New Topics!

This week we have started many new topics of study. In Writer's Workshop we are doing a short unit on Writing Like A Scientist. Children collected things from nature on a writer's walk, and we are working on making representational drawings, adding labels and statements like "I notice, I wonder, or I think". We will be learning about pattern books with known words (I see the _____, I see the _____), adding spaces between words, pointing as we read and reread, and adding more (revision). Many of the things are revisits from the Launching but things the kids will start incorporating much more into their own books.

 

In math I introduced a new math tool called a Number Rack (also sometimes called a Reknrek). This tool, like ten frames, helps us decompose numbers and break them apart, helping children sense of number and quick recognition skills.  We practiced building what we see flashed with dots on the number rack, and are learning how five and ten can be broken apart in different ways.

We are also learning about something called Whole Body Listening. Ms. Heather (Speech/Language Pathologist) has been our guest teacher in helping us learn how Larry is a whole body listener, and how kids use their "social smarts" to think about how our actions affect others. We will be continuing learning about these social smarts and how to use them in the classroom setting.