Ask Me About Wednesday, September 16,2015

Today we worked on our routine for handwriting and word work.  We have a special way we line up and get our supplies, as well as how we keep track of our supplies as we work.  We worked with the word see today.  This is one of our word wall words that we will need to learn to read and spell "just like that."  We used a song, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" to help us remember how to spell the word.  I posted the entire word wall on the writing page.  We are introducing the words a couple at a time, and will be finished by the end of third quarter with them.  Word Wall Words are to be "overlearned" so that children do not even have to think about them when they come to them in reading or when they are writing them.  They often do not follow other rules of phonics, so memorizing them is the best way to learn them.  I have songs we use to help remember how to spell the words on the writing page, as well as things you can do at home with your child to learn the word wall words.  Learning to spell them as the children learn them is the best way because the movement of their hand as they write will help them remember the word.  Today we worked on see.  We also worked on writing the letter Ii.

In Writing Workshop, we learned about how pictures help authors tell the story.  In fact, pictures can tell their own stories, even without words.  No one was better in doing that than the American artist Norman Rockwell.  We looked at several of his paintings and talked through what could be the story.  We paid attention to the setting and the character/s faces.  Knowing how the character is feeling is important in understanding the story.  We made personal connections to the paintings we looked at today.  Ask me to tell you a story about the pictures below by Norman Rockwell.  

We played a fun sorting game called "Guess My Rule" in math today.  We played with people today.  The children had to guess what the rule was I used to create small groups of children.  Tomorrow we will play again in small groups with other items.

I'm just about finished with our reading testing.  I'll start the Maryland test as soon as I can so we can get the testing out of the way and get a more normal schedule!  I'm hoping to start calling reading groups next week, but there will be some days when not all groups are called due to testing.  I'm so anxious to get started with our reading groups!
I meant to send home Read to Me, Talk to Me books today, but we had a bumpy afternoon.  Some of the children are having a hard time "collaborating" and are not trying to solve their problems without yelling out students' names.  We will work on strategies for working out problems in more peaceful ways.  It's all part of learning to be part of a group!  I will send the books home next Tuesday, although they will usually come home on Wednesday and be due on Tuesday, but since we have a day off on Wednesday, we will send them a day early.

Have a nice evening!
Juliet