This week in Readers Workshop we learned about characters. We have used this anchor chart to remember our learning. We worked on describing characters by their physical appearance (short, tall, blond) and by what they are like on the inside (brave, mean, friendly, grumpy). Monday we will be making connections to characters. You can help your child make deeper connections. Often, the students will start with connections like Goldilocks has blond hair and so do I. We want to go deeper. Chicken Little was brave when he stopped to talk to save his friends when the sky was falling. I was brave when I helped my friend make good choices at recess.
During the reading conferences, Miss Madarese and I have been helping the students to actually read words in the books. We have been making sure our spoken words match the text. If we are unsure of a word we look at the first letter and picture.
In Math we are wrapping up our unit on numbers to ten and sorting. Some of the students are still practicing sorting and explaining why they sorted the way they did. All the students do great if the headings of the sort are already given, but many struggle if they need to come up with a way to sort on their own.
Next we will begin to identify and describe shapes. We will focus on circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, hexagons, cubes, cones, cylinders, spheres, and rectangular prisms. The grocery store is a great place to go on a shape hunt.
This week Miss Kathy from the Derry Public Library visited us. She shared some exciting activities coming up in November. There are stories and crafts. She also reminded us that the library has books, games, movies, and video games. With the cold weather coming, it is the perfect spot to spend some time.
Wednesday night is Literacy Night for grades k-2 and Math Night for grades 3-5. Pizza will be served in the cafeteria from 6:00-6:30. Then from 6:30-7:30, teachers will have tables set up with activities for you and your children to do together. Hope to see you there!
