Mammal, Bird, Reptile, Fish, or Amphibian?

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.

Painting fun

Let's use every color!

We ended the week's writing by writing a non fiction guidebook 

 

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!

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.

Do you have /ee/?

I'm looking for the /ay/ card!

Did you get a match?

Who has more matches?

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!

Last pony ride to the west

                                                                                                     

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