Ask Me About Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Today we read a poem about seeds.  We looked at different seeds and matched them to words in the poem that described them.  Then, we took a couple words out of the poem and worked with them.  We took a short a word and a short i word and made new words from them.  For example, we took the flat and made new words using at.  We wrote the words on white boards, spelling words such as bat, chat, and pat.  Ask me to tell and spell three words I can make using at.  We also used it to tell and spell more words.
We listened to the story The Spiffiest Giant in Town, by Julia Donaldson.  This is a beautiful story of a giant who is scruffy.  We used word bird strategies to figure out what the word scruffy means, so we thought about what the text was about where we found the word, and we used the illustration to give ourselves more clues.  We determined it meant the giant was a bit sloppy in his dress.  We did the same for the word spiffy.  In the story, the giant is scruffy at the beginning of the story.  He sees a new shop for giants has opened in town and buys himself a new outfit.  He looks quite spiffy!  As he leaves to walk home, he meets a giraffe with a cold neck.  The giant gives the giraffe his tie to wrap around his neck to keep the giraffe's neck warm.  As he continues his walk home he comes across other animals who need help, and he gives away his shirt, his shoe, his sock and his belt.  Ask me to tell you why he gave away his new clothes and how they were used.  The giant then continues to walk home, but his pants fall down, since he gave away his belt, and he is cold.  He goes back to town and finds his old clothes and becomes the coziest giant in town.  He returns home to find a beautiful crown and a thank-you note from the animals he helped, and is called the kindest giant in town.  We discussed whether it is more important to look spiffy or be kind.  There was a good discussion about this, and most students felt it was more important to be kind.  Then I asked, could you be both spiffy and kind, and we continued our discussion.  Ask me to tell you what spiffy and scruffy mean.  We showed our understanding of the words by drawing a picture of what we look like when we are looking scruffy and when we are looking spiffy.

We had some very happy news today shared by one of our classmates.  Ask me to tell you about the good news!

We are into the cold weather now, and kids are doing a great job of zipping and getting all their cold weather clothing on independently for the most part.  I told the children it's my expectation on these cold days that their coat is on, zipped and their hood, hat and mittens are on and stay on at recess.  We take their cold weather clothing to the cafeteria, and I have them sit on their coats so they don't drop food on their coats as they eat.  I told them to put their mittens or gloves in their hat and put it in one of their sleeves so they don't get lost on the way to the cafeteria or in the cafeteria.  You might want to practice that with your child at home.  What we are having a rather big problem with is kids wearing tie shoes that they don't know how to tie.  We have a few kids who can tie, many more who believe they can tie but aren't quite there yet and get knots in their shoes or shoes of their friends which I get to untangle.  We have a lot of untied shoes that we have to deal with throughout the day, and several children who are playing with their shoe laces, tying and untying during lessons.  I need your help in teaching your children to tie their shoes.  Just five minutes of practice would go a long way in helping them learn.  Start with having them do the first part, then help with the tricky part of looping and pulling them through to make the bow. 

I'm attaching a video of the book The Spiffiest Giant in Town.  It's a British version, so you may need to translate a few words!  It sounds very fancy with the storyteller having a British accent.  The video has two parts.   Enjoy!
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Have a nice evening!
Miss Wolfe