Sunday, February 23, 2014
Unit 4, Week 5 - Duck & Goose / Curious George's Dinosaur Discovery
Our Focus Stories this week will help us to answer the question: What do scientists do when they discover something new? Both stories fall under the genre of Fantasy. Our first story will be Duck & Goose, written and illustrated by Tad Hills. Duck and Goose have to work at getting along - Duck doesn’t much care for Goose at first, and Goose isn’t fond of Duck. Both, however, want the egg that each claims to be his. As the two tend to their egg, and make plans for the future, they come to appreciate one another’s strengths.
Our second story this week will be Curious George's Dinosaur Discovery by Margret and H.R. Rey. Curious George loves dinosaurs, so he’s excited to visit a dig to look for real dinosaur bones. Will the curious little monkey help make a big discovery?This is a Review Week--we will be reviewing the following skills: Blending, Word Building, Segmenting Phonemes, Reading Rate, Synonyms, Sequence of Events, Drawing Conclusions, and Visualizing. We will also be reviewing the letter Ii and its corresponding long vowel sound.
Letter: Ii
High-Frequency Words (Review): of, so, many, where, from, came, but, is, how, find, this, on, into, that, your, who, here, they, will, be, go, for, soon, up
Oral Vocabulary (Duck & Goose): apologized, attention, confusion, notice, snooze, and webbed
Selection Vocabulary (Curious George): expected, display, museum, and quarry
Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover images and summaries!
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Unit 4, Week 4 - Nicky and the Rainy Day / Sheep Take a Hike
Our second story this week is Sheep Take a Hike, written by Nancy Shaw and illustrated by Margot Apple. This is a fast-paced, rhythmic, rhyming and poetic story describing a flock of sheep and their preparation for an upcoming hike together. Our Target Skills for this week include: blending and segmenting phonemes, pausing for punctuation, identifying antonyms, cause and effect, identifying the sequence of events, and past tense verbs. We will also be working to identify the letter Dd and its corresponding phoneme--/d/.
Letter: Dd
High-Frequency Words: go, for, here, they, soon, up (Please continue to practice ALL of our high-frequency words at home!)
Oral Vocabulary (Nicky and the Rainy Day): blizzards, boring, cliffs, impossible, jungle, and meadow
Selection Vocabulary (Sheep Take a Hike): bicker, compass, hiking, and tramp
Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover images!
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Unit 4, Week 3 - One-Dog Canoe / Atlantic
This week our Focus Stories will help us to answer the question: In what ways is the Atlantic Ocean special? Our first story this week will be One-Dog Canoe, written by Mary Casanova and illustrated by Ard Hoyt. This story falls under the genre of Fiction. "When a girl and her dog set out on a canoe trip together, they’re expecting a quiet afternoon for two. Then a beaver decides to join them, even when the girl protests that “It’s a one-dog canoe.” And when a loon, and a wolf, and a bear, and a moose all ask for a ride, it’s almost too much. But they all manage to fit in this one-dog canoe—until a frog comes along. . . ." 
Our second story this week will by Atlantic, written and illustrated by G. Brian Karas. The informational text and paintings in this story help to introduce young scholars to the power and grace of the Atlantic Ocean. The author details how many different professions (artists, poets, scientists, fishermen, etc.) are impacted by the Atlantic Ocean and why, as well as explaining how the ocean is always changing in shape and size, among other fun facts. Our Target Skills this week will be blending and segmenting phonemes, reading with expression, identifying author's purpose, using figurative language, and analyzing and evaluating text. We will also be working to identify the letter Rr and its corresponding phoneme - /r/.
Letter: Rr
High Frequency Words: will, into, your, be, that, who
Oral Vocabulary (One-Dog Canoe): canoe, dew, glided, paddle, peered, and crew
Selection Vocabulary (Atlantic): conquered, lapping, relatives, and scraping
Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover images and summaries!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Unit 4, Week 2 - It Is the Wind / From Caterpillar to Butterfly
Our second focus story will be From Caterpillar to Butterfly, an informational text written by Deborah Helligman and illustrated by Bari Weissman. In this story, a caterpillar comes to school in a jar and the class watches the caterpillar each day as it grows and changes. Soon, it disappears into a hard shell called a chrysalis. The process is seen through the children's eyes as they experience the excitement of observing the wiggly caterpillar, watch it molt, change into a chrysalis, endure the endless waiting, and stare in wonder as a Painted Lady butterfly emerges and dries its wings.
Our Target Skills this week will be: blending and segmenting phonemes, reading with expression, multiple-meaning words, determining sequence of events, realizing the importance of an author's word choice, and making inferences/predictions. We will also be working with the letter Gg, and its corresponding phoneme--/g/.
Letter: Gg
High-Frequency Words: find, from, but, this, came, on (Please continue to practice ALL of our High-Frequency Words at home!)
Oral Vocabulary (It Is the Wind): creaks, hare, hinge, howling, path, sways
Selection Vocabulary (From Caterpillar to Butterfly): ever, pumps, rush, tiny
Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover images and summaries!
Super Bowl Predictions (Writing Examples)
Be on the lookout for our class video detailing our Kindergarten viewpoint on the Super Bowl... Having a little trouble uploading it, but I hope to have it posted soon! It's too cute! (FYI--after tallying up our class predictions, it appears that 67% of our class thinks that the Broncos will win.)
Website Changes
If you visit our website frequently, you may have noticed that it has a new "look". The site which created the previous design has decided that it can no longer afford to offer its designs for free and has taken them down off of the websites that were currently using them. As such, I will be temporarily using this free design offered by Blogger until I can locate something better!