What did you think about the snow this past weekend? Crazy start to the spring!
The next two weeks will be filled with changes to our normal schedule. I will be spending most of my time helping out with MAP test small groups. I will be popping into the 1st grade classrooms to pull a group or two, but most of their guided reading times will be in the afternoon. This is also the time of year when activities at home start to increase. Your home schedule may look a lot like mine here at school. Don't forget to sneak in a time to listen to your child read, or snuggle up with a book before bed. When schedules start to get hectic, it is important to take that familiar time to slow down and escape into a good book.
See you in two weeks!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Week of March 21st
HAPPY SPRING!
Week Review: Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful spring break. This week we will be writing sentences about the stories we read and making connections between our book and ourselves.
Level E will be writing a sentence about our story that includes a word that has two vowels that come together in the middles of a word. Some examples may be: ow, ou, ea, etc. Level F will continue to work with word families & spelling patterns to help with unknown words. We will include some examples in our sentence writing. Level G will discuss how good readers think about examples of how a book is similar to something in their life. During our reading, we will stop and verbalize the connections we have with our story. Level H will also discuss "text-to-self" connections, but they will be given some sample questions to help guide their connections. This will help focus their attention on important connections rather than "surface/simple" connections. An example of a "surface" connection would be, "The character is a girl and I'm a girl." A deeper conneciton would be, "The character, Sarah, felt embarassed when she showed up to school wearing crazy socks when it wasn't crazy sock day. I also forgot the date of a special day. This year, I forgot to wear red when EVERYONE else in my class remembered. I felt so embarassed!" Level I and above will also work on making connections between the text and themselves. They will be responsible for reading the text and when they come across a connection, they will individually fill out a sticky note with the connection they have. Once the group has finished their reading, we will share our connections to the story.
Book/Author Suggestion: Song and Dance Man* by Karen Ackerman. I chose this story in honor of our Kindergartener's Grandparent's Day this week. In this affectionate story, three children follow their grandfather up to the attic, where he pulls out his old bowler hat, gold-tipped cane, and his tap shoes. Grandpa once danced on the vaudeville stage, and as he glides across the floor, the children can see what it was like to be a song and dance man. A wonderful tale of the special bond that a child and their grandparent can share.
*indicates that it can be found in the Sappington Library.
Parent Tip: This week there may be some parent/teacher conferences. This is a wondeful time to get things clarified and place you and the teacher(s) on the same page. It is wonderful to see how a child benefits when we all work together!
MAP testing will be held March 28th-April 8th. I will be a facilitator during this time. My time with first grade readers will be limited.
Finally, as we enter into the last quarter of their 1st grade year, I want to remind you to continue mastering sightwords (if they haven't already) and read, read, READ to your child.
Week Review: Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful spring break. This week we will be writing sentences about the stories we read and making connections between our book and ourselves.
Level E will be writing a sentence about our story that includes a word that has two vowels that come together in the middles of a word. Some examples may be: ow, ou, ea, etc. Level F will continue to work with word families & spelling patterns to help with unknown words. We will include some examples in our sentence writing. Level G will discuss how good readers think about examples of how a book is similar to something in their life. During our reading, we will stop and verbalize the connections we have with our story. Level H will also discuss "text-to-self" connections, but they will be given some sample questions to help guide their connections. This will help focus their attention on important connections rather than "surface/simple" connections. An example of a "surface" connection would be, "The character is a girl and I'm a girl." A deeper conneciton would be, "The character, Sarah, felt embarassed when she showed up to school wearing crazy socks when it wasn't crazy sock day. I also forgot the date of a special day. This year, I forgot to wear red when EVERYONE else in my class remembered. I felt so embarassed!" Level I and above will also work on making connections between the text and themselves. They will be responsible for reading the text and when they come across a connection, they will individually fill out a sticky note with the connection they have. Once the group has finished their reading, we will share our connections to the story.
Book/Author Suggestion: Song and Dance Man* by Karen Ackerman. I chose this story in honor of our Kindergartener's Grandparent's Day this week. In this affectionate story, three children follow their grandfather up to the attic, where he pulls out his old bowler hat, gold-tipped cane, and his tap shoes. Grandpa once danced on the vaudeville stage, and as he glides across the floor, the children can see what it was like to be a song and dance man. A wonderful tale of the special bond that a child and their grandparent can share.
*indicates that it can be found in the Sappington Library.
Parent Tip: This week there may be some parent/teacher conferences. This is a wondeful time to get things clarified and place you and the teacher(s) on the same page. It is wonderful to see how a child benefits when we all work together!
MAP testing will be held March 28th-April 8th. I will be a facilitator during this time. My time with first grade readers will be limited.
Finally, as we enter into the last quarter of their 1st grade year, I want to remind you to continue mastering sightwords (if they haven't already) and read, read, READ to your child.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Week of March 7th
Week Review: This week we are continuing to work on building words and making GOOD predictions while "backing them up". Level E will be building words using two vowels that come together in the middles of a word. Some examples may be: ow, ou, ea, etc. Level F will be working with word families & spelling patterns to help with unknown words. Level G will practice giving a simple one sentence prediction before we read our stories. They will be expected to give me a verbal explanation of WHY they think that will happen. Many of the students can make a guess, but they are not sure how they were able to make that guess. We will practice using important "tools" that are available to us to make our guess a GOOD guess: the front cover, the title, a quick picture walk, etc. Level H will also be writing a prediction but will be expected to write their explanation down as well. Level I and above will write good, supported predictions, but we will also stop during our reading and predict again. Students will understand through practice that a good reader predicts at the beginning of reading, but also DURING their reading.
Book/Author Suggestion: This week it is not a book or even an author that I will suggest to you, but a website. At http://www.slcl.org/kids/awards.htm you will find several book that are "Award & Medal Winning Books". The St. Louis County Library has made it easy for you to have access to titles and authors that have won awards/medals last year, and other past years. This is a wonderful place to start when choosing books at the library or for purchase. The Show Me Readers Award, is an annual selection by students in grades 1 through 3. They are wonderful books that can be found in your local library and in our Sappington library. I would love to know which one is YOUR favorite!
Parent Tip: My suggestion this week is to gather the materials you need to create a book with your child. This is wonderful project for you and your child to work on over spring break. Simply take several pieces of construction paper or computer paper, fold them in half and staple them in the center. On the outside cover, encourage your child to come up with a catchy title that will help readers predict what the story is going to be about. Maybe "Spring Break Troubles" or "Rain Again?" Then each day they can create one page in their story, including a picture and sentence(s) that fit the theme of their story. If I were creating a spring break booklet, I might make it more of a journal and have the student write what they did on their first day of spring break, their second day, etc. When your student is finished with their page, they can read it back to you. Once they are finished with their book, have them sit the family down and read the entire thing to them, showing pictures and all!!!!
Have a WONDERFUL spring break!
Book/Author Suggestion: This week it is not a book or even an author that I will suggest to you, but a website. At http://www.slcl.org/kids/awards.htm you will find several book that are "Award & Medal Winning Books". The St. Louis County Library has made it easy for you to have access to titles and authors that have won awards/medals last year, and other past years. This is a wonderful place to start when choosing books at the library or for purchase. The Show Me Readers Award, is an annual selection by students in grades 1 through 3. They are wonderful books that can be found in your local library and in our Sappington library. I would love to know which one is YOUR favorite!
Parent Tip: My suggestion this week is to gather the materials you need to create a book with your child. This is wonderful project for you and your child to work on over spring break. Simply take several pieces of construction paper or computer paper, fold them in half and staple them in the center. On the outside cover, encourage your child to come up with a catchy title that will help readers predict what the story is going to be about. Maybe "Spring Break Troubles" or "Rain Again?" Then each day they can create one page in their story, including a picture and sentence(s) that fit the theme of their story. If I were creating a spring break booklet, I might make it more of a journal and have the student write what they did on their first day of spring break, their second day, etc. When your student is finished with their page, they can read it back to you. Once they are finished with their book, have them sit the family down and read the entire thing to them, showing pictures and all!!!!
Have a WONDERFUL spring break!
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