A Peek At Our Week!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed today's beautiful weather! It was another busy week in Room 115. Please enjoy a few updates below!

Important Dates:

March 31st:

Early Release Day

12:25pm Dismissal

Announcements:

Welcome Spring!

We had a great time celebrating the start of spring on Monday! To kick off the start of the new season, we read the story When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes, and wrote about our favorite spring activities!

Rock Your Socks!

Last week got off to a great start as we recognized Down Syndrome Awareness Day on Tuesday. Thanks so much to all those who participated and rocked their fun/crazy socks!

Curriculum Update:

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we practiced reading the sight word see. The children also continued to read  both real and nonsense CVC words, and worked hard to identify which category given words fell into.  Next week we will begin learning about the diagraphs sh, th, ch, wh, and ck, and discuss that digraphs are two letters that make one new sound.

Math

In math we continue to learn about geometry concepts in our Bridges curriculum. Last week's lessons focused on 3D solid figures, and we spent a great deal of time discussing the characteristics and attributes of spheres and cylinders. On Friday we had a great time participating in a classroom scavernger hunt where the students found real life examples of these two solids and many more!

A quick warm up before the big hunt!

The children found SO many different examples of 3D solids in our classroom!

Reader's Workshop

It was a busy time in Reader's Workshop last week as we kicked our reading skills into high gear! Our most significant lesson focused on words that end in the letters -ck such as sock, pack, and truck. We also took the opportunity to look at words that end in two of the same letter such as grass, ball, and puff!

Writer's Workshop

The "how to" writing continued last week during Writer's Workshop, and the children began to add more detail to their pieces. During last week's lessons we learned to include tips and tricks for our audience to make our "how tos" easier to understand and follow. For example, when writing a "how to" about brushing your teeth, it would be important to remind your reader to brush ALL of their teeth, not just the front ones. 😉

For our fun Friday writing we embraced the start of spring with a directed drawing of a tulip. The students added their own backgrounds and details to make their pieces unique, and did a great job writing sentences to accompany their work!

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K! 🍎

A Peek At Our Week!

 I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Please see below for our curriculum updates and highlights from our week.

Important Dates:

March 21st

Rock Your Socks Day 

Wear your fun/crazy socks

March 31st:

Early Release Day

Announcements:

Special Assembly

A BIG Boyden thank you to the Harney Academy of Irish Dance for putting on a wonderful assembly for us last week. It was amazing to see all of the hard work the dancers put in, and was also a great way to get into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day! 

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Thank you so much to all of the parents who met with me for spring conferences over the last two weeks. I really enjoyed chatting with each one of you! While there are no more formal conferences held this year, please never hesitate to reach out to me if you have questions or concerns about your child's progress in class. I am always more than happy to speak with you!

Curriculum Update:

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we practiced reading the sight words see and she. The children were also introduced to reading both real and nonsense CVC words. Examples of nonsense words include: nim, baf, and vog, and your child's ability to read these words accurately demonstrates their understanding and proficiency with short vowel sounds. If you feel like your child could use a little more practice with their tapping skills, have them try this fun game on Starfall.com!

Math

In math we learned about the Friends of Ten, or all of the different number combinations that can be added together to make ten! We learned that there are 11 ways to make ten, and that half of these facts can be called turnaround facts because they contain the same two numbers in reverse order (i.e. 6+4=10 and 4+6=10). On Friday we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by making shape leprechauns!

The students above practice writing addition equations where both addends equal ten!

Reader's Workshop

Last week in Reader's Workshop we continued to boost our reading superpowers as we used our turbo slider power to help us read longer words. We also learned about begining blends or clusters in words like cloud, tree, and grass!

Writer's Workshop

In Writer's Workshop we continue to work on our "How To" pieces! I am SO impressed with the awesome effort the class has been putting into their work, and the wonderful ideas they have for their how tos! Some topics have included: How to throw a party, How to cook a hot dog (camping style), and how to do a handstand. I look forward to supporting the children as they continue to work on their How To writing again this week.

For our fun Friday writing we did a directed drawing of a leprechaun! Some students chose to add a watercolor background to really make their leprechaun pop! Your child will bring their finished leprechaun home this week.

Free Choice Fun!

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Please enjoy a few highlights from our very busy week. 

Important Dates:

March 16th:

Parent/Teacher Conferences (Virtual Only)

6:00-8:00PM

March 31st:

Early Release Day

Announcements:

Filming Day 2!

Last Wednesday the students from the high school were back to film the next set of scenes for their movie "First Day". Things seem to be coming along nicely and the class is doing a fantastic job. We definitely may have some future actors in our midst!

Curriculum Update:

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we practiced reading the sight words we and he. We also continued to practice tapping and/or sliding CVC words such as hat, mug, and pot, and also built CVC words using magnetic letters.

Math

In math we continued to learn about two dimensional shapes in our unit on geometry! Last week's lessons focused on learning new games that help us practice identifying, naming, and drawing shapes such as circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, rhombuses, and hexagons.

On Friday we had a great time playing a game where students gave clues about a given shape (flat or curved sides, number of points/corners, etc.) and a volunteer had to guess the shape being described!

Reader's Workshop

In Reader's Workshop we continue to boost our reading super powers as we look more closely at the pictures in the books that we read, and use clues in the images to build greater meaning and understanding.  

Writer's Workshop

In Writer's Workshop our "how to" unit was in full swing last week! While our lessons on Monday and Tuesday focused on whole group and shared writing, by Wednesday the class was ready to tackle how to writing on their own. Some of the topics selected include How to Make a Pizza, How to Brush Your Teeth, and How to Tie your Shoes! 

Specials Fun!

Last week was also a busy one during specials! Some of the highlights include playing a violin in music and working with clay in art!

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon as we learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K! 😊

A Peek At Our Week!

 It was another fun and exciting week in Room 115! Please enjoy a few updates below.

Important Dates:

March 8th:

Parent/Teacher Conferences (In Person Only)

6:00-8:00PM

March 10th:

Early Release

Parent/Teacher Conferences (Virtual or In Person)

1:15-3:15PM

March 16th:

Parent/Teacher Conferences (Virtual Only)

6:00-8:00PM

March 31st:

Early Release Day

Announcements:

Parent/Teacher Conferences

A friendly reminder that spring parent/teacher conferences begin this week. The conference scheduler on Boyden's main website is now closed. If you did not make an appointment but would like to meet with me, please email me directly. I am looking forward to speaking with you about your child's progress!

Filming

The film students from the high school will be returning this Wednesday (and for the next few Wednesdays) to continue filming for their movie "First Day". If your child did not leave an extra shirt/sweatshirt at school for filming days, please have them wear the same top they wore last Wednesday to school this week. If you forgot what they wore please let me know. I took a class picture just in case!

Book Character Dress Up Day!

We had a great time celebrating book character dress up day on Friday! Thank you so much for all of your help with planning and creating such wonderful costumes. Click here to watch a video of our book character parade! 

The children also did a great job drawing and writing about their book character costumes!

Curriculum Update:

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we practiced reading the sight words me and be. We also continued to practice tapping and/or sliding CVC words such as hat, mug, and pot, and also built CVC words using magnetic letters.

In addition to our Fundations lessons, we also spent time reading words in the "ig" word family. The students had fun making ig pigs during center time!

Math

In math we are continuing to learn about two dimensional shapes in our geometry unit! Last week we continued to sort shapes by various attributes including size, color, sides (straight vs. curved) and number of sides and corners.

Reader's Workshop

In reader's workshop we started Unit 3 in our Lucy Calkins curriculum. This unit focuses on boosting our reading super powers! Last week the students were introduced to "picture power" and using the pictures in books to stregthen their understanding of the stories we were reading. During our lessons we used the pictures in stories to help us understand more about the characters and setting, feelings of the charcters, and to make predictions about what might happen next.

Writer's Workshop

Last week was an exciting one in Writer's Workshop as we began a unit on procedural or "how to" writing! To kick off the unit, the students enjoyed listening to many how to books including How to Make a Cupcake and How to Fish. At the end of the week, they used their how to skills to walk me through the process of brushing my teeth! This week the class will use all of their "how to" background knowledge to start writing how tos of their own!

Along with our  how tos, the class also enjoyed some fun Friday writing with a special directed drawing. In honor of Read Across America week, we decided to draw and write a sentence about the famous pigeon from Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. The end results were very impressive!

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K!