Ms. Batte's Kinderland: March 2012

Monday, March 26, 2012

This week our Focus Story will be If You Could go to Antarctica by Fay Robinson. With this story, the students will be introduced to the creatures and terrain associated with Antarctica. We will meet penguins, seals, and humpback whales, just to name a few--as well as discuss icebergs, the weather, and why most plants cannot grow in this region.
Our Target Skill this week is learning to classify and categorize gathered information. We will also continue to work on making predictions, sequential order, and identifying the main idea of a story. The students will work to identify, form, and match the letter 'Ee' to its phoneme--/e/. We will focus on the short vowel sound this week.

Amazing Words: Antarctica, continent, icebergs, penguins, seals, whales

High-Frequency Words: go, here, from (Please continue to practice all of our "Popcorn Words" at home!)

Letter: Ee

Thank you to www.scottsboro.org for the cover image!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Newsletter for the Week of March 19 - 23, 2012

Newsletter for March 19 - 23_ 2012 -

Unit 4, Week 4 - Goldilocks and the Three Bears

This week our Focus Story will be Goldilocks and the Three Bears, retold and illustrated by Valeri Gobachev. This is the classic traditional tale of Goldilocks and her adventure in the home of Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear. We will follow her as she eats the Bears' porridge, sits in their chairs and attempts to find the perfect bed to nap in--each time coming to the realization that Baby Bear's belongings are just right for her. We will then discover what the Bears reaction is to stumbling upon her in their home, asleep in Baby Bear's bed.
Our Target Skill for this week will be identifying the characters within a story. We will also continue to practice making predictions, retelling a story, and identifying the setting of a story. We will work to identify, form, and match the letter 'Gg' to its phoneme--/g/.

Amazing Words: bears, porridge, cottage, big, middle-sized, small

High-Frequency Words: one, two, three, four, five (Please continue to practice all of our "Popcorn Words" at home!)

Letter: Gg

Thank you to Sam's Reading Blog (http://salinaghi.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html) for the cover image!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Lucky Charms Math

As St. Patrick's Day falls during our Spring Break, we implemented discussions/activities about March 17th into our Review Week this week. Yesterday, we sorted and graphed Lucky Charms cereal (well, the marshmallows, anyhow). I also tried to incorporate some addition, subtraction, number comparisons, and graph reading skills in there as well. Below is an example of the sorting mat used, and a student example of the graph:

Monday, March 5, 2012

Newsletter for the Week of March 5 - 9, 2012

Newsletter for March 5 - 9_ 2012 -

Friday, March 2, 2012

Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration

Here are some pictures from our celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday over the past 2 days. Most are from our rotations yesterday. In my haste to finish as much as I could before having to dismiss the kiddos early today due to the possibility of inclement weather, I was only able to snap a few pictures of the costumes and birthday cupcake decorating this morning.

In my Rotation, we focused on Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We estimated the number of Goldfish crackers in a goldfish bowl (607), read the story, and made red and blue Jell-O Jiggler fish.

Then, the students visited Mrs. Brown's room, where the focus switched to The Cat in the Hat. They read the story, made hats, and a Cat in the Hat cookie/candy treat.

From there, the kiddos traveled to Mrs. Shartzer's room. There they read Bartholomew and the Oobleck, discussed the states of matter (as 'oobleck' is both a solid and a liquid at the same time!), then made and played in their own "oobleck".

For their last Rotation, the students visited Mrs. Holmes' room to read Green Eggs and Ham, and then sample the concoction to decide for themselves whether or not they liked them.