Earth Day!

This week we read two books for our social skills lessons. The first book was Rulers of the Playground. We talked about how it is not ok for others to tell you what you can and can't do out on the playground. I gave examples of kind ways and unkind ways to suggest playing things outside. Eventually, the kids did not want to play with the two rulers of the playground and they were left to play alone. The other book,  I Need a Hug, was all about a porcupine who needed a hug but no one would give him one because of his spikes. At the end the snake wanted a kiss and all the other animals were running from him. They gave each other a hug and filled each other's void. We talked about how the porcupine felt and was being judged by his appearance. The students love these books that help to teach social skills because they can easily relate to them and them apply the lesson to their lives.

 

During centers this week, I met with each student and listened to them read. They have grown so much as readers. Students continue to love rotating through the literacy centers and doing different activities to help advance their reading. 

During our whole group lessons, we have looked at the 1st grade habits for solving tricker words. We have been reading higher level books and working on using these strategies to solve them as we read. Students know the three questions we use when coming to a tricky words: does it look right? does it sound right? does it make sense?

Students continue to read for 10 minutes out of their book box with books just right for them. Then, they turn and read to their partner for 5 minutes. 

In writing, we have been continuing information writing. Students are writing about topics they are experts on. We have been working on writing a lead, detailed facts, and an ending. In our writing, we have tried to add warnings or suggestions along with writing with proper upper and lowercase letters and proper spacing. We have been looking at examples of K, 1st and 2nd grade examples to see where our writing will grow over the years. 

Thursday, the student "Principal of the Day" came in to read us a book! The students loved it.

We celebrated Earth Day on Monday be going on a Nature Scavenger Hunt, doing some arts and crafts and wearing our tshirts!

Today, we had Mrs. G (Old Bonhomme parent) come in and teach our first Junior Achievement lesson. These lessons are economics lessons. We talked about what the word "choice" means. They had to look at pictures and decide which they would want.  She also talked about money and the bank. We look forward to four more lessons with her this last month of school.

Choice Time!

Read the OB newsletter for for school information!

Spring is Here!

We finished up our Second Steps lessons this week. We wrapped it up with talking about the whole program and reviewing what we learned in helping to identify and react to our emotions. We reviewed what empathy is and how to show it. On Friday, we read this book. We have many students with a competitive spirit in them and sometimes it is hard to lose. Therefore, this book was the perfect lesson! It is about a girl who really didn't like to lose and had very poor sportsmanship. She learned that winning isn't everything and to always congratulate the other team by saying "good game" and not making excuses as to why they lost. 

Next week, we will learn about our Olweus lessons which are about learning what bullying is and what to do if you see someone being bullied or are being bullied. 

Writing: This week we continued to be avid readers in poetry. Students read many poems and practiced reading with a beat. They also created their own poem to the tune of another poem, being a copycat poet. 

Theme: This week we learned about the five senses. We learned more about how our body parts work to make our senses work. 

Math: This week we learned about addition stories (word problems.) We read through problems carefully figuring out how to solve for the missing piece. Thursday and Friday we practiced addition is various math centers.

Read Aloud: This week during read aloud, we read my new Berenstain Bear books I bought. Berenstain Bears were my favorite as a child and now they have so many new books that are relevant to today's current issues our kids face. We read these and then talked about the moral of the story, what Brother and Sister Bear learned. 

Writing: This week we started our information writing unit. We read some information books and learned the purpose is to teach someone something. I modeled writing an information book and we focused on writing a strong lead to our stories to hook our readers.

We watched Magic School Bus this week on sound!

We went outside a few times this week to enjoy the beautiful spring weather!!

The Scholastic Book Fair will be going on next week! We will be previewing the books on Tuesday during the day with our 4th grade buddies and going to the book fair on Friday in the morning after PE. If you want to send in money on Friday, you may. However, Scholastic Book Fair Family Night is from 4-7 pm on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings next week if you would rather be with your child to book shop.

Please read the OB Newsletter. There is lots of important news!