Here are the upcoming things we will be focusing on in our academics.
Reading - we will be talking about and studying the characters in our books. We will focus on getting to know our characters and how by doing so we can make predictions in our books and we can see how a characters changes and grows in a story. This week we will focus mostly on introducing character talk and really concentrating on paying attention to the characters in our books. I will use the character Mercy Watson from the Mercy Watson series to help us. We will do lots of practice this week together through these books.
We will continue to use our reading strategies to help us when we read. We have learned lots of different strategies to help us. Here is a list if you would like to know which ones the kids know:
* Eagle Eye (Look at pictures)
* Tryin' Lion (Keep trying)
* Helpful Kangaroo (ask teacher or reading partner for help)
* Lips the Fish (get lips ready for the first sound)
* Stretchy Snake (stretch the word out)
* Chunky Monkey (chunk the word)
* Skippy Frog (skip the unknown word, read to the end of the sentence, then go back)
* Flippy Dolphin (flip the sound in the word to the other sound it makes. Short vs. Long vowel, etc.)
* Vowel teams (ee - makes long e sound; oa - first one does the talking, the second walks away, etc.)
* Blends (fl, tr, sp, etc.)
* Diagraphs (sh, th, wh, etc.)
* Magic/Bossy e (makes the vowel say its name - cake)
* Ow/ou (bandaid sound)
* Ar sound as well as er, ir, ur
* Chunking a word by the consonant and vowel (band - b and, stir - st ir, stretch - str etch, etc.)
* Looking for big words in small words
I think this is all :)
Writing - we will be wrapping up our small moment writing and taking a break from it. We will move into Opinion/Persuasive writing next. This writing will be done in a letter format and the students will an opinion they have and give supportive reasons for their opinion. They will also try to come up with some solutions to help support their opinions.
Math - we are in the middle of our story problem unit. The kids will solve story problems using addition and subtraction. There will be missing totals or missing partners. Some extra practice at home with this will be appreciated, especially if they struggle with their homework. Take a look at the story problems and make up some just like it. Here are a few examples:
Jim has 4 strawberries. He gets some more strawberries. Now he has 6 strawberries. How many strawberries did he get?
Sarah has 3 red flowers and 6 white flowers. How many flowers does she have?
There are some birds in a tree. There are 2 birds on the ground. Altogether there are 8 birds. How many birds are in the tree?
I sent an e-mail out earlier today highlighting some things. Please take a look at that if you haven't already.
Finally, here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks - enjoy!