Today for a social emotional lesson, we learned about the "golden rule." We read a beautiful book called The Golden Rule, by Ilene Cooper. This beautiful book shares that the golden rule is part of all religions in one form or another. Ask me to tell you the golden rule. The book also discusses how important it is to think about how others feel, in fact the grandfather tells his grandson to use his imagination to think about how others feel. We learned about the word empathy too. Ask me to tell you about empathy. Below is a read aloud of the book, and the video we watched to learn more about empathy. We also looked at two of the texts we read last week in Benchmark for reading. We looked at what made the texts the same and what was different about them. We also did a guided writing to tell one way the two texts are similar. Here's our chart of our work. ![]() In math, we finished up our mid-module math testing. As we have been going through our lessons, I have been able to check for understanding without having to do this long test that is usually done 1:1.
We worked on a couple of Orton-Gillingham routines that will be part of our weekly instruction. We worked with the sand trays to practice the letter sound, as well as letter formation. We use the pointer finger to trace the letter, as we say "c says /k/." Orton-Gillingham focuses on using the senses to learn, so using tactile, auditory and visual will help these sounds become more automatic so they can be easily used during reading and writing. We also went over the red word routine. The children do not have the bumpy boards yet, but we went through using a red crayon to write on a paper on top of the bumpy board. We also did arm tapping, which is done using the opposite writing arm outstretched, with the writing hand crossing the midline of the body and starting at the shoulder and tapping down the arm while saying the letters of the red word. After tapping, the children say the word as they move their hand from shoulder to hand while saying the red word. We will be working hard to make these routines quick, so having supplies ready will be important. I'll let you know more this week about what you will be picking up and what to do with it so your child has easy access to it. Have a nice evening! Miss Wolfe
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We had a great day! All children are participating in the lessons, and almost all are raising their hands and answering questions. The children sat up with faces in the frames and worked hard. We worked with the ;letter sound c. We read a poem with words that start with c, and we identified the nouns in the poem as well. We also looked at a poster with 17 pictures in it that start with the c sound. I put the poster in our Google Classroom since it is a Benchmark document and can't be shared here, but you can see it in our classroom. Ask me to tell you what starts with c in the picture. We watched a Brainpop Jr. video to learn more about nouns. Moby and Annie labeled things in their room to show they are nouns. We know nouns are a person, place or thing.
We read the story about Ben wanting a pet. We voted to see what our class thought about Ben owning a pet. I was surprised to find out that the majority of our class thought Ben would not take good care of a puppy. We wrote our opinion together. We talked about words we will be learning to spell. We will be learning red words, which are words that we need to memorize to spell. They are high frequency words. We learned I today, and watched a Benchmark video with a song that may help children remember to capitalize I in their writing. We also listened to a story and drew a picture to show what was happening in the story. This story did not have pictures, so the children needed to visualize. I drew along with them to show them how to draw bigger, add details that go with the story, and to guide them in listening for the setting so their characters aren't just floating in space. The story was about crossing the street. We will read a story like this probably every week to work on listening comprehension, although we also work on that in almost everything we do. Ask me to show you the picture I drew and tell you about the story. In math I have been assessing the students as we have been going along with many of the concepts we have introduced so far. We have a mid-module assessment we do, but if we do the checks along the way, we don't have to do some of the mid-module assessments, which is great because they take ALOT of time and are all one on one. Today we did a check on a few more concepts I needed to do with the students. They are doing a really good job with the concepts, but also with writing and drawing so I can see it on screen. I always give the children a little reward for working hard on the MAP tests we have to take. They really don't mind the test so much for the most part, but getting on and listening to it usually takes time, although you parents are rock stars and did an amazing job with the test this week. I took the kids on a virtual field trip to Magic Kingdom at Disney World today. We "rode" a few rides and I pretended to get a churro. They drew a picture and some wrote to tell which ride was their favorite. It's a three day weekend so I hope you find some time to relax! See you Tuesday! Miss Wolfe This morning we started with a Social Emotional Learning lesson about being a good sport. We talked about this briefly when we were reading a Benchmark reading book the other day, so we talked it about this a little more today. We studied the cover of this book and thought about the title to predict what this story would be about. Ask me to tell you about this story. We We used the illustrations and words to talk about how to be a good sport. We reread the text we read yesterday about sports. We looked at the key details we identified and worked together to determine the main idea. We organized our ideas into a web. We read a new story about getting a pet. This time we looked for key details in the illustrations that would help us understand the story better. This story also had thinking bubbles, so some of the things in the bubble didn't really happen, but the little boy just thought about them. We also worked to identify events in the story. This is still difficult for the children, but will develop over time. Using the illustrations is a good way to identify events. Readers often look back in the text to remind themselves of the story, so this is a habit we would like to learn now. At the end of the story, we don't know if the little boy gets a pet or not, but he is telling his mom he would take good care of a pet, and there is a puppy doing tricks and yapping at him. We worked together and added an event to the story. In math, we worked with finding different ways to make 4. We also wrote the numbers 4 and 5. In science, we reviewed our Wednesday Work in science, and talked about the sun. We made a list of things we knew already about the sun, then read a book and added to our list to show what we learned from the book. Ask me to tell you what I learned the sun can do. We had a fun Book a Day book today about a character called Pig the Pug. There are several books in this series now by Aaron Blabey. We read Pig the Winner, which is a book about PIg and what happens when he always wants to win. Spoiler alert: He's not a good sport! I read the book to kids, but here's a video of the book. I We are working hard to stay organized and clean off our desk. I want the kids to put away things such as scissors and markers when they aren't using them because otherwise, they are putting them in their mouths, playing with them or using them when they should be listening to our lessons. So if you hear me nagging them, that's why! I also encourage you to take a look through their folders at their work. I'm getting a look at them when I have them hold them up to the screen. I'm encouraging them to take more time on their drawings and add more details. It's also important they know where their supplies are and can get them on their own so they are ready to work. We want them to get in the habit of working the whole time, so they aren't finishing early and holding their papers to the screen to show me until I ask.
Thank you again for all your support, especially yesterday with our math testing. You cannot imagine how happy I am to almost be finished with the MAP tests for fall! Have a nice evening! Miss Wolfe We have completed our introduction and routine lessons for Benchmark, so today we are starting our first unit, Rules at Home and School. We read a short passage about soccer rules today. The students are learning to answer the question that is asked and to not repeat what other students already said. We also read an information text about playing by the rules in sports. We went back to the text and highlighted the key ideas in the text about playing by the rules. Ask me about a rule we talked about when playing soccer or other sports. We then did a guided writing activity to draw a picture that shows a rule that was in the passage we read, as well as the information text we read. I demonstrated basic writing skills that writers need to learn. I emphasized beginning the sentence with a capital letter, putting spaces between words, and using punctuation at the end of the sentence. The children drew a picture to go with the sentence. Our sentence was "Always be a good sport." You will find your child's writing in their red folder. We are reserving the yellow folder for paper you will be receiving at our next distribution. Your child could copy off my writing for this assignment. We will do a lot of guided writing this quarter. We also began to learn about nouns. Ask me to dazzle you and tell you what I know about nouns. I'm sure I didn't know about nouns in kindergarten! We watched a blast from my past, Schoolhouse Rocks and learned about nouns. Enjoy! We began a very modified Orton-Gillingham lesson today about the letter c sound. We studied an interesting photograph of carrots and were surprised to see carrots that were not orange. Ask me what other color carrots can be! We repeated an alliterative sentence with the letter c and listened to a story about carrots to reinforce the hard c sound. The story is called Too Many Carrots, by Katy Hudson. Ask me to tell you who three characters were in the story. In math we worked to find hidden partners and to write a number sentence to show the decomposition of 3. Our number sentences look like this: 3= 2 + 1 We read a story with a very good lesson in it for our Book a Day. The story is called Mela and the Elephant, and it is written by Dow Phumiruk. The story is about a little girl who goes out to explore the banks of the river. I've posted the story below so you can watch it with your child and talk about the lesson the story teaches. Have a nice evening!
Miss Wolfe Today we had a social emotional learning lesson about self-control. We talked about what the word self-control and the word resist means. We watched a short video with Cookie Monster to help us understand the words better. We continued our lesson in reading by listening to the story Oh No, George by Chris Haughton. We studied the cover and thought about the title and made predictions about what the story would be about, then we checked and modified our predictions as we read. Ask me to tell you what George did at the beginning of the story that showed he was still learning about self-control. Here's the book trailer about this book if you would like a reminder of the story or if parents would like to see what a great book this is! In math, we are beginning to work with decomposition and number composition. We are also working with writing the numerals. We used numeral poems about how to form the numerals. In Science, we talked about the sun and how it warms up pavement. We visualized and used our memories to think about how the pavement feels when it's hot out. Ask me to tell you how the feet probably feel in each of these photos. Will they feel the same? Have a nice evening!
Miss Wolfe We had a busy morning today in our virtual classroom! We had students being pulled out to go to their ESOL class, which is a class Mrs. Thomson has in a breakout room, and we had Mrs. Robinson pulling students to do a reading screener with them to determine a very general reading level. Students are doing well learning to use the breakout button to go to the room and to return. Thank-you for your patience as some parents have had to help their children with the breakout room. It will get easier! The screener Mrs. Robinson did gave me additional data I will use in setting up reading groups. Some groups will be fluent with children being moved to other groups from time to time. We studied this painting by Claude Monet looking for clues that would tell us about the weather. Ask me to tell you the clues that helped us know it was a windy, sunny and possibly cool day. In reading, we practiced identifying rhyming words. We read this poem about a puppy. After we talked about what yappy, squirms and slumpy sounds and looks like. Ask me to tell you what words rhyme in the poem. We are also continuing to count syllables in words. The students are gently pounding the syllables with the opposite hand they write with so that as they begin writing, they can pound the syllables to break words apart so they are easier to spell. Use the opposite hand they are writing with allows them to keep writing as they gently pound the syllables, making it an efficient strategy. We reread the story Danbi Leads the Parade, by Anna Kim, this time looking at the pictures as I read. We identified the main characters and the important events in the story. We made a text-to=self connection with Danbi making a new friend. We drew a picture to show ourselves meeting a new friend. Together, we wrote a sentence that identified the text-to-self connection. In math, we learned about zero and practiced writing zeros. In science, we reviewed what engineers do and listened to the story Rosie Revere, Engineer, by Andrea Beaty. This is part of a series of books that are on Epic Books. I will assign this book, as I did Ada Twist, Scientist, but remember it's a suggestion not really an assignment. It's a great book! As I am writing this, I heard the very sad news that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed away. There are several great children's books you might want to share with your child about this amazing woman, but are already sold out at Amazon. I assigned two books about her on Epic: Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R.B.G. vs. Inequality by Jonah Winter, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Sara Spiller.
Have a wonderful weekend! Miss Wolfe We studied this painting by Winslow Homer this morning. We thought about weather words to describe what was happening in the painting. Ask me about the weather in this painting.
In reading, we continued to work with beginning sounds of words. We looked at an, which is a rime, and added a beginning sound, the onset, to read words. We read words such as can, fan, ran, etc. This is a skill we will work on throughout the year. We practiced visualizing today as we read the book Danbi Leads the Parade, by Anna Kim. This story is about a little girl who moves from Korea to the United States. The story is about her first day of school. The students drew quick sketches of what they were visualizing as they listened to the story. In math, we worked with finding hidden partners in the number 3. Ask me to tell you the hidden partners in 3. Have a nice evening! Miss Wolfe A huge thank-you to all of you for helping us get through our first online test. Next Wednesday is Math. Hopefully it will be a little easier to get everyone on because we won't have Mrs. Abramson, but will have support from Ms. Lillis, who is one of our amazing para-educators. The math test does not have the cute little worm and is not as user friendly, but we will go over the practice test again and hopefully since they have already had the reading test, it will be easier to administer. The big difference will be that this test goes to a frustration level, so it's really important that you not help your child with the test questions. Please just remind them to try their best and not be upset if they don't know all the answers. They aren't supposed to know all the answers. Please don't explain the questions to the children. You can only support them with technical help.
We took a break after the test and made pictures or designs with o's. I thought this might be a good way to unwind after the stress of taking a test like MAP-RF for the first time. We worked on finding hidden partners in numbers again in math. Thank-you again for all your help today! Have a nice evening! Miss Wolfe Today we reviewed rhyming words and isolating the beginning sounds of words. These are important foundational skills that children need to be efficient readers and writers. While we were working on these skills, Mrs. Robinson did a quick screen on many of the children to get a general reading level. The kids had to navigate to a break-out room for the quick test, and return to our regular room. I'm thankful for the help from Mrs. Robinson, and it's also giving the children the chance to go to the break-out room. We will be using these more as we go along, and the smaller groups will give the kids time to talk to each other. We listened to an old rhyme and studied the picture to help us understand two words in the rhyme. Ask me to tell you about the word scholar and noon. Here's the rhyme we read: In math, we found hidden partners in towers of Lego. We started with a tower of 5, then broke it into two smaller towers or parts of 2 and 3. This is decomposing, and it's a very important concept for children to understand that will help them with addition and subtraction. We also looked at how moving counters into different configurations did not change the number. We listened to the story Ada Twist, Scientist, by Andrea Beaty. This book is about a little girl that very early in her life discovers she wants to be a scientist. Ask me to tell you about Ada Twist. I assigned this story to your child on Epic. It is not an assignment really, I just thought they might want to hear it again. They seemed glued to the screen when it was on! |
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February 2021
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