Learning Experiences

Reading- We focused on the name, sound, and formation of a and o this week. We practiced writing sentences as a group and counting syllables in 2 syllable words. We continued to play sound games to help us break apart and put sounds together which are essential skills for reading. We read and discussed non fiction books about fall.

Writing- We added, “write about something we care about” to our writing checklist this week. We read the book In My Heart by Molly Bang and thought about all the people and things in our own hearts. We made a class heart map listing topics we care about that we could write about. Each Monday we have a “sharing circle” in which the children have a turn to share about their weekend. Telling stories aloud helps the kids develop skills they will use to tell stories on paper.

Math: We played Dot Top It to practice comparing numbers to see which number is biggest or smallest and which numbers are equal. We continued describing shapes and learning about triangles. We played games to develop concepts we will need for addition and subtraction later on like the number board and pocket problems.

Science/ Social Studies- We enjoyed a Mystery Science video about if dolphins and sharks can have babies. We pretended to be quail, raccoons, and woodpeckers and learned that animals do different behaviors to find food! We also had a cool tool (school wide behavior lesson) about how to behave at an assembly.

Everyday Math:

You may have noticed that we seem to cover a lot of different topics each week, and revisit topics from previous weeks instead of sticking to one top at a time. This is because our math curriculum, Everyday Math, is designed to be a spiraling curriculum. The idea is to teach, reteach, and expand on topics over time rather than teach one topic until the students master it and then never talk about that topic again. We still practice topics until the children have mastered the topic, we just practice and revisit topics over time. This helps the children remember what they have learned more and see connections between different topics and concepts.

Everyday Math has a big variety of games, partner activities, whole class activities, and individual work. Our activities are very hands on and we do very few “worksheets”. We do have a math workbook we will use later on in the school year. A lot of our written math work will involve writing or drawing to make sense of a concept like a word problem, or a game recording sheet. Everyday Math also strongly emphasizes math concepts in the real world.

 

ST Math

ST Math stands for Spacial Temporal Math. This is an online game that kids play independently. ST Math is unique because the games are completely visual and don’t involve literacy skills like listening to explanations or reading directions. The kids help Jiji the penguin move across the screen in different ways while learning various math concepts.

Reading- We focused on the name, sound, and formation of c and o this week. We practiced writing sentences as a group and counting syllables in 2 syllable words. We continued to play sound games to help us break apart and put sounds together which are essential skills for reading. We read and discussed The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We also began literacy stations this week. The kids are enjoying a variety of activities that help them learn about reading and writing. As the children are able to participate in their stations independently, I will be able to work with small groups of children on reading skills each child needs.

Writing- We worked on following our checklist of steps to write which includes: put my name at the top, think and plan, draw with pencil first and show who, what, and where. We also read the book Ish by Peter H Reynolds which showed us we don’t have to be perfect but we can “think ishly”. “Thinking ishly” is a silly way of saying we try our best even if it is hard and that is how we learn and grow.

Math: We continued our work with counting.  Sharky the shark puppet helped us learn about numbers 8-9. We worked on describing shapes using words like straight, pointy, round, curves, sides, and corners. We also learned about repeating patterns and growing patterns. We played a fun game called Dot Match Up which is like memory using cards that show numbers with different patterns of dots.

Science/ Social Studies- We enjoyed a Mystery Science video about the biggest apple in the world. We learned 6 rules of living things to help us refine our understanding of living and nonliving. We applied the 6 rules we learned to a plant and figured out it was living!