I can't believe I am writing the last February post for this school year! Even though February is a short month, I always feel like it 'feels' the longest. The weather is cold, the days still get dark early, and the rejuvenation from winter break has worn off.
As a school, we have noticed an increase in student reminders about following the Stormonth Way. We will be focusing on hallway expectation over the next several weeks. It is expected that our hallways have a 0 voice level in order to be respectful of the learning going on in the classrooms. Not only are we holding our students to this expectation, but we as teachers and adults are working on this too. If we expect our students to follow this rule, then we also have to follow it! Our PBIS team has some fun incentives they are working on to recognize classes who model appropiste hallway behavior! Be on the lookout for outstanding line and body basics when you come to Stormonth!
Here is a peek at our week!
We have been very busy problem solvers this week. We wrote, solved, and proved story problems with various unknowns!
We learned that various means 'different kinds'. Sometimes we are solving for an unknown total and other times we are solving for an unknown partner! We even learned that sometimes the first partner is unknown and other times the second partner is unknown! We learned all of this while still building strategies for solving problems with teen totals! Phew!
Here are some number stories we wrote!
Then, we solved each other's problems!
We continue to work on explaining our thinking to others. We got many opportunities this week to be the teachers and explain how we solved problems!
Pretty cool, huh!? I'm so proud of these kiddos!!
On Fridays, we have started focusing on our fact fluency. We are calling this day "Fact Fluency Friday". (Clever, I know!) We are practicing building our fluency in fun and engaging ways.
5 In A Row- solving facts and trying to get 5 squares in a row!
Power Towers- solving facts on cups and adding them to a growing tower!
Computer games- I have added some websites we know under the websites tab. Be sure to check them out for extra practice at home!
Reader's Workshop
We contined adding strategies for solving tricky words!
We added:
Break words apart part by part
This strategy is similar to 'chunking words' but rather than just looking for chunks in one way, readers might try breaking the word apart in serveral ways in order to figure out the tricky word. For example, in the word afternoon, some children might know the words after and noon. Others might need to break it aprt further into af ter noon.
Think about the kind of word
When we get stuck in a tricky word it is important to stop and think about what kind of word it might be. Is it an action word, a place, a rhyming word,etc.? This helps us think about what will sound right and make sense in the sentence.
Flip the Sound
We know vowels make more than one sound. If a short sound doesn't sound right, flip it and try the long sound!
Read the story again
This strategy is so helpful when we don't know exactly what a word means. We read the story Knuffle Bunny Too this week. We realized there were a few words we didn't quite know the meaning to, so we read it again. The second time through we were able to infer the words' meaning because we were already familiar with the story!
Word Work
This week we started focusing on consonant blends. We focused on the L blends this week: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl.
We started by sorting pictures by their initial consonant blends.
We made words with blends.
We alphabetized blend words.
And during centers on Friday we unscrambled blend sentences!
Our other Friday centers included:
Blend 4 in a Row
Spelling City (now with PERSONALIZED lists!) Children who knew all the first grade words were given some new high frequency words to study!
Making words
Science
We have spent the last two weeks exploring how solids can dissolve in a liquid. We conducted the experiment: The Great Sugar Race. We we exploring what dissolved faster- a sugar cube, or broken up sugar.
We saw very quickly that the broken up sugar dissolved quicker. Next, we explored water temperature. Would sugar dissolve quicker in warm water or cold water? Ask your child the results of this investigation!
In other news..
We were invited to the second grade character fashion show! It was so fun to try and figure out which characters they dressed up as! We did a pretty good job inferring characters based on their clues!
The bookfair is coming to Stormonth on Tuesday, March 10. It will be from 3:00- 8:00 in the cafeteria. The cakewalk is also happening that evening. Be sure to check it out! Mrs. Diamond and her crew have been hard at work making sure this will be a great time for your family!
We wi be having a classroom 'Coin War' all next week. The winning classroom will win an ice cream party. Even if we don't win, I still feel like we do since all your coin donations will go towards new books for our classroom! This bookfair always helps me stalk up on great books for our classroom!
Our field trip to the play Ivy and Bean is on Monday, Match 9. We will be eating lunch early that day. I strongly encourage you to send a bag lunch with your child that day.
I hope you enjoy the weekend!!
Love,
Mrs. Hogue
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