Butterflies!

Spelling- We began the day with a discussion of "ight" and "ite" both making the same sound.  The class reviewed their spelling list, orally.  Then, they created sentences with a few "igh" words, individually.  We worked on "ite" words later on in the day, finishing up with a review of the entire list.

Writing-  The class read their papers about their Christmas break.  They really enjoyed sharing their traditions, the dinners they had, and the presents they received!  I made sure to point out how well each of them did with capital letters and punctuation.  They have definitely made some major improvements in their writing!

Art-  In art class, Ms. Bev began a new, multi-staged project.  Today, they worked on background skyskapes, using paint.  They will be adding more to their projects next week.

History- Ms. Allison talked with the children about the Nazca people of Peru.  They created massive drawings that could only be viewed from the air.  Although the Nazca scraped their drawings into the Earth, our class created their stick figure drawing with flour!  They may have gotten a bit in their hair, but I bet they won't remember the lesson on Nazca!

Math-  In math class, the kids were given different groups of objects.  They had to say which group had "more" and which had "less".  Then, we worked on trying to find out how many more one group had than the other.  We used multilinked cubes to demonstrate every problem.  As they became more comfortable with the terminology (For example, "how many fewer red cubes are there than blue cubes?"), I began writing the number value of each group on the board.  This was so they could make mental connections between what they were calculating with manipulatives and the subtraction problems that it represents.  They really did a great job with this lesson.  It is a tough concept!  Continue to work on memorizing addition and subtraction facts up to 10.  It will help so much, not just now, but always!

Spanish-  Ms. Rose reviewed with the class their Spanish seasons, weather, and numbers today.  They discussed the weather that we have been having, as well as their favorite seasons.  They also worked on creating cards for their terms.

Science-  We are going to be raising caterpillars until they emerge from their chrysalises.  Ms. Caroline discussed the life cycle of the butterfly with the children.  Kids love butterflies!  Their little caterpillars are just larvae right now.  They are super tiny!  I can't wait to see how much they have grown when the kids come back next week! 

Language Arts-  We really learned a lot today!  The students learned how to put words into alphabetical order, which was a new concept for them!  We began by working through short lists of words, together.  These were very simple, and each word began with either an a, b, c, d, or e.  After they became comfortable with the process, they alphabetized some lists on their own.  As their skills grew stronger, I spaced out the words.  We had words that started with letters all through the alphabet, with gaps in between.  I was so pleased that it was a brand new concept for them, and they all nailed it!

We practiced adding suffixes that begin with vowels to words that end with a consonant after a vowel.   For instance, we changed "hop" into "hopping", "step" into "stepping", and so on.  They definitely remembered to double that final consonant.  We then practiced words that end with an silent "e", such as "hope" into "hoping".  Again, they did a great job of remembering to drop that "e". 

After the suffix lesson, we reviewed our grammar definitions for verbs and nouns.  The class pointed out nouns and verbs in many different sentences, acting out each verb!  Then, I gave each student a comic strip about a superhero dog!  The comic strip was chock full of action verbs, which we discussed.  Then, the kids colored the strips and fed them through a little "theater", making it like a little movie screen.

Keep practicing those grammar cards at home!  Committing as much to memory when they are young is so valuable!