We have had a blast working on our Dr. Seuss unit this past week. We read some of the lesser known stories of the 48 books that Theodor Geisel wrote, many of which were new stories for most of our friends!

Language Arts

Our Author Study of Dr. Seuss lends itself very well to many language arts skills.  We started new literacy stations this week, focusing on Dr. Seuss throughout our different activities. We discussed blends and continued to work on vowel teams!  Also, we had a few activities about rhyming words. The kiddos love his fun and creative characters!

Writing

We finished our unit- Writing for a Reason.  This week the children wrote movie and book reviews. They had to tell why you should come see their movie!  They loved sharing these with their classmates.

Math

We also started new math workstations this week. I have been so impressed with the progression of math skills and the depth we have been able to go into each subject. The K-Kids have really been strengthening their number sense, mental math, and I have been pushing them to try and use different strategies (other than their fingers) to solve addition and subtraction problems.

Also, we took a closer look at our math facts and showing how to decompose the number in different ways.  The kiddos were all given a different number and had to show numerous ways to make it.  They used cubes and drew pictures to help them solve. It was fun to see how determined they were to figure out these facts on their own! Next, they wrote the equation on a Truffala Tree- these are displayed on the bulletin board outside.  

Happy Birthday, Isra! We had a celebration in the classroom and she brought in delicious treats to share with her friends :)

Reading Buddies

This week the 6^th graders came to visit and began their stories. Together the children brainstormed characters, setting, and plot. The 6^th graders recorded the stories and next week the K-kids will help add the illustrations to make their own books! 

Upcoming Events

This Friday, 3/16 is a half-day. School will be dismissed at 11:30. Please let Mrs. Orzoff know if your child will be staying for EDP.

The PK, JK, and K PALIO performance will be next week Wednesday the 21st.  Let me know if you need a Palio shirt.  I will provide more details about the event this week.

Spring Break- 3/26-4/9  EDP camp is available 3/26-30. There is a link in Mrs. Orzoff’s blog to sign up.

This week we wrapped up our American Symbols unit. Here is a peek at the week!

Language Arts

Literacy Station- This week the children worked independently in their poetry journals finding popcorn words, magic E’s and punctuation.  The listening station was a favorite activity with the story, Chicken Dance. The kiddos had to correct mixed up sentences by adding punctuation and correct spelling.  This was a bit challenging, but they did a great job trying their best.

For Reader’s Workshop we read the story, Abe Lincoln’s Hat.  The children made connections by drawing a picture of something or someone that was important to them.  They stretched their learning by writing a few sentences to describe their picture. The children enjoyed sharing their pictures and did a nice job listening to one another. 

We also disused a new word pattern in our “just right books.”  'If two vowels go walking the first one does the talking' ex, boat, moat, road, etc.   The children were detectives and searched for these 

 words in their books!  This is a great activity to try at home.

Math

Stations- In small groups I invited the children to visit my store where we practiced buying and selling different items. They enjoyed this real life scenario. Also, we focused on our base 10 blocks, a 10 rod and a 1s cube. They practiced using these to pull out a ten and adding ones to build numbers.  

Writing

In this unit we are learning we can write for a variety of reasons and we made a list together. The focus of this week was writing letters!  The kiddos did a fantastic job writing their 

 messages. 

Spanish 

The children discussed the ingredients in ice cream, wrote a recipe and then got to make their own!  What a treat :)

Social Studies

We learned about the Liberty Bell and finished our USA Symbols Book!

 Leader In Me

Habit 6 – Synergize 

We learned that synergy is valuing differences and then working together to create a better solution than anyone could do alone. 

We read a story about a soccer game, The Big Bad Badgers, which highlights the power and importance of working together as a team.

 Next week we will learn about Dr.Seuss!! 

Half Day- March 16th- 11:30AM Dismissal