites of our children.
1. “Lemonade in Winter” by Emily Jenkins and G. Brian Karas focuses on two siblings who make the interesting choice to open a lemonade stand in the middle of winter. The book features a catchy refrain about lemonade while telling a story about how sometimes great ideas don’t turn out like you hope.
“Lemonade in Winter” teaches the very basics of entrepreneurship and a small amount of basic math. Age range: 2 to 7 year olds
2. “Bunny Money” by Rosemary Wells is a “Max and Ruby” story, as it centers around a pair of bunny siblings familiar to most parents of young children today. In this story, Ruby has saved $100 to buy her grandmother a birthday present, but various unexpected events befall Ruby and Max, causing some of that money to disappear. Will they have enough to buy the gifts for grandmother?
“Bunny Money” teaches basic money math, such as addition and subtraction, as well as the idea of a budget and how emergencies can tear through your money. Age range: 3 to 7 year olds
3. "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat" by Simms Taback tells the story of a frugal man who has a nice overcoat, but he wears it a lot and it begins to wear out. Eventually, he reuses the material to make a jacket, then a vest, then various other things until it becomes a cloth button. The book won a Caldecott Medal for its wonderful drawings which not only bring Joseph’s world to life, but also clearly show how the material from Joseph’s overcoat is reused to make other things.
“Joseph Had a Little Overcoat” teaches frugality and the idea of reusing things, because even items that are worn out can still have valuable use. Age range: 3 to 8 year olds
4. “Annie’s Adventures” by Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the first in an ongoing series called “The Sisters 8” about orphaned octuplet girls whose parents disappear. In this volume, the titular Annie ends up having to figure out their parents’ financial situation, including how to write checks, interpret bills and eventually pay for all of it. It’s a gentle and humorous introduction into the reality of adult finances couched in an enjoyable, simple adventure.
“Annie’s Adventures” teaches the basics of earning money and paying bills, including the use of checks. There are also elements (in this book and the rest of the series) of entrepreneurship, frugality and money management decisions. Age range: 6 to 12 year olds
5. “The Lemonade War” by Jacqueline Davies is the first in a series about two siblings who open up competing lemonade stands. The story escalates as the siblings use their skills and a few ideas about entrepreneurship to drive their “lemonade war” to amusing heights.
“The Lemonade War” teaches the basics of entrepreneurship, planning and money management in the context of an enjoyable adventure story that hits upon the lives of upper elementary children. Age range: 8 to 12 year olds
This week we met with our pre- k reading buddies! They are so much fun and love when we read to them. Next week we will interview them to find out more about our little buddies.
Spelling: We will be reviewing Lesson 8 again. Spelling long a with ay and ai. We need to relearn this pattern .
We were so excited this week because we are now Reading Buddies with Erin and Caite's Pre-K class! We chose a great book to read and had fun spending some time with them. We created an interview questionarre to use next Tuesday. We want to find out all about our buddies!
Our silent e spelling test will be on Monday. Next week our words will be...
Unit 2 Lesson 8 Let's Play With "A"
Spelling Long a With ay and ai
ay is found in single-syllabel words or at the ends of syllables (day, splay, crayon, playing)
ai is used in single-syllable words or before a final consonant in syllables (bait, wail, sailor, waiter)
We also will be Adding Suffix -ed Past tense which has three sounds: /t/, /d/ and /id/
An authentic experience
When we allow students to share personal pieces of writing, such as postcards or letters, teachers help students recognize that writing is connected to the world we live in — it is not just an activity we do in school. Students then begin to realize the relevance of writing not as an assignment, but as a way to communicate thoughts and ideas. This concept is supported by the theory of situated learning that espouses learning as a social and collaborative process that can occur outside of school as well as inside the classroom.
The print students find outside their classrooms is increasingly rich and diverse. Reading the stories of others, such as you would see in personal diaries or biographies, allows children to learn through the experiences of others and can empower them to write their own stories. The project described in this article requires students to explore printed materials they encounter when traveling and captures their adventures through the writing of personal narratives.
How students choose to record their stories may look different based on age, ability, and previous literacy instruction. Young children may choose to journal their adventure by drawing or dictating their stories or through labeling or invented spelling. Older children may document their journey in the form of a diary, a very popular writing style seen within their own school library in classic literature such as the Diary of Anne Frank. Perhaps they may choose to support their diary writing with graphics, as modeled by Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. As in Kinney's books, the use of graphic illustrations to support the text leads readers to greater comprehension and may prove to be an enjoyable way for student writers to share their ideas.
Our spelling for this week has been a review of our spelling rules we have been learning so far this year. Memorizing a list of spelling words isn't going to help students remember and retain the words to use in their everyday writing. They need to know the spelling rule. They also need to know the definition of the words they are spelling and if possible they need to know where and how the word came about. So both 1st and 2nd graders are reviewing and using our learned spelling rules and we will continue with this next week. After Spring Break we will move on to to Lesson 7 ( silent -e words). Practicing/using these rules over Spring Break would be helpful!
Lesson 1
A diagraph is one sound that is spelled with two letters.
wh, th, ch, and sh
Nosey Nasal sounds: n, m, ng
A nasal sound is made when the air flows through the nose.
Lesson 2
The Floss Rule
Double the letters f, l and s at the end of one-syllable words
When the final consonants f, l and s directly follow a short vowel, they are often doubled.
The double letters ff, ll and ss at the end of words represent only one speech sound.
Cuff, fill, pass
Lesson 3
Qu=/k/+/w/ and the spelling of /k/ at the end of words
Use –ck when /k/ comes right after a short vowel sound. Quack, black, quick, check, stuck…
If /k/ comes right after an accented short vowel, as in a single-syllable word, it is spelled with –ck. If a consonant/n/, /l/, /s/, or/r/ comes between the vowel and /k/, just the letter k is used.
The letter q is always followed by u in English spelling.
-nk and –ck
If students omit the nasal /n/, ask them to hold their noses while they say the words and feel the resonance in their nose. If there is resonance, there must be a nasal sound.
Lesson 4
X as a spelling for /k/+/s/
The letter x, which is most frequently used at the ends of words, stands for two speech sounds: /k/ +/s/. It is the only single letter that stands for two phonemes (sounds).
Plural –es and other inflections
Base words ending in the sounds /s/, /z/, /ch/, /j/, /sh/ or /zh/ add the whole syllable –es for the plural.
Base words ending in /s/ or the letter x have a past tense-ed that sounds like /t/. This occurs because /s/ is a voiceless consonant phoneme and it must be followed by a voiceless form of the past tense.
Prefix ex-
The ancient language of the Romans, ex was a preposition that meant “out of” or “away from.”
Ex+hale= to breathe out
Ex+clude= to leave out
Ex+plain= to revel the meaning of
Ex+tinct= to be out of existence
Lesson 5
Add the letters –es to words that end with sh, ch, ss and x to make the word mean more than one.
Lesson 6
Adding –ed to regular words to make it happen in the past.
The three sounds of –ed: /t/, /d/, and /id/
/id/ (wanted, rented, folded, needed)
/t/ (crunched, stuffed, missed)
/d/ (smelled, cleaned, strayed)
The two spellings of /ch/ at the end of words: -tch and ch
The ending spelling –tch is used immediately after a short accented vowel sound. These are the exceptions: much, such, which, rich and sandwich.
This week we worked on our creative writing stories! We have been inspired by Kenneth Thomasama and some of us have been writing Native American stories! Remember to keep track of your reading at home. I sent home new Iditarod sheets to help you keep track. We will add them up when I return!
"The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who'll get me a book I [haven't] read." — Abraham Lincoln
We did not have a spelling test this week. We will have the test on Tuesday and there won't be new words given next week. This week we focused on letter writing. We wrote our own letters to friends and family. Our Iditarod reading is going full steam ahead! We have incredibly enthusiastic readers in our class!
Don't forget author Kenneth Tomasama will be visiting TVCS on February 19th. If you would like to purchase any autographed copies of his books fill out the order form we sent home and return on Tuesday, February 18th. Our Read Aloud is Naya Nuki by Kenneth Tomasama.
Reading Iditarod Challenge
We are reading right along on our Iditarod journey! The Mustangs are reading and taking AR tests to earn miles and bonus bones to see which mushing team gets to the finish line first! It is an exciting way to engage in reading! We finished our AMAZING Read Aloud Stone Fox! It was a great story but so sad! Our next book will be Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran by Kenneth Thomasma. The Author will be visiting TVCS on February 19th to share his writing adventures with us. So exciting!
Winter is a time to get outdoors and enjoy the weather, particularly in places where there is lots of snow! In fact, snow is one of the reasons why the 2014 Winter Olympics are being held in Sochi, Russia from February 7–23. Read about Olympic history, how athletes (human and animal) train for and participate in various sports, and the science of snow. Whether indoors or outside, you'll enjoy the winter games as you watch them and read about them.
Where and how the Olympics began is explored in this factual companion to Hour of the Olympics (one in the fantasy series in which siblings Annie and Jack time travel). The informational book stands alone or can augment the novel (for 6-9 year olds) as they explore the origins of the Olympics.
What kind of cat would go sliding off on skis, and who'd believe it anyway? When the family accidentally leaves Henry, their sassy Siamese, behind at the ski lodge, he takes matters into his own paws in this beguiling adventure. [Amazon]
The winter games began in France in 1924. This compelling examination of their start, the evolution of the games, and more are revealed in photographs and compelling text. It is current through the 2006 winter Olympic Games.
In this rhyming adventure, Mr. Magee and his dog Dee learn to ski. They didn't expect to run into a very curious moose, however, which turns their outing a real cliffhanger!
All over the world, people are getting ready for the Olympics. Runners, swimmers, skiers, and skaters are practicing; teams are learning to work together. Meanwhile, workers are making flags, medals, uniforms and equipment. But soon the Olympic torch will be lighted and the games will start. [Amazon]
Privyet! Welcome to Russia! Come along on this ABC exploration of the people, geography, animals, plants, history, and culture of Russia. Read about diamond studded eggs, the deepest lake in the world, and other fascinating facts.
Figure skating has become a popular Winter Olympics sport. Meet well-known figure skaters from around the world in full color photographs and a readable but brief text. A table of contents allows newly independent readers to easily find their favorite skater in this collective biography.
Snow has a different impact on those who experience it. This lyrical celebration of snow and related activities allows readers to experience it in many ways, from seeing trees anew or getting out cavorting in it told in poetic language and evocative illustrations.
Bright, boldly colored illustrations depict how young animals prepare to play outdoor winter games and sports. This basic, primarily visual introduction will serve as a simple introduction to lesser and well-known outdoor activities.
While Tacky's friends train for the winter games, he sleeps during sit-ups, pigs out on pizza and doughnuts, and goofs off late into the night. The author brings in many facets of the Olympics: training before the games, the march of the athletes into the stadium for the opening ceremonies that include the lighting of a torch. Of course, there are also differences between these games and the televised ones — for skis, the penguins strap frozen fish to their feet! [Booklist]
What makes snow crystals unique? What conditions allow their formation? How does one catch a snowflake? These and additional information and activities about snow are explored in this lucid and attractive presentation just right as one watches winter games.
For families traveling this winter or teachers simply looking for an alternative to tablet games, there are lots of great apps for winter reading. Android devices, iPhones and iPads can be turned into ebook readers with a quick tap or swipe. Portable and kid-friendly, these interactive storybooks will support and engage young readers.
Follow along with this musical storybook as readers travel through a winter wonderland. Auto Play reads the book aloud as it zooms into parts of the illustrations and highlights keywords.
The perfect virtual bookshelf for families with children of all ages, Storia by Scholastic has many options for readers. Children choose books that spark their interest and are at their reading level. Audio and visual supports help struggling readers.
An interactive picture book, this app gives children the option for Auto Play, Read to Me or Read Myself. Families can also record their own voice reading this mythical tale of winter so that they become the narrator of the text.
This app is full of picture books with illustrations that children will love. While the narrator reads the book aloud, kids can follow along as the text lights up on the screen. There is a new book available for downloading every day.
A simple storybook with high-quality illustrations, this app is perfect for reading together as a family or letting your children listen as the narration is read aloud. You can preview the first few pages with the lite version of Winter Is before purchasing.
A wide variety of classic Dr. Seuss picture books are available for iPad and iPhone devices. Families can manage all of their downloads through this bookshelf app. The individual stories truly bring your favorite Dr. Seuss books to life.
Read about the adventure of a penguin at the South Pole in this classic book from Stan and Jan Berenstain. With illustrations and interactive text, this app is a great addition to you ebook collection.
These ebooks are available for download from the iBookstore on iPads:
Have you found a winter reading app that you love? Share it with us!
Our interest for writing creative stories and presenting them to the class is going strong! We have such imaginations! We are learning to peer edit and using suggestions to make our stories more interesting. During Readers Workshop we are continuing with the Iditarod Reading Challenge. Students keep track of the amount of time they are reading to earn miles. Bonus bones are earned for taking AR tests which test for reading comprehension. Students are so excited about this challenge and their reading motivation has gone up! Please help your student track their reading time each night. They can return their time sheets the next day so we can add up times. Our days are filled up with spelling tasks, word work and read aloud as well as independent reading! We read some great books this week. Two of our favorites were The Cross Country Cat and The Tortoise and the Hare.
This week we started our spelling program! I will let you know how everyone did on Monday! Please check red folders for spelling information. Our Readers Workshop has been busy with Book Clubs! This is a time where students will explore Literary Elements and enjoy discussing literature with friends. Next week we will begin our new Read Aloud Stone Fox. It is a wonderful story about the Iditarod race.
This week in Writers Workshop we have worked on completing our creative stories. Such creativity in our class! Next week our writing will focus more on our project than creative writing but please encourage your child to write stories at home!
Next week we begin our formal spelling program. Every Monday I will send the words to study for the week home. We will begin each week with a pretest and have a spelling assessment every Friday. Our approach to spelling is call word study because it involves much more than rote memorization. Students remember words better when they can make sense of their form as well as their use.
Let's talk Vocabulary Development!
Use Words to Teach Words
Students who comprehend the most from their reading are those who know a lot about words.
These students know about word prefixes, suffixes, word roots, and multiple meanings of
words. This knowledge expands their vocabulary, which helps when they encounter new words
during reading. As students reach the upper elementary grades and the reading becomes more
complex, word knowledge becomes even more important.
Families can help develop word knowledge through simple conversations focused on words.
For example:
Start at the root
Begin with a simple root word, such as push. Ask your child to come up with words they know
that contain that word, such as pushing, pushed, pushover, push-up. Talk about how all these
words have some shared meaning related to the word push.
Multiple meanings
Many words have more than one meaning. While sitt ing at the dinner table, choose a word and
brainstorm as many meanings and uses for the word as you can think of. Some words to start
with: spring, frame, check, light.
Consider the prefix
Numeric prefixes like bi- and tri- are a part of many words kids know and use. Discuss words
like tricycle, tricep, triangle. All these words share the prefix tri-, which means three. Can they
develop a list of words that begin with the prefix bi- (like bicycle and binoculars)? This gives you
a great chance to introduce new words, like bicentennial, bicep, and biped. You can generate
similar word lists with the numeric prefixes uni, octo, and cent.
Word learning and vocabulary growth takes time and patience. Don’t expect your child to learn
each new word aft er one conversation. True word learning happens aft er being exposed to
words several times. We all learn about words throughout our lifetime. You’re gett ing your child
off to a great start by developing an early interest in words.
This week in Language Arts Huck surprised us with a word search that he created! We had so much fun finding all the words that Huck hid! We continued working on our creative stories this week. We worked with partners to peer edit each others writing. It was fun to give and receive ideas to help each other improve our stories.
We have been busy in Readers Workshop working on thinking about our reading. Everyone is always excited to share what they have learned about themselves as a reader with the class. It is very exciting to see students challenging themselves and get lost in their books!
During Writers Workshop this week we continue working on our creative writing stories. We are learning how to peer edit and how to have conference with a friend about our writing. During our peer editing conferences students offer each other advice, ask questions and/or give compliments to help enhance or clarify ideas in their stories.
Other components of Language Arts: We have been practicing sight words, working with words and handwriting daily. We understand that practicing will make us better!
This week we have read some great literature! Some of our favorites were books about Hanukkah!
The Borrowed Hanukkah Latkes by Linda Glaser
Mrs. Greenberg's Messy Hanukkah by Linda Glaser
Latkes and Applesauce: A Hanukkah Story by Fran Manushkin
The Magic Dreidels by Eric A. Kimmel
We continue to practice our reading strategies throughout our Readers Workshop time. We are reading books at our level and learning how to talk about our reading. This week our minilessons focused on a review of short and long vowels. Next week we will focus on vowels with a the magic e: a-e, i-e, y-e, e-e, o-e and u-e.
We read some great Thanksgiving books this week! We chose two books about the First Thanksgiving to act out. We split up into two groups and the students planned, wrote and acted out their interpretation of the First Thanksgiving. Very talented actors we have in here!
This week we also wrote about what we are thankful for this holiday season.
We began our writing by doing the following:
1. Brainstormed ideas
2. Made a plan
3. Wrote a rough draft
4. Conference with Amber
5. Completed a final draft
6. Illustrated our writing
Also this week we worked on Research Skills: note taking specifically. We read Time for Kids magazine and took notes in our own words. We will be using this skill in all that we do throughout the year!
Each day this week we added words to our word boxes and practiced reading our sight words. After Thanksgiving break we will begin our formal spelling program. So far this year we have focused on getting our ideas out when we write and using invented spelling and not worrying too much about spelling everything correctly. It can be difficult to get your ideas on paper so by taking away the difficulty and stress of spelling at the beginning of the year students creativity and knowledge can flow.
We are enjoying our Read Aloud My Side of the Mountain. It is so much fun to imagine living out in the forest on a mountain and living off the land.
This week in writing our focus has been on our project and writing the process to our rock model and also writing about how we represented what happens in nature.
We have also enjoyed reading some fun Thanksgiving books. We are going to talk about the First Thanksgiving next week.
I have been busy this week learning about the 1st and 2nd graders reading lives. We are working hard on choosing “just right books” and making sure we understand what we are reading. I have loved listening to them tell me about themselves as readers during Readers Workshop.
Making sure a book is at the right reading level for your child can be a challenge. Parents often seek a "just right" book: not too hard, but not too easy. When looking for books for your child to read on his own, try the 5-finger test:
Finding the right book may involve a little bit of extra work, but it's worth it in the end.
Question:
How can I help my child practice blending sounds as he reads?
Answer:
You can do a lot to help your child practice. One way is to use modeling to introduce these skills. As you read to your child, sound out some of the words before you say them completely. Also, you can make a game to practice blending. Give your child a picture (e.g. a cat) and have him sound out the name while placing marbles, drawing marks, or tapping their fingers for each of the individual sounds in the word (e.g., /c/.../a/.../t/ is composed of 3 sounds, thus the child would use 3 marbles, marks, or taps.) You can also practice counting syllables by clapping or using your fingers to tap out the number of different sounds, or phonemes, in a word.
Our new Read Aloud book is My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It was Nancy's favorite book when she was in 2nd grade so she donated a copy to our class.
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The theme for both Monday journaling and Readers Workshop was “making a movie in our minds”. By making a movie in our mind of a memory, we can create a more detailed journal entry. By using the same strategy when we read, we can get the most out of our books! This week, we also practiced our pre-reading strategies so that we can better understand what we are reading.
In our phonics practice, the first graders reviewed short vowel sounds. We had fun brainstorming words with short a, e, i, o and u sounds…who knew so many project words fit the bill? “Igneous”, “metamorphic” and others! We also built words with our letter tiles: the class came up with 10 words made up of only a, l, s, t, b!
We also finished our read aloud book, The Trumpet of the Swan! It sparked an interesting discussion at the close of the story regarding what was important for us to remember about this book. I heard some great take away messages: “Louis was a special bird even though he couldn’t talk” and “use what you have”, just to name a few.
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Reading in our sunny classroom every morning is a joy! Students know exactly how to find the right book and get settled for a good read. This week, we discussed ways that reading is a very active process. We talked about all the strategies we can use to stay engaged and active as we read.
The Mustangs also worked on revising their writing this week. We worked with partners to read over work and get feedback on ways to improve. Since our writing class takes a workshop format, I was also able to conference with students individually.
We added new words to our word boxes, discussing the problem of two words that sound the same but are spelled differently. We made homophones such as “for” and “four” sight word flashcards to help us remember.
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The conference format for reading and writing each day is helping students to do their best work! Students are able to work more independently than during the first month of school. Students are getting better and better and choosing appropriate books and finding a cozy place in the room to read independently. I have seen some great partner reading as well. Our students have so much to teach each other!
Looking towards our first big multi-draft writing project, we continued to discuss and brainstorm “What Writers Write”. Everything from adventure stories to how-to books to diaries made it on to our massive list! I already have seen great progress in student handwriting since the start of the year. We are so much better able to share our ideas on paper when our letters are clear and organized! Our language arts routines such as Word Wall Words and Building Words continue to build phonetic awareness.
Second graders began our “Spelling by Pattern” curriculum this week. As the title suggests, each lesson focuses on a specific spelling pattern. This week, we are reviewing the “H-brothers”, words with “th”, “wh” and “sh”. First graders will begin their formal spelling curriculum at the start of November.
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In small groups, students worked on phonics through building and blending words. Small groups enabled each student to be challenged. This will help build sight word recognition among our newer readers.
Reading workshop is a great treat for all of us each morning. We love finding a cozy spot in the classroom and getting cozy with a good story! We practiced using sticky notes to mark important details. I am hoping this inspires all of the Mustangs to add great detail to their own writing! The Mustangs worked hard to write about why their grandparents are important and special so that we could share them on Grandparents Day. Letters will be sent in the mail to those unable to attend in person.
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I formally introduced the portfolio to all students. This is an important way for each student to showcase and reflect on their best work. We learned where to file portfolio pieces as we complete important work. Because projects play such an important role in our portfolio and work throughout the year, each student set up a special file folder in their “portfolio pieces” file for keeping things related to their current project.
We added more sight words to our word wall boxes, practicing spelling them and using them in sentences. The students love to quiz each other! They also love to build words with letter tiles as we develop our phonological awareness.
We love having reading workshop every morning. This week, we worked on being able to share and pick out the important aspects of books we read. This ties in well to our more consistent use of our "Reading Journals". Since we love reading with friends, we also worked a bit on using a "storyteller" voice when reading aloud. We learned that we can use the best storyteller voice when we are reading a "just right" book and when we re-read for understanding. We are having a lot of fun with our Read Aloud book, The Trumpet of the Swan. I have been impressed by the great predictions students make as they listen and their level of attention to the storyline.
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