Getting Back into a Routine

The children came back from the break ready to get back into a routine. They worked hard all well, but were ready for the weekend!


This month's calendar markers is a growing pattern, not a repeating pattern like we've seen in previous months. It's important for children to know that patterns can also grow in some predictable way. One Dot, Many Dots (our calendar pieces) is a simple growing pattern that adds 1 dot per day to a collection. The dots are put in groups of 5 to make them easier to count, especially when we are using bigger numbers. This is a great way for the children to learn how to count by 5's! We have been and will continue to use and understand words one/many, none/some/all, more/less, most/least, equal to/more than/less than when describing the markers on a daily basis.

Our Month in School Chart has us looking at ten frame cards and exploring the concept of odd and even. Ask your child if they can tell you if 3, 4, and 5 are odd or even numbers.

Another new work place was introduced in math this week. To play Count and Compare Butterflies, children play with a partner using one gameboard and a set of butterfly ten-frame cards. Each child draws 1 card from the pile and counts the butterflies on their card. The children compare their cards and decide who has more and who has less. Then, they place their cards in the appropriate box; the "more" box or the "less" box. The spinner is then spun, which determines who gets to take both cards. For example, if it lands on "more", the person who had the card with more butterflies on it gets to take both cards. The skills the children are working on when playing this game include 1-to-1 correspondence, comparing sets, and adding and subtracting.

As a class we've been working a lot with ten frames and sharing how many dots we see in the frames. This is a great activity that has the children justifying their answers! We also learned that all the -teen numbers begin with the number 1, which stands for one group of ten. We focused on the numbers 11 and 12 this week. We had fun writing these numbers on friends backs, in the air, and in a salt tray! We also learned how to represent these numbers using our math hands (show 10 fingers first, then 2 more to represent the number 12). Using Ten Frames and our math hands help build our understanding of numbers. A very important and successful tool in math! Next week, we'll be introduced to Rekenreks (info will be posted on the blog next week about these math tools).

The letters q and z were introduced this week during Fundations. We learned that q's best friend "u" always sticks with him (this is why you'll see q and u together on this weeks practice page). We learned that every word that begins with the letter q, the letter u always follows. We have also continued to learn that an uppercase or capital letter is used when we start a sentence and that we always end our sentence with some sort of punctuation (period, question mark, or exclamation mark). When you read at night with your child, have him or her find a period or question mark.

In Writer's Workshop, many of us have begun feeling comfortable exploring the idea of adding words (beginning sounds) to our stories. We also learned this week that we our stories should have a beginning, middle and end. This is something we will continue to practice throughout the remainder of the school year. Try to get your child to do some writing at home (writing grocery lists, labeling objects/people in pictures, writing about a trip or their favorite part of their weekend). The more they practice writing, the easier it will become for them!