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| Which animal did you pick? |
Scavenger Hunts are always fun, so
why not have one using non fiction books? The kids all chose from our
varied selection and and searched for features of non fiction such as
headings, captions, fact boxes, labels, photographs, table of
contents, etc. This activity helped tie together our non fiction
writing genre and our science focus on classifying animals.
During Writer's
Workshop, each child chose an animal to research and discovered the
parts of that animal that help it survive. They described how the
animal uses their claws, beak, wings, gills, etc. to live and grow
and then went on to tell a few additional facts about it. We
displayed them in the hall, but first had fun painting in an Eric
Carle style and then cutting out our animal from the multi colored
paintings.
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| Painting fun |
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| Let's use every color! |
We ended the week's writing by writing a non fiction guidebook
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| These are coming out great! |
on a topic of our choice. There are a lot of little experts in here ready to share their knowledge!
In social studies we pulled out all the maps since our uint on maps has now begun. We have learned about the
compass rose, have played a game to learn the directions
for north, south, east, and west, and have tried our own hand at making a map. We read Me on the Map for inspiration.
Do you know what time it is? We have been learning to tell time to the hour and to the half hour during math. Everyone has their own mini clock to work with and they are catching on quickly. This week on vacation, call attention to the clocks in your own house - clocks on the microwave, oven, ipad, computer, phone, wall, alarm clock, car....
Do you remember the classic story of The Velveteen Rabbit? It is a bit long but the kids were so engaged with the plight of the little rabbit. We also read The Run Away Chick, When Spring Comes, and The Golden Egg Book which are getting us longing for the long awaited spring!
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| A favorite! |
In phonics we have introduced the /ight/ spelling pattern in words such as light, might, and sight. We are making words with the word family of /ew/ (new, few, dew), and we are getting lots of practice in our pocket chart center with the suffixes of s, es, ing, and ed. One day we played Go Fish with spelling pattern cards which was loads of fun.
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| Do you have /ee/? |
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| I'm looking for the /ay/ card! |
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| Did you get a match? |
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| Who has more matches? |
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| This is a fun phonics practice! |
We will be winding down our western theme and beginning a journey to the days of knights, queens, and castles. Our reading unit will be folk tales and fairy tales, and as we learn about the unique features of this genre, we will have a whole new selection of books to peruse along with a fun scene set up in our class library. We will also be making a project for this theme and could use empty tissue boxes, so if you could save them up over vacation it would be great.
We wished a Happy Birthday to Ayla this week. She was anticipating her birthday every single day since the week before!
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| Last pony ride to the west |
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| Black Beauty was a great read |
Here are a few final western activities and books. We read the original Black
Beauty story but also have a couple of other adventures starring this famous horse. Isn't there a movie as well, either by Disney or one made a long time ago?
Might be fun to watch!
Wishing everyone a safe, fun, and relaxing vacation, and hopefully one with plenty of warm spring days!
Mrs. Dagley
