During Writer’s Workshop we learned something cool about writers. We learned that writers don’t write books all by themselves because every writer has people to help them. Each writer in our class now has a partner to help them just like a grown-up writer. We’ll sit next to our partners during our mini lessons and throughout the year we’ll learn many different ways that our partner can help us with our writing. We practiced planning our story across three pages (if we had a lot to tell) and we began using a new kind of paper that has lines at the bottom. We discovered that these lines are a wonderful place for our letters and words to go. Finally, we reread some of our pieces to check to see if we could add the word the. During our Math block we learned that one of the best ways to count a collection is to line up the objects and carefully count them one at a time. We learned what makes a shape a rectangle and why a square is a special rectangle. We practiced counting sets of 10 and practiced making and solving number stories. During our math centers we played top-it with dot and number cards, made pokey-pin pumpkins and counted up to 20 links to attach to our count and link elephants. Finally we learned about a helpful math tool called a 10 Frame. During our extra library on Friday, Mrs. Burns brought the class to the makerspace to make pumpkin catapults. You can see some pictures of the activity on our Photo Gallery page. During our Reader’s Workshop we had time to read privately and with a partner in our classroom library. We worked at several centers where we practiced hearing and identifying the first sound we hear in words. We sorted objects by their first sound using some sound tubs, played a matching game with rhyming cards and we learned how to read and write the first of our 10 kindergarten spelling words. This week we looked closely at the word the. We practiced finding it among other words and we practiced writing it in a fun halloween book called Boo! When Mrs. Benoit visited us she reminded us about using our mouth to help us to be a Whole Body Listener. She read a story called My Mouth is a Volcano. She explained that it makes our classmates feel happy when we can listen to them talk without interrupting. In addition to all of this hard work we’ve been doing in our workshops, over the past two weeks we have been working to get our classroom ready for our Halloween party. We decorated our door with jack-o-lanterns and ghosts, carefully followed directions when we made our candy cane monsters, and we colored and cut shapes to make a scary green monster. All of this fine motor work is helping to strengthen the muscles in our hands which will make writing and drawing easier. Monday is our Halloween party from 10:45 to about 12:15. Children should plan to come to school that day wearing as much of their costume as possible. Costumes should be easy to put on and take off. We will begin the day with a costume parade through our school at 9:15. If you are not able to volunteer at our party, but would like to see the parade you can watch it from the front office.
All children will change out of costumes before going to lunch and recess after our party. We encourage costumes that are not violent in nature and that are developmentally appropriate. Please leave all "weapons" at home. Thank you for your understanding. During our party children will rotate through activities playing games and making crafts. The afternoon will be a typical afternoon.
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Ms. McCormack's BlogHere's a look at what we've done this week. Archives
June 2018
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