We love photographs with a bird's eye view!  We had a great time talking about what we noticed, and using what we know to determine this used to be a volcano.  We saw many interesting things in this photograph, and you probably can see more on the computer than we saw on the big screen.  Ask me to tell you what I noticed and what I wondered about this amazing crater.

We had a long morning with a Benchmark interim test.  Unfortunately the Benchmark website was having issues, as it was yesterday, but our persistent little learners made the best of it and showed their best effort.  

In math today, we practiced measuring with links.  We practiced on books first, then with stuffies that were all book characters.  We drew A-MAZING drawings of the character we chose.  Then we measured different parts of the stuffie and recorded it on our picture.  We had a great time practicing measuring accurately!

Have a great evening!
​Miss Wolfe

Our picture talk today was about the Shenandoah River.  Of course that meant I needed to sing that song, which I don't know all the words to anymore.  The children enjoyed looking at this bird's eye view of this river, but did not enjoy my singing.
We worked with Red Words this morning.  We practiced has and it.  We are working to read and write these words automatically.  We also practiced writing a couple sentences with the words.  Then we put on music and practiced writing several tricky red words fluently; quickly and accurately.
We reviewed pounding out syllables to find out how many.  Interestingly, it always happens that the children want one syllable words to have more syllables so they try and break it apart into more parts.  Otherwise, they are doing really well with counting syllables in words.
We also are continuing to work with rhyming words.  We will be reading lots of great rhyming books next week to really reinforce this.
In math, we started working with weight.  I introduced a balance scale today.  We listened to a short story that illustrated how the balance scale works like a seesaw.  Next week we will be having more practice in measurement using links to measure length, height and width, the balance scales to compare weights as well as using teddy bear counters to record weight, our sand table that has colored rice in it to work with capacity, and we will use Cuisennaire rods to play some games with measurement.  

Have a great weekend!
​Miss Wolfe

We started our day by studying these beautiful creatures.  We looked for how they are the same and how they are different.  Then we read a short text about penguins.  We were looking for the most important information in the text to answer the question: "What do Emperor penguins need?"  Ask me to tell you what I learned.  We know that studying the photographs or pictures in information texts is important and can help us understand more.  We also know we can learn from short video clips.  Below is a video clip from a DisneyNature movie called "Penguins."  This amazing movie took four years to make.  DisneyNature goes to different parts of the world to make these films.  They do not interfere or stage any of the footage.  They observe and film, and sometimes from all the observations they are able to predict what kinds of behavior they can see at different times, which helps in making the movies.  This movie is on Disney+ if you haven't seen it.  Please know that these films are nature films, so sometimes it might be a little scary but are such a great learning opportunity.  The second clip below shows penguins swimming, which is something we wanted to learn about more.

In math, we continued to work with measurement.  We listened to a story and followed the directions to draw a picture.  Ask me to show you my paper with the story the pirate told about his house.  

We had a great day!  Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe

We started our day with by analyzing these five photographs.  We looked at how they were the same, and how they were different.  As I listened in on the discussions, it was clear they quickly identified these landforms as islands.  We then tried to define what made them islands, which is a little trickier.  I also overheard quite a discussion about whether the photograph on the right in the top row was a volcano or geyser.  We have looked at both and had lively debates about which was which!  We ended our discussion by sharing which island we would like to visit.  Interestingly enough, the highly populated island seemed to be the most popular choice.  The children do an amazing job of discussing the pictures we look at each day.  They stick to the topic, include everyone, ask questions, and disagree respectfully, although sometimes a little loud!  Ask me to tell you which island I would like to visit.
In reading, we read an information book with many text features.  A couple reading groups have also read books with captions and labels.  We are working hard to be sure to read those captions and labels and study the photographs or pictures in the book.  This is important information that should not be skipped.  Children need lots of exposure to these text features, and need to hear their name often so they remember it.  We have talked about the table of contents, heading, bold print words, captions and labels.  We have also used the glossary to learn more about words that we have heard but may need to know more about.  The children really enjoy information books.  
In math we were comparing the length of objects in the room with a chain of links.  We were making a chart that listed with pictures and labels what we found that was longer and shorter.  Being able to communicate accurately in math is important and sometimes it's tricky when talking about measurement.  Children want to use words such as big and little, but we need them to be more specific with the words they use.  Length, height, compare and endpoints are words we are using right now when we are working with measurement.
We had an evacuation drill today.  This drill is when the children need to be farther away from the building.  They did a good job of walking up the hill and waiting quietly.  Down the hill was trickier but no one rolled down!  As always, I'm really proud of this group.

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe

We had a busy day!  We got right to work with the letter p.  I have been waiting for this letter for so long so I could read the kids Potato Pants, by Laurie Keller.  I was so excited that I left the book at home, but we listened to it on YouTube.  This is a very funny book about a potato who has a lot of strong feelings.  Ask me to tell you about Potato Pants.
We had an Earthquake Drill this afternoon.  We were just starting to play, and I was getting ready to pass out Read to Me, Talk to Me books.  We will have to do that tomorrow because we did the drill, but hadn't watched the video about what to do.  Ms. Lillis came in to let us know how to go under a table, get down low and cover our head and neck as much as possible, grab on to a leg of a table, and to face away from the windows.  The kids did a great job staying quiet and following directions.  
We are starting measurement in Math.  We worked with tall and short today, and talked about what a skyscraper is.  We will continue to have geometric shapes out to work with during math station time since it was such a short unit, but we will also have measurement activities out as well.  

If we had to reschedule our conference, or if did not sign up for one or missed yours, please sign up on the Sign Up Genius I am sending out this evening.  I'm anxious to let you know what a great job your child is doing in school.

The kids are really working hard.  They are so pleasant and kind to each other.  The best part of this class is how they help each other and stick together!

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe