Happy Halloween!

Wow!  What a spooktacular day we had!  After a morning of Halloween themed literacy activities, we quickly got dressed (thanks to a few helping hands from parent volunteers) for our whole school Halloween parade.  We loved seeing all the different costumes!
In the afternoon, after computers, we were eager to begin our Halloween party.  Children snacked on some yummy treats and then had time to turn pumpkins into silly mummies.
A huge thank you to parents who donated party supplies, bought or made food for the party, or volunteered their time in helping with costumes or helping out with the afternoon fun.  The students and I are very grateful!
A special thank you to the Lisitano family who donated a class set of pumpkins for Pumpkin Day and this Halloween activity.
Miss Teixeira and I were able to capture many happy and silly moments from today.  Enjoy the Animoto video below!   Wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween! I am looking forward to hearing about tonight's adventures during writing tomorrow.

Favorite Stuffed Animal Day

Our school has been participating in Global Read Aloud along with other schools across the country and around the world. Global Read Aloud's (GRA) mission is to have "one book to connect the world. One book to read aloud." Mrs. Baker, our Digital Learning Specialist, has been coordinating this successful event from gathering books, to incorporating technology, to getting school staff members involved in classroom activities. The author and illustrator study for this 6 week event is Lauren Castillo.

Last Wednesday, Mrs. Baker read the book Twenty Yawns by Jane Smiley and illustrated by Lauren Castillo to my class. In this book, the girl, Lucy, falls asleep as her mom reads a bedtime story after a fun-filled family day. She later wakes up in a dark room where everything looks mysterious. After tucking her stuffed animals into bed next to her, Lucy is able to finally get back to sleep. 

 
Mrs. Baker invited our school nurse, Mrs. Marshall, in to discuss calming strategies with the class for times when students feel nervous or have a hard time falling asleep. Students learned the 4-7-8 breath. They breathe in for 4 counts, hold their breath for 7 counts, and then slowly breathe out for 8 counts. Children also liked the ideas of thinking of a happy place, finding a quiet spot and laying down on their backs, and listening to calming music with their eyes closed. 

On Thursday, each student brought in their own favorite stuffed animal and thought about what they enjoy doing with their cuddly friends. With the help of Mrs. Baker, everyone was able to make their stuffed animal talk using the iPad app Chatterpix. I then added all the videos into iMovie to make one class movie.

The children loved having their special friends join them at school.  A special thank you to Mrs. Baker for planning and organizing this great event!

How many seeds are inside our pumpkin?

We are very excited for Pumpkin Day on Friday when we will see if pumpkins sink or float, measure how tall our pumpkins are, and count the seeds of one of our pumpkins!  Today we made predictions or estimates of how many seeds the children think one of our pumpkins has inside.  To help educate the children on how to make a good estimate, I read them the book How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara.  We learned some important information from the book that helped us make our estimates.  Check out these cool facts we read:

•  Each line on the outside of a pumpkin has a row of seeds inside. 
•  The longer a pumpkin grows on the vine, the darker it is and the more lines it has. 
• The largest pumpkin doesn't necessarily mean it has the most seeds!

Check out our estimates!

Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and babysitters, we would love to hear YOUR predictions! In the comment section below, add your name and your prediction of how many seeds in this pumpkin!  

Hopefully the 8x10 frame can help give you some idea of the pumpkin's size.
Thank you for sharing your predictions!

Check back the beginning of next week for pictures of our Pumpkin Investigation Stations and to find out the actual number of seeds!

We can label!

Parents, do you know what it means to label? After today’s lesson, I hope your children have a better understanding of what it means to label a picture. A label gives the reader information about the picture.

When we learned about apples a few weeks ago, students were introduced to the word labeling.  They labeled the parts of an apple diagram and their pictures about our pumpkin picking field trip.

Today they got to label me, the teacher!

Yes, they can!

After, they had the opportunity to practice labeling on their own.  They each got two post-its and labeled something in the room.

I encouraged the children to go home and label the things around their homes – the couch, a table, their toys, a book, cat, anything! Rumor has it that you the parents might be getting labeled tonight – just a warning ;).

When they labeled, I asked the children to listen for and write the first sound of the object and, if they were able to, listen for the last sound as well.  For those who like a challenge, they tried the first, a middle, and a final sound! Associating the sound with a word they are familiar with is always helpful (i.e. /t/ like top if they are trying to spell table).

Labeling helps us to understand information in pictures and is a precursor to writing sentences. Recently, we started Writer’s Workshop.  I have modeled and the children have practiced beginning with an idea, illustrating it with great detail, and then labeling the people and things in their pictures. Eventually, they will be able to use those labels to develop their story and formulate sentences.  Children are learning that good writers have enough detail in their pictures to tell the story.  By the end of the week, your child should be able to confidently say "I can label a picture!"

I would love to share with the class what children labeled at home!  You can add a photo or sentence or two to the padlet below.  Simply click in the large, yellow padlet box, add your child's name as the title and either click on the camera to upload a picture or just write a sentence telling what your child labeled.  If you would prefer to email me a picture, I am more than happy to add it to the padlet for you!

When completing homework each night, encourage your child to listen for the beginning and ending sounds or the beginning, a middle, and an ending sound when labeling their illustrations.

Read to Self

We started Read to Self during Daily 5 a couple of weeks ago.  This is a time when children read INDEPENDENTLY!

We created a chart together to show what the job of the students and teachers are during Read to Self time.  Our brainstorming helped us to understand what the classroom will look like and sound like during this very important learning time.

Students were excited to get their book boxes and check out some new books as well as a few we have practiced reading whole class and with partners.  The first day, I challenged them to read independently for 3 minutes.  They surprised me by getting started right away and reading the WHOLE time for 4 minutes!  Now they are already reading the pictures and the words of their books for 10 minutes!  Congratulate them on working hard to build their stamina!

I am excited to have a class of eager readers!

While reading at home with your child, encourage him or her to find specific letters on the page (play an I spy game!),  help you by reading the words they know, or have them read the pictures before you read the words.  

We Are READERS!!!

Shhhh!!  Can you hear that?  The children are reading! Children have been learning there are two ways good readers read books. Good Readers...

1) Read the pictures

2) Read the words   

These five and six year olds have been doing both!  We started reading books that rely heavily on pictures to tell the story and have little to no words on the page.  Now we are reading simple "I see" and "I like" sentences. Students have learned other reading habits that good readers do.
Good Readers...

• Use their "eagle eyes" and look for details in the pictures to help determine what the story is about. 
• Point to each word as they read. 
• Look for letters and words they know.

We began practicing our 1:1 correspondence by pointing to pictures and then letters.  

Now we are reading easy readers that have patterned text and dots under the words to remind us to touch each word as we read.

Students practice reading each day!  Sometimes independently....

and sometimes with a buddy!

Students can now confidently say “I can touch each word as I read!” and are eager to share with you their new reading skills.  Commend them on this important reading milestone!

The next time you read a favorite book together, ask your child questions similar to these:

Can you point to the letter ___?

Can you find an uppercase/lowercase ___?

Can you point to the words as I read?

What do I do when I get to the end of a line? (Return sweep; start at the beginning of the next line of text)

Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1

Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.A

Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.B

Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.C

Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

Happy reading!

Fundations: Red Sox Style!

If you come into my classroom after morning meeting, you generally see students identifying letters and their sounds and writing the correct lowercase letter formation on their whiteboards during Fundations.   So far we have learned 7 lowercase letters: t, b, f, m, n, i, and u.
Today's Fundation's lesson was a little louder than usual. The children were surprised to hear we would be having Fundations in the gym as a special Red Sox Day treat.  We warmed up in the classroom with a quick letter, keyword, sound drill (t, top, /t/, b, bat, /b/, etc) then acted like our favorite All Star Red Sox players running the bases and cheering for each other, except with one important difference: the rules of Fundations baseball are much different than baseball at Fenway. 
The pitcher (me), gave each batter a word.  If the batter could tell me the beginning letter of the word, they could run to first base.  If they could name the first letter and its matching beginning sound, they could run to second base.  If the batter could name the beginning letter, sound, and state another word that started with the same beginning letter then they got a home run!

Karthik is a fast runner!

Ella got the first home run of the game!!  Way to go, Ella!

The outfielders had an important Fundation's job as well.  They had to write the beginning letter that the batter named on their whiteboards.

After three home runs, the teams would switch positions.  Everyone had a chance to be a batter and an outfielder.

I loved the encouragement, teamwork, and good sportsmanship from all the children!  I hope the Red Sox do just as well in tonight's first playoff game as their young fans did today!

Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.D
Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.1 (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.A
Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.1.A
Print many upper- and lowercase letters.