**Family Circles!** On Wednesday, our Addams students had their first morning of Family Circles for the year! During Family Circles, all of our students spend about an hour with another teacher in a multi-aged class with students from all grade levels. With their family circle teacher, the students learn about important character traits, and lessons are designed to foster their social and emotional development. All family circles do the same lesson. Ask your child about it!
Highlights from Reading Workshop:
The students are continuing to learn about how good readers think about the books they choose to read. I've taught the students to:
1. Choose a book they are interested in.
2. Decide if they think it will be a fiction or non-fiction book.
3. Open the first page and either a) begin by telling a story or b) begin by making observations about the picture and teaching.
The students also practiced reading in a quiet whisper voice.
*I encourage all of you to practice rhyming with your child at home. We have played a game that everyone seems to enjoy and it's simple for you to do, too! First, pick a category (such as fruit, clothing, animals at the zoo, etc.). Tell your child what the category is. Then, you say a nonsense word and your child has to figure out what actual word (from the category) rhymes with it. For example:
Adult: The category is colors. GURPLE
Child: Not gurple! PURPLE!
Adult: BREEN
Child: Not breen! GREEN!
Adult: MLUE
Child: Not mlue! BLUE!
Highlights from Writing Workshop:
We are continuing to take turns being "storytellers" by telling the class stories from our own lives. To help with this, we made a Story Idea Chart. The students also learned these steps to telling a story:
1. Think of a story.
2. Close your eyes and remember what happened.
3. Practice saying it to yourself quietly.
4. Draw your story.
Highlights from Math Workshop:
The students are learning about making sets of numbers 2-5. They have learned about using our math trays and practice putting numbers 1-5 in sequential order every time we use them. They've also built sets of numbers 2-5 by using red and blue squares. I encourage the students to share their thinking by using what we call "math talk." When we use "math talk," we share what we are thinking with others. This helps others learn our strategy and thinking, which may be different from their own. The students practiced saying addition equations such as, "2 reds and 3 blues is 5. 1 red and 4 blues is 5. 4 reds and 1 blue is 5," as they made different sets on their math trays.
Highlights from Science:
We are scientists! We are scientists! We can closely observe the fish because we're scientists!
We talked about how scientists use their senses to make observations, and the students observed several different goldfish. They shared their observations within their small groups, and we made a chart of their observations at the conclusion of science.