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Classroom News |
November 7, 2009
Dear K3 Families,
The weather continues to be chilly. Please remember to send your children in to school with a warm jacket, hat, and gloves. We go outside every day when it is not raining.
In Reader's Workshop, we concluded our author study of Cynthia Rylant. We read Poppleton in Winter, Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book, and The Relatives Came. We discussed our observations about Cynthia Rylant as a writer and focused on one observation that she writes many stories about friends. The children then generated a list of the friends in some of her stories. We also spent some time establishing long-term partnerships within our class. When you look at your child's nametag on his or her table, you will see the photos of three classmates taped above it. These children will be your child's partners during our classroom discussions. We call them our "blue," "red," and "yellow" partners. A conference I attended last year highlighted the importance of utilizing long-term partnerships in the classroom. The best way to learn is to talk about what you are learning. Partnerships provide the children with an avenue for this discussion. We utilized these partnerships when we discussed examples of friendships in Cynthia Rylant's books. The children met with their partners before contributing to the classroom discussion. We will continue to utilize these partnerships throughout the year. Finally, we reviewed the purpose of reading non-fiction books (to learn) and classified cookbooks as non-fiction. The children then followed a recipe to make pumpkin cupcakes and taste-tested their creations.
In Guided Reading groups, the children variously practiced identifying the "m" sound (/m/) within words, reading and spelling sight words, reading a text fluently using punctuation marks, and learning the words in the "ar" word family (bar, car, far, mar, par, star, tar). We also used a poem, "No Nap for Me" for differentiate between the /m/ and /n/.
In Writer's Workshop, we reviewed the importance of slowly sounding out the words in our stories and practiced this skill as a group and individually. We also focused on the importance of adding accurate details to our illustrations. In particular, we discussed clothing, hair color and style, and skin color. Our classroom wordless books prove that a good story can be told exclusively through illustration. Our classroom authors were encouraged to use these books for inspiration.
In Religion, the children learned about St. Katharine Drexel whose feast day is March 3. St. Katharine Drexel is only the second recognized American-born saint. She was born into a wealthy Philadelphia family in 1858. When her parents died, she used her family fortune to build mission schools for poor children. St. Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament whose members teach in the schools she built. We also learned about the Feast of All Saints which is celebrated on November 1. This feast day honors all known and unknown saints. We spent time praying to God's saints this week. Our Promise magazine focused on this feast day and the life of St. Katharine Drexel. We also read the gospel reading of Jesus teaching the beautitudes. We discussed the fact that the saints provide us with models for living the beautitudes. Finally, we prayed at Adoration on Friday.
We completed a rotation of Math and Science Centers this week. At the Art Center, we discussed the characteristics of living and nonliving things. Then the children sorted objects into two categories, "living" and "nonliving." At the Alphabet Center, the children used their Halloween word banks to classify words based on the numbers of syllables in each word. At the Math Center, the children practiced legibly printing the numerals from 6 to 10 in individual booklets, 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe. At the Writing Center, the children sorted the names of classmates based on the number of syllables in each name. They then recorded the names in individual booklets, My Name Syllable Book.
Callahan was our Star of the Week. She shared information regarding her favorite things and her photos with the class. Callahan filled our Estimation Jar with wooden socks and brought in a Dora the Explorer doll for the Mystery Bag.
We were blessed to have three guest readers this week. On Monday, Mrs. Curtin visited us to share Too Many Toys and Not Norman: A Goldfish Story. On Thursday, Mrs. Soller came in to read Snowmen at Night and Officer Buckle and Gloria. On Friday, Mrs. Duncan visited us to read One Duck Stuck and Dewey-There's a Cat in the Library. The children and teachers enjoyed all of these stories. Thank you, Mrs. Curtin, Mrs. Soller, and Mrs. Duncan!
There is no school on Veteran's Day, Wednesday, November 11. Enjoy the holiday!.
Thank you to all the families who came to support St. Pius at Barnes and Noble on Thursday, November 5. It was a wonderful testiment to our school community's spirit! Thank you to the PSA for organizing this event for us!
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to call me at school or send in a note. Have a great week!
Meg Smith
Mrs. Smith's Kindergarten
St. Pius X
