Classroom Update

The children created new calendar markers last week for February. They colored in sharks, seals, and whales using crayons and then water colored the background. This month's pattern is an ABC pattern.

In Our Month of School chart, we are keeping track of how many days we are in school this month using pennies, which is a great introduction to coins.





We started our 5 Senses unit last week by accessing our schema (what we know about the senses). The children's responses were written on sticky notes and placed onto the chart. As we learn and read about the 5 senses, we will be adding our new learning to the chart.


Writer's Workshop

In writer's workshop we've been working on adding details to our pictures, including making the setting noticeable. We've also been working on adding punctuation at the end of our sentences, a very tricky concept. We will soon be learning about procedural writing (how-to books).

Reader's Workshop

Here are some strategies that we've been focusing on during reader's workshop, which can also be used with your child when he or she is reading their guided reading books (books in their reading bags).

1. Reader's point under words as they are reading.

2. Reader's read with their eyes.

3. Reader's make sure that the words that they read make sense with the story.

4. Reader's look closely at the beginning letters of words to help them predict the word.

Fundations

In Fundations, the children are learning about sounding out (tapping out) 3 letter words and then blending them together to form a word. The goal is for the children to apply this skill to their reading and writing.