Nonfiction Weather Day

Our word of the day today was "mean". It was a rule follower, because the "ea" vowel pair said the name of "long e". We saw that there were many words in the -ean and -een family. We even saw a word that looked like -ene. The word "mean" has a homonyn for meaning, but they both look the same. After recess, we had a short reading workshop. Mrs. Myers met with 2 guided reading groups. We finished our bossy r games during game time. After lunch and recess, Mrs. Myers showed us yesterday's book - Sergio and the Hurricane and another fiction book called Hurricanes. Then, she showed us a nonfiction book called Hurricanes! We took a picture walk of the book. Then, we made a list on the chart of all the elements of a nonfiction book. We decided that many nonfiction books have photographs, glossary, index, table of contents, boxes, charts, and captions, and headings. Then, Mrs. Myers read most of the story to us. We learned how to read a nonfiction book using one heading at a time and making sure our brain remembers the new facts for each heading before we read a new heading. Ask me how this is like a tennis or baseball machine throwing too many balls. At the end of the lesson, we had to label the parts of the nonfiction book. Then, it was time for centers. We visited our second center of the week. We also worked in our groups for our weather report project for Friday. Mrs. Myers told us that we need to make sure we proofread our work and follow all parts of the directions. At math time today, we did three math stations for shapes. First we reviewed our 2D and 3D shapes using our Math Dictionaries. Then we visited the stations. At station one, we used green triangle books to see how many would cover each 2D shape. At station two, we sorted 2D shapes by different attributes. At station three, we examined the attributes of 3D shapes. Before recess, Mrs. Myers read a different nonfiction story to us called, What's the Weather. We looked for the table of contents and the headings. At the end of the day, we had art. We also said good-bye to Shaelyn. Today was her last day in our classroom. Mrs. Myers hopes we are better listeners tomorrow, because we are not all listening and thinking!

Weather Week

Our theme this week is weather and seasons. The word of the day today was "too". It was a rule follower, because it had the "boo of -oo" sound. This word has a few popular homonyms - to, too, and two. Later in the meeting, Mrs. Myers had guided reading with three groups, while we had reading workshop and game time. During game time, we practiced our bossy r sound games again, but we had a different envelop from last week. After lunch and recess, Mrs. Myers read the story, Sergio and the Hurricane. We had to decide the author's purpose for writing the story. We actually came up with two good purposes - to tell facts about hurricanes and to teach us a lesson about preparing for hurricanes and not wishing for bad things to happen, just because they seem exciting. Next, we had a center tour and new centers. In the games center, we are sorting raindrops with "hard c" and "soft c" pictures and words on them. In the writing center, we are meteorologists, writing a weather report for the assigned season. In the poetry center, we are reading the poem, Clouds. Then, we are using bendaroos to find the blends, digraphs, -ill family words, and -ow family words in the poem. The last center is the listening center. We are listening to different weather music and visualizing what we think is happening in the song. After we draw the pictures that is in our head, we are writing a story about it! We have a special weather project as the art center this week. We'll find out about it tomorrow! We had music next and after recess, we came back for our weather and seasons lesson of the day. Mrs. Myers gave us a weather journal to use this week. Then, we had to watch a movie about spring and write down three new facts we learned. We did the same thing for summer. Then, we wrote a question for each one about something we still want to learn about spring and summer weather. Mrs. Myers is going to find the answers for us! YAY!

Finally a Spring Day!

Today was the last day of our spring theme. We are glad that today's weather feels like spring! Our word of the day today was "right". It had lots of homonyms for meaning. The word "write" was a homonyn, too. Today's word was a rule breaker, because the "gh" made the "i" say his name. We read the word families on the "light of -ight" and "kite of -ite". After recess, we had guided reading and reading workshop. At 11:00AM, we had phonics game time. We were finishing our bossy r sorts and practicing spelling words with a partner. After lunch, Mrs. Myers read the story, When Will It Be Spring. We listened for the most important event in the story. This is the event that changes the characters or the action in the story. We did a great job finding the most important event in the story today! Next, we had math centers. They are coming home today! After that, we made our video of the field trip. We also did a concept circle activity to show facts and opinions about spring. Check it out in our mail today. We even had time for some journal writing. At the end of the day, we watched a video about animals in the spring. We made connections to the animals we see in spring. We had Friday sharing at the end of the day! It was a great week! Yeah spring!

Spring Learning

Our word of the day today was "line". It was a rule follower, because it followed the CVCe rule. The -ine family was a little popular. After recess, we had reading workshop and guided reading with Mrs. Winstel. She met with the Spider groups and the Shark groups. It was soon time for lunch and recess. After that, Mrs. Myers was back! We heard the story, That's What Happens in Spring. We listed for the author's purpose for writing the story. We learned that author's write to entertains us, to teach us facts, to share their opinions, and to teach us something. Next, it was time for math centers. We practiced counting and stamping money, 2D shapes and fractions, 2D and 3D shape BINGO, and elapsed time on the human clock. Then it was writing workshop time. Mrs. Myers met with group 1. We worked on using words for "went" in our stories. During sharing time, we shared our purpose for writing our stories, because we are authors. At the end of the day, we had phys. ed. Then, we worked on our posters for tomorrow's video sharing about our field trip. We are excited to share with you tomorrow.

Spring is Here (???)

Our theme this week is spring! Spring is officially here, but the weather is a little too chilly! Our word of the day today was "through". It was a tricky one, because the "gh" was silent and the "ou" said the sound of "the boo of oo". It was an adverb. The word "threw" is a homonym. This "threw" is a verb. Later in the morning, we had reading workshop and guided reading groups. Mrs. Myers was so excited to have her group time back! During our game time, we learned the bossy r sort that we will be doing this week in our groups. We will be sorting -or/-ar words and pictures or -er,-ir, -ur words and pictures. After lunch, we started by looking at a list of eight vocabulary words that were focused on spring. We had to independently write a vocabulary chain story using the words in order. We were trying to write facts using the words and show the meaning of the vocabulary words. Then we shared our stories. Mrs. Myers read the story, When Will It Be Spring. We listened to see how the author uses the words in order. We learned that swallow is a verb, but in the story, it is a bird that comes in the spring. After the story, we did a shared writing, using the vocabulary words just like the author. Mrs. Myers also read us an acrostic alphabet story about spring. We learned some new facts from this story, too. We had art class early today. After art, we had writing workshop time. Mrs. Myers was conferencing with a group, while the rest of us wrote in our journals. After recess, we learned about the quarter. We heard the story, The Big Buck Adventure. Then, we shared with Mrs. Myers all the facts we already knew about the quarter. We read the story, Quarter. We added new facts to our list. Then, we went to the bank area. We practiced ordering and counting the coins. Then, we used our real coins to count money all by ourselves. If you did not send a bag of money to school with your child, please do so my tomorrow! Also, please remember to dress up for the disco music era tomorrow, to celebrate in music class!!!

A Busy Half Day!

Today was a busy half day of school. Our word of the day today was "help". It was a rule follower. It is a verb. It was not a popular word family. We practiced a 3D shape game at morning meeting that we really loved. It was like hot potato, but you didn't get out. You had to name the 3D shape you were holding. We had an early lunch and recess. Then, Mrs. Myers read us the story, Clever Tom and the Leprechaun. It was a retelling of an Irish folktale. Before the story, Mrs. Myers listed verbs on the chart. We found that there were three different verbs to tell the same action. After the story, we organized the verbs on a timeline. Then we made our own timeline and added new verbs. At the end of the day, we looked at a map of the world and picked out Ireland. We learned how to use the cardinal directions north, south, east, and west. We also learned the intermediate directions of northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest. Then, we tried out the direction on a map of Ireland by taking our little shamrock man on a tour to visit some of the sites! We were so excited to have our half day!

Money, Money, Money

Our word of the day today was "where". It was a rule breaker, but related to the word, "there". Today's word has a homonym, wear. There were lots of words that sounded like today's word family, but they looked like -air, -are, -ear. Later in the morning, we heard the story, The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day. We listened for pronouns in the story. We learned that a pronoun is a word that replaces a noun. We practiced pronouns on a worksheet. After recess, we had reading workshop and Mrs. Myers read with the last student. We will begin new guided reading groups on Monday. After lunch, we read the story, Leprechaun on the Loose. Near the end of the story, Mrs. Myers stopped and we debated the next event in the story. We had two sides to the story - Should the boy in the story let the trapped leprechaun go and get his gold, or should he keep leprechaun in the trap and clear his name for the bad things the leprechaun had done??? We formed two groups and made a list of all the reasons why our decision was the best. Then, we had our debate. Mrs. Myers picked the winner. It was the "let the leprechaun out" group! We liked debating and would like to have some debates at home. Ask me about it tonight! Then, we had center time. We visited our third center. After centers, we had a math lesson on dimes. We brainstormed everything we already knew about dimes. Then, Mrs. Myers read a story called, Dimes. We touched real dimes. Then, we learned to count dimes, nickels, and pennies. Most of us are doing really well counting money. At the end of the day, we watched a video about St. Patrick's Day and another short video about money. Remember, tomorrow is a half day of school. We dismiss at 12:30PM!