We Have Been Busy!

Wow!  We have been so busy these past few weeks!

We celebrated Grandparent's Day and enjoyed visiting with our special guest.

The students have been working hard during Writer's Workshop each day!
Since we are beginner readers and writers, the students are focusing on telling stories with their illustrations.  After they have drawn detailed illustrations I encourage them to add labels to their pictures and attempt writing that matches their illustrations.

Our writing unit focuses on the Writing Standard:
I can use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event. (W.K.3)

We have also learned a few new games to practice letters and sounds.

The students enjoy playing "Skeeter Swat".  I call out a letter, or a letter sound, and the first student to swat the letter with the flyswatter gets to continue playing. This game is a class favorite! 

We like to fish, too!  Last week we went fishing for letters, words, and numbers during Morning Meeting.  As the students pulled a "fish" from the pond they sorted them in a pocket chart.

Here a few pictures of the students working hard at our classroom enrichment centers.

Check back soon to see the Literacy Centers we are learning about and the many activities we are doing during our unit on apples!

Learning About Colors and Goldfish

Last week was great!

We continued to practice our classroom routines and procedures.

We use Mr. Potato head pieces to remind us of our classroom rules:

I keep my eyes on my teachers, use listening ears, use an inside voice, use working hands and keep my hands to myself, and I use walking feet.

Last week we were able to finish some special projects using our names.

We made our names using torn paper in rainbow order.

The students also used letters from magazines to create their our own Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom trees.  After the students added the letters to their trees they counted and recorded the number of letters in their first name.

The students were excited to share their finished Me Cubes.  Thank you for your help and participation in making their projects!  It was fun learning more about each student.

We have also been observing and learning about goldfish.  

During morning meeting the students helped to label the parts of a goldfish.

Ask your student if they can tell you the parts of the goldfish and how the part helps the goldfish to survive.

Last week we read the book Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.

I introduced the students to watercolors and they had the opportunity to create their own fish.  The students enjoyed painting and they each did an incredible job!

We have also been learning and practicing our color words.  We use the incredible Heidi Songs DVD collection to learn and practice our sight words each day.

Click here for a video of the students practicing the color word green.

Check back soon for more updates!