Ask Me About Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Today was a busy day.  We learned about verbs.  We read a long poem called My Busy Day that had many verbs in it.  We played a game like charades and acted out some of the verbs.  We also found many words that rhymed or were opposites.  We played Guess the Covered Word as we read the poem, so we used strategies readers use to help us guess the covered word.  We thought about what would make sense and made a good guess, then checked the first letter of the word and if it was right thought about what would come next in the word.  We also thought about what would rhyme or if an opposite word would make sense there.  Ask me to show the poem so we can read it together.
We practiced more with subitizing and with collecting data.  We rolled a die and graphed to see which number we would roll most often.  We worked on making our graph neat by coloring it in neatly and not leaving white spaces.
Today I sent home Read to Me, Talk to Me books.  Each child should have a large ziplock bag with a book and a letter in it about Read to Me, Talk to Me.  Each Wednesday your child will choose a book to read at home for a week.  Books should be returned on Tuesday.  In the back of the book you will find questions you can use as a guide in a discussion of the book.  You will also see a project that you can do with your child if you wish.  As with all homework, this is optional, but reading the book and discussing it with your child is strongly encouraged.  Some books may be a bit long, so consider reading them in two sittings with your child.  It's also a good habit to model by reading the book a couple times during the week and discussing different questions.  Children learn it's important to go back and reread by doing this.  Finally, as with all books that will come home, please help your child find a good place to keep their book so it doesn't get in damaged.  I hope you enjoy this program!
Today we read a book called Being a Good Citizen by Adrian Vigliano.  We talked about the meaning of the word citizen.  We know a citizen is a member of a community.  We are part of a school community, a home community, and with friends.  We talked about how good citizens are responsible and honest, and how they share, follow the rules and are helpful.  Ask me about how I can be a good citizen at school. 
Finally, today we met with our Bells Mill Bear Buddies.  Ms. Wang's class came to visit.  For our first meeting, we read books.  I have my camera almost every day, and what do you know, today I didn't bring it!  I would not be able to post pictures on the website anyway since I do not have permission from Ms. Wang's families, but just know the third graders reading to our kinders was so sweet.  What a great way to end the day.  Some children in Ms. Wang's class commented that they hope they don't have to wait another month to visit again!  And they won't!  Ms. Wang and I will be planning some additional activities we will get together and do very soon!

Enjoy the evening!
Juliet