Oh lovely mud

Students explored "Oh Lovely Mud" today after reading Mrs. Wishy Washy.  Ask them to retell you the story about the animals on Mrs. Wishy Washy's farm.  We wrote words with "Oh Lovely Mud" (chocolate pudding) using the phonics sounds we have been practicing.  

Readers read everywhere

Today we soaked up every last second of the beautiful fall day.  Readers read everywhere: inside, outside, upside down!  Explore many places to read with your child, keep a list.  Make a challenge to yourself to find a new place to read each week!  

Phonics practice

Student have learned the sounds /m/, /c/, /o/, /a/, /d/, /t/ and today /g/.  Here you can see students manipulating sounds and blending them together to make words.  Many students cannot recall letter names but are successful recording the sounds correctly, which is more important in reading and writing development.  We had fun exploring words and Dr. Seuss words on our chaining folders.  

Our thankful pumpkin

November is a month to reflect on the many things in life we are thankful for.  As a class we are brainstorming ideas for our "thankful pumpkin." Each day we meet briefly to talk about our day and check in with our friends about what we might be feeling thankful for that day.  Our pumpkin is a reminder of the many things in our lives that we have to be thankful for and the many gifts we each hold to share with others.    

Halloween fun

Thank you to all of the amazing parents and grandparents that volunteered or donated items and made our Halloween party a success.  The students LOVED crafting, snacking and playing games.  Here are a few photos from the party!

A shift in writing

Students have transitioned from writing information books where they were teaching their audience about something to writing stories about their lives.  We follow the same writing process as writers but the content of writing is very different.  When exciting things happen in your life at home or funny situations arise, you could remind your child that those things might be great stories to write about during Writing Workshop.  What should you be looking for in your child's writing?  Speech bubbles, dialogue, actions and true stories.  We will be working on these skills over the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!

Students touch and plan their stories as part of the writing process

Planning across 5 pages

Writers LOVE sharing their stories

I was going to Sylvie's house

We were sleeping Mokey saw a hawk

Here is a visual we use to help us focus on stories that we are part of and that actually happened!

For all of you visual people

What is your child doing during reading time in the classroom?

As we grow as readers and develop additional reading skills, the opportunities to put those skills to use also grows.  For the past 6 weeks we have practiced independent reading and partner reading daily and worked to build stamina during those times.  We will continue to do that, but now we are in a place where we are ready to an an element of choice into our reading block a few days a week.  Students will be also to choose from listening stations, iPad phonics/phonemic awareness games, word work, or additional independent reading. We will be slowly introducing these option during our reading block over the next few weeks. Yesterday students explored new apps on the iPads with a partner.  Here are a few new ones that we added that the students love:  Hairy Letters, Aplhabetics, Endless ABC, and Starfall ABCs.  I know many of you are always looking for additional educational supports at home, these are great and also work on iPods and iPhones.  

Stay tuned for new activities to choose from during choice time.

Exploring sounds on the Ipad

Practicing letter formation

Working with Mrs. Ankerson on a sticker book for 1:1 practice 

Reading groups