Beginning Math Games

We've been doing lots of partner games lately in math with pattern matching and determining if something has more, less. or the same amount as another group.  One of the most common ways we do this is to draw a line down the middle of our desks.  One partner turns their back while the other partner makes a pattern on one side of the line.  When they are ready, the other partner turns back and matches their pattern on the other side.  This helps work on counting skills, matching up one-to-one, patterning, and number recognition.  I switch up the type of manipulative that we use to keep it interesting and they can always use higher numbers to make it more difficult.  

It's simple, but it works on so much!

Dia de los Muertos

Our class celebrates Dia de los Muertos with our Spanish teacher, Señora Gahan. We celebrate a little early so the kids don't get confused with Halloween!  They learn about a famous Spanish person,  dress up as them and give a short presentation.  After, we celebrated with horchata and pan de muertos! They did an awesome job!

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A Hunting We Will Go

Today we learned the nursery rhyme "A Hunting We Will Go."

First we listened to the song and sang it a couple times.  Then I pulled out a pocket chart with the nursery rhyme on it. 

I had each student take a turn adding the rhyming pictures of their choice to the chart and read it with the class. 

We then sorted our own pictures, glued them onto the pages, and wrote the correct words.  This will give us our own book to practice with and take home.  

Next week, this will become one of our stations during morning literacy time so they can practice more and take as many turns as they want!

More pictures are below if you select read more:

Independent Reading Time

Starting with the first few days of school, we've been working on building up our stamina during independent reading time.  We began with 3 minutes and now we are up to about 7 minutes, it's all about leaving them wanting more reading time! 

Before each reading time, I explain and model a strategy for reading.  We talk about things like what to do when you come across a word that you don't know and what to do if you don't know any words in a story. We will soon talk about how to pick the right book that are not too easy and not too hard.

   For now, I've been dropping books in their book boxes that everyone can read.  These are books that I intro with the class first and we practice reading them together.  They are filled with our sight words, predictable patterns, and picture clues to help with unknown words. This ensures that each student is able to read a book completely independently word for word during reading time. The most popular ones we've been reading are from the Trucktown series, they beg me for new Trucktown books!

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Mercer Slough

We went to the Mercer Slough on Friday in Bellevue.  Our day consisted of a nature walk and investigating wetland creatures in the lab.  We found all kinds of bugs, tadpoles, and fish!

There are more pictures if you select read more!

Family Groups

We had our first family groups yesterday! This is a time for students to meet with a mixed grade group and do activities.  The family groups stay the same year to year, so the students get a chance to really get to know each other.  I love family groups because it gives the older students a chance to step up to plate and help the younger students.  It also makes the middle schoolers seem less "scary" and helps students get to know more teachers and kids at our school.  

All we did yesterday was get to know each other and do some ice breaker type activities.  Each teacher chose their own activity, but I decided to do a superhero creation.  I had each student draw their superhero's costume, give their hero a name, and pick their power.  Then we went around and shared our superheroes.  It was really fun!

Next month we are carving pumpkins!

Toymaker

My favorite assembly and visitor we have all year is the toymaker! Rick Hartman is an inventor and shows the kids about all kinds of simple toys made out of wood and materials found around the house.  We attended a whole school assembly on Monday and then got to have our own workshop to make a toy today.  The kids LOVE this assembly and it's fun to see them using the tools and making everything themselves.