Informational Reading and Writing

Welcome back! Your readers and writers are starting to learn about informational books! We looked at the difference between an informational and a narrative book yesterday and we found that informational books have… Real pictures, true facts, labels, and the books teach us something.

As we learn more about how to write an informational book- we know that we need to be an expert on the topic. Just because we think something is REALLY cool, doesn’t make us an expert. Please help your child brainstorm a few topics they could be experts on – so when the time comes, they are able to teach something else about their topic.

We brainstormed a few as a class yesterday: dogs, cats, soccer, football, baseball, dance, recess, your cottage, a favorite vacation spot…

Thanks for your help!

Holiday Celebrations

We have had such a fun week full of celebrations! Our Holiday Program was such a hit. The kids did an awesome job and looked adorable! We had a fun celebration this afternoon decorating cookies, making gingerbread houses and having a snack. Thanks to everyone who donated and came to help, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Snow Gear!

It’s supposed to snow this week!!! While the kids are very excited, it also means we need to be prepared.

Please make sure your child has snow pants, boots, gloves, a hat, and a WARM jacket.

Please send in extra shoes to keep in their backpack or cubby to change into when they come inside.

If students do not have all appropriate gear to be outside they will need to stand on the cement.

Thanks for your help!

Math

We introduced equations today in math! We are learning that the + sign means to add more and the – sign means to take away or get smaller. We practiced putting unifix cubes on a five frame today. 3 of one color and we would put three fingers up on one hand, and 1 of another color and put one finger up on the other hand. Together we would say, 3 + 1 = 4. We counted out fingers to make sure, and we counted the cubes as another way to check.

We did this same pattern with subtraction as I wrote the equations on a white board.

Writing

We are continuing to work on adding details to our stories. This story hand helps us to remember important parts of our story. Our readers should know the characters in the the story, the setting or where the story takes place, and the details about what happened in the story. We are also talking about adding a feeling to the story to tell the reader how we felt.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and time with family. Before break we read a story about Thanksgiving and made bracelets to help us tell the story. The black bead is for the hats the pilgrims wore as they got on the Mayflower, blue for the ocean they sailed across, green for the land they saw as they were getting close, brown for the turkeys they hunted, red for the cranberries that were gathered, yellow for the corn that was planted, and orange for the pumpkin pie that was made.

Each class made bracelets and when we got to the feast they traded with someone from another class.

We were lucky enough to enjoy some traditional Thanksgiving food and visit with friends.

Here are some of the things our class was thankful for:

*Siblings

*Religious Figures

*Food, Family, Lipstick

*Pets

*Special Necklaces