Ezra Jack Keats Author Study

 

We have had a busy week reading stories written by Ezra Jack Keats!  Here are some of the important things we did… 

   We engaged in an Ezra Jack Keats Author Study. He broke the color barrier in children’s 

literature with the mainstream success of The Snowy Day in 1962.  He believed that all children should be able to see themselves in the books they love. We agree!

Our centers this week focused on reading and writing CVC words and sight words, playing various learning games, and completing activities based off of Keats' stories The Snowy Day and Whistle for Willie. 

During Reading, we visualized the poem "It Fell in the City". We discussed which words helped us make pictures in our minds.  We also used the illustrations in the story Red Sled to discuss what was happening in the book. We echo read with attention to characters' feelings to build oral fluency and discussed the typography to build our concepts of print. We practiced visualizing while reading independently.  Finally, we learned these vocabulary words: grasp, observe, evening, and noiseless. 

In Phonics, we revisited the sounds and letters: Bb, Ii, Ff, and Cc. We learned two new power words: my and by.  We read a story titled Can it Fit? and wrote about the story. We continued working on word families, medial sounds, blending, and segmenting. 

In Writing, we heard and discussed good writing.  We wrote about our feelings and told our ideas orally before writing. We worked on writing from left to write and leaving spaces between our words.  We also used our word wall to help us.  We were introduced to three new power words: get, make, and when. 

In this week’s Second Steps lesson, we practiced two kind acts: asking, “Would you like to share?” and “Would you like a hug?”. Encourage your child to offer to share items at home. For example, have them help you make a snack and then offer to share it with other family members. Encourage them to offer hugs to family members or friends when they are tired or sad or need encouragement.

Looking ahead...

Early Release Day 12/19

Winter Break 12/22-1/5

We ran outside for less than 30 seconds to catch a quick snowflake. :) 

Have a great weekend!

Jena

David Shannon Author Study!

This week, we had another author study and read books written by David Shannon. Here are some of the important things we learned...

 Our centers this week included finding and writing CVC words, reading the book No, David! and writing adjectives to describe David,  playing CVC games including "Say It, Pop It, Write It", writing about Bad Case of Stripes, meeting in reading groups, reading books on RAZKids, playing CVC BINGO, and more! 

In Reading, we were introduced to the comprehension strategy of visualizing. We made inferences to a poem about cats and drew the pictures we made in our minds as we listened to the poem. We make tet to self connections to a story, talked about punctuation marks, echo read to build oral fluency, and learned to self monitor for comprehension while reading independently. 

During Phonics this week, we focused on tapping out sounds and switching out beginning and ending sounds in words. We wrote the sounds we hear. We revisited the sounds for /t/ and /n/, learned the word "play", added the -s ending to make words plural, and wrote about the story Sam and Nan Play.

Our writing lessons this week focused on hearing and discussing good writing, visualizing 

and writing about animals, telling our ideas orally before writing, remembering to

write from left to right and leave spaces between words, and using sound spelling and our

sound and word wall to help us.

For the next few weeks in our mySci unit, River Rescue, we will figure out key earth science and engineering concepts as we identify the problem of water pollution in our area caused by humans. We will investigate the problem by identifying and sorting different items by their properties, and researching how garbage pollution impacts other living things. We will make connections between how the garbage pollution caused by humans can negatively impact other living things, but also how humans can make choices to help other living things! We will use what we've learned about the problem to develop and test solutions that push and pull objects out of the water. We will explore other creative environmental solutions around the globe, and share our ideas for how to clean up garbage in the Mississippi River. 

We continued working on teen numbers in Math, specifically how to decompose a teen number with tens and ones. 

 In this week’s Second Steps lesson,  we learned that a kind act is something we can do to help someone feel good. We practiced suggesting kind acts to do for people in different scenarios.

Encourage your child to think of a kind act they could do for someone, for example a sibling, grandparent, or neighbor.

Looking ahead...

Thanksgiving Break 11/26-11/28

Scholastic Book Fair 12/1-12/5 

Book Fair Family Night 12/1 4:15-6:30pm

Class Visit to Book Fair 12/3

Holiday Happiness Drive ends 12/12

Early Release Day 12/19

Winter Break 12/22-1/5

Have a great weekend!

Jena