Some of our math centers for the weeks are:

Build a city--students rolled a dice and then counted Unifix cubes to make a city

Garbage--students tried to put cards in sequential order from 1 to 10

Oral Storytelling

This week in writing we practiced illustrating and orally telling a narrative story.  The Red Alligators wrote stories about the routine we go through in the morning before we are ready to start our day together.  Oral storytelling is a great way to introduce children to being authors, because actually sounding out and writing words can be very frustrating at first.  We will be adding words after more practice.  Above is a video of Xavier sharing his story. 

Character Traits

 

 

You've probably heard that this year the whole school is focusing on teaching character traits.  The ones we are explicitly teaching are posted above.  Last week we talked about the importance of being optimistic, and this week we practiced using zest!  As the year progresses, hopefully your children will be able to recognize these traits and if you notice them portraying any of them, please point them out to them :)

Take a Break Chair

In our classroom we understand that there are times when we all just need a break.  Sometimes kids (and teachers!) get angry, sad, or too silly and they need a place where they can go to calm down their bodies and rejoin the group to be successful.  We have introduced the "Take a Break Chair" to the kids as a place they can go to do just that.  After modeling how to use the chair appropriately, the kids are able to go there on their own when they feel necessary or a teacher may tell them to "take a break".  We practiced taking deep breaths and counting back from 10 to calm ourselves down.  We have found that this is an extremely useful tool that shows kids we understand that feelings happen, we just have to make sure we are in control of them.  It is important to us that the kids understand the "Take a Break Chair" isn't a punishment, but an appropriate way to handle tough emotions.

ABC Ya!

This week in math the kids were able to take turns on the computers exploring different math games.  One of the sites that they will use this year is called ABC Ya.  There are many number identification and ordering games, along with geometry activities that are great practice and very engaging for the kids.  The games are organized by grade level and many of them increase in difficulty as the students pass different levels.  We have limited the game choices for the kids here at school but you have access at home too!  Check it out: http://www.abcya.com/

Big Black Bug

This week the kids learned the poem Big Black Bug.  Before reading it we talked about the illustrations and made predictions about what the poem would be about.  Looking at the pictures of a book and making predictions about the story is a great comprehension and reading strategy.  Here is a video of the kids sharing this poem with you!

Classroom Rules

Since the first day of school we have been talking about our classroom rules.  Below are the rules that we have been checking in with and referring to when we talk about how the kids are expected to behave in the classrooms.  Please take the time to review these rules with your child.  You could even ask them which ones they remember!