A Bad Case of Stripes

     This week FLEW by.  Our mentor text was A Bad Case of Stripes.   It's a story about Camilla Cream, who LOVES lima beans.  She learns to be herself the hard way.  We also read about Poppleton who hated grapefruit but ate it because the man on TV said it would help him live longer.  I love when Poppleton's lips turn outside-in.  Some children have never tried lima beans or grapefruit.  Consider adding both items to your shopping list this week for a taste test.

     A Bad Case of Stripes was the perfect book to segway into our first science lesson on what plants need to grow.   We planted lima beans on Friday afternoon and predicted if we thought they would sprout by Monday morning.  The class was pretty evenly split.   Once they sprout, we will alter the amount of sunlight and water they each receive and keep record of our results.

     We have been practicing our math facts like crazy.  Xtramath is an easy way to drill and practice those facts.  Students have already logged on in class.   If you didn't get the information on how to log in at home let me know.

    I was SUPER proud of how well the children did during our ALICE drill on Friday.  I reminded them that they are the role models for the first graders and boy did they live up to the task.

   

Math Fun

     This week we practiced our addition strategies.  I encourage you to practice math facts at home with your child.  Memorizing them will make math so much easier for many years to come.  Here are some of pictures of our math lessons.

Adding Nine

Even / Odd

      Our mentor text this week was the Invisible Boy.  Brian feels invisible in school, even to his teacher.  This changes when Justin moves in.  The illustrations in this book change as Brian's feelings change.  It's a great story and lead to wonderful discussions and role playing about being aware of others feelings and how our actions can effect others.

     We also read Frog and Toad stories and David books this week.  It's hard not to enjoy the characters in these stories.

 

     It's hard to believe that today is the first day of fall  We have so many fun units coming up.  In my opinion, October is one of the most fun school months.

     

Great Start

     We are off to a great start.  Our new school is AMAZING and the students are even MORE amazing.  I lucked out with a wonderful class and it's been fun getting to know the children.  I predict a wonderful year ahead.

     Speaking of predicting, we practiced that skill all week.  Our mentor text, which just means story that we use as a base for lessons, was Edward the Emu.  I love this rhyming story.  Edward lives at the zoo and decides being an Emu is a bore so tries being other animals.  By the end of the story, he realizes he should just be himself.   We followed that book up with Edwina the Emu.  She went out looking for a job.  Be sure to ask you child how her job search went.   In addition, we read a non-fiction text and watched videos of real Emus.  We took the new information and wrote a paragraph, then drew an emu.  Super fun.

     We played a noun sort game and "around the room" deciding whether or not each sentence was written correctly.  Pete the Cat is one of my favorite storybook characters.  We enjoyed lots of his adventures.  Who doesn't love singing and grooving along with Pete?  It's also fun to look for his little  bird friend in the illustrations.  

     Math was a hit this week.  We played two math games in small groups, shark attack and a popcorn math doubles game.  Great addition practice. 

     Important, this Thursday is a half day.  Dismissal will be at 12:30.  Tune in next week, I promise to post some pictures of our class in action.