Unit 1, Week 4 - Pizza at Sally's / Everybody Works

     This week our focus stories will help us to answer the question, "What kinds of work do people do?".  We will begin with realistic fiction book entitled Pizza at Sally's by Monica Wellington.  Sally the pizza maker makes pizza. She grows tomatoes in the community garden for the sauce. She gets cheese in the shop down the street. She buys flour from the mill for the dough. We will follow Sally throughout all of her tasks as Sally prepares, mixes, and bakes delicious pizzas. 
      We will also work with an informational text--Everybody Works by Shelley Rotner and Ken Kreisler.  The photographs and simple text show us the many ways in which work can be accomplished.
     Through these stories we will be focusing on the following skills: identifying beginning sounds, recognizing words in oral sentences, pausing for punctuation, action verbs, and learning to use the text and pictures together to develop meaning.

High-Frequency Word: and   (Please continue to practice I, like, and the at home as well!)

Selection Vocabulary (Pizza at Sally's): customers, dough, famous, perfect, sprinkled, stretchy

Oral Vocabulary (Everybody Works): creating, delivering, hobby, and protecting

Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover images!

New Student Welcome!

We welcomed another new student to our class this week!  Say hello to Broynson!  We've truly enjoyed getting to know him this week! 

Intro to Nouns

This week we learned that nouns are words for people, animals, places, and things. In this activity, the students were having to complete the sentence "I see the __________." by drawing the type of noun that I called out on their dry erase boards.  

Wikki Stix Sight Words

I've gotten a little behind posting pictures from the last 2 weeks--sorry!  Here's a quick look into what we've been up to! 

Newsletter for the Week of September 9 - 13, 2013

Newsletter for the Week of September 9-13_ 2013 -

Unit 1, Week 3 - I Have a Pet! / Please, Puppy, Please

     This week we will be focusing on two realistic fiction stories that will help us to answer the question, "Why do people have to take care of their pets?"  The first such story is I Have a Pet! by Shari Halpern.  In this story, five children enter their pets in a show, and each takes a turn explaining the merits of his or her contestant, be it dog, cat, bird, hamster or lizard. Information on animal behavior, as well as care and feeding, are woven throughout. All the entrants give such swell presentations that the judge has no choice but to award everyone some kind of prize.
     Our second focus story this week will be Please, Puppy, Please, written by Spike and Tonya Lewis Lee and illustrated by Kadir Nelson.  Through this story, we are introduced to two young children who are celebrating the joys and challenges of life with their new pet. Puppy is exuberant, energetic, and as undisciplined as can be. The kids are thrilled with their 

uncontrollable new friend, chasing him, playing with him, and trying to get him to behave. 

     With these texts, we will be focusing on the following skills this week: beginning sounds, synonyms, story structure, and conclusions.  

High-Frequency Word: the (Please continue to practice I and like at home, as well!)

Oral Vocabulary Words (I Have a Pet!): cooperate, curious, interesting, slimy, smooth, and vet

Selection Vocabulary Words (Please, Puppy, Please): fetch, outside, inside, and please

Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover images! 

Newsletter for the Week of September 2 - 6, 2013

Newsletter for the Week of September 2 - 6_ 2013 -

Unit 1, Week 2 - Friends at School / How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?

     Our Informational Text this week will be Friends at School by Rochelle Bunnett, photographs by Matt Brown.  With this story, we will spend a day at school with a classroom of boys and girls, two African spur tortoises, and a guinea pig named Mocha. We will join Annie, Ryan, and all of their classmates as they learn and have fun while engaged in an assortment of school activities. Sara and Luka feed a carrot to Mocha, while Ellie and Molly put on a puppet show. Zane mixes up a "moo-shake" with bananas and strawberries at snack time, and Dash wears a fireman's coat during a field trip to a fire station.
    Our Big Book this week will be the fantasy story, How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?, by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague. We will join the fun as dinosaurs ride the bus, read their favorite books, and have fun on the playground with all their friends.
     Through these texts and small groups, we will work on the following skills this week: identifying beginning sounds, pausing for punctuation to enhance fluency, understanding characters and author's purpose, and making inferences/predictions.  

High-Frequency Word: like (Please continue to review the word "I" at home, as well!)

Oral Vocabulary (Friends at School): busy, company, container, job, scoop, and tortoises

Selection Vocabulary (How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?): bullying, tidies, fidget, and interrupt

     Thank you to www.biblio.com and www.scholastic.com for the cover images!  

Sorting By More Than One Attribute

"I Am Me!" Poem Recitation Video

Play-Doh Name Mats and Name Finger Painting--Fine Motor/Name Recognition Parts 2 and 3

Torn Paper Name Collage--Fine Motor/Name Recognition

September 2013 Menu

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September 2013 Calendar

September Calendar 2013 -