Newsletter for week of 10-22-07

This week we worked on the letter “Rr”! We read a story about a sneaky raccoon, measured a racoon's tale and even cooked differerent types of rice (one sweet with raisins and one made with chicken stock...the salty, chicken flavored rice was the winner)! The kids loved bringing in items that started with the “r” sound and using the “mystery box” to feel them and guess what they were. Along with our color words, we added two more high frequency words to our word wall: “I” and “see”, we also worked some on the word “the” throughout the week. We’re continuing to work on end punctuation, looking for it in our reading. We use simple terms for punctuation, a period means you are stopping that thought, comma means you take a breath; exclamation point means “wow”. We also have started working on when to use upper case and lower case letters when writing.
Center Time:
We listened to the story Rumpelstiltskin and the kids seemed to enjoy this classic story. We talked about how “creepy” he was and about how greedy the king was in the story. We plotted the characters and this reinforced the story even more. We did word work at the light table, sorting letters and words into their beginning sounds. The students then had to transfer their work to the tracking sheet. We also measured a raccoon’s tale with different objects, this works on multiple math topics, measuring as well as counting and writing numbers. The students finished their pattern fish and we’ll be hanging them up in the room, they turned-out beautiful. We’re working on the sequence of events in a story using the words: first, then, next, last. We use this structure in our writing as well.
Literacy:
We read an Indian tale about “How the Birds Goth Their Colors”. The story was set in the woods a very long time ago and only animals were the characters. We had to really stretch our imaginations about how the wolf came-up with paint. It was so interesting; the kids first had ideas like going to buy the paint, just using pastel colors and using markers. They had no concept of using things in nature to create colors. After letting them think about it a while, and returning to it the next day, they came up with great ideas: using rock and scraping it and mixing it with water to make gray and white, using an acorn dipped in water then scraping it to use the color brown, sing grass and leaves smashed to create green, and even bark from trees to make brown! I wish you guys could hear the amazing conversations we have. The kids really think about things and come up with such creative ideas. I plan to take them into nature, gather materials and try some of the experiments they suggested to test their theories.
Math:
We worked on estimation this week, measuring each other with different objects. Children don’t always have an understanding of number concepts at this age therefore it’s important to work on skills continuously throughout the year. We also worked on symmetry, horizontal (I remind them this is like the letter “H” with the line across) and vertical (the “V” points up and down). We practiced this with their bodies at carpet, I called “horizontal”, they had to show me what that looked like; laying down, I called “vertical”, they had to show me with their bodies what this looked like, and everyone jumped up! Its great active learning and they love to be challenged.
We also touched on rotational symmetry; this was a real challenge for the kids. It was great, they were thinking so hard about the rotation, and turning it clockwise and counterclockwise. We did this many times during the week in different ways to reinforce the learning. We even did letter symmetry! The kids love the challenge of these concepts. I leave it very open-ended and allow any suggestions/answers, this let’s them drive the learning and I get to facilitate and they are the “thinkers”!
Writing:
We combined writing and math this week working on letter symmetry. Did it have horizontal, vertical, diagonal, rotational or no symmetry at all. This activity combined so many skills in varied areas. The students had to work on their letters, decide on their symmetry and then chart our findings. It was a wonderful way to combine learning. We also started working on numeral writing. We started by using the dry erase boards, the kids love using these. These boards can be found at most discount stores and I’ve seen them in the Wal-Mart school supply section with dry erase pens. It really encourages their writing by giving them a different experience.
I even carry them in my car for my own kids!

Reading groups are going very well! The kids love being called to my table to read daily.
I need your help getting the books back to school every day!!

Something fun on the weekend…
“Camp Chai Lite” at the JCC. The next one is November 10th, 7pm-10pm.
It’s babysitting and fun on Saturday evenings, swimming, games, and movies, the kids love seeing their friends there.
Call Laura Seymour for all the information.

Dear parents

Hebrew is coming along great. The kids are very enthusiastic about learning and all of them love to participate.
They love to sing in Hebrew and dance to Israeli music
We learned two new letters: “Hay” and “Vav”.
We also learn some new conversation words: Meh (from) Hoo ( he) Hee (she)
And Yofi (beautiful). The word “Yofi” is used in Hebrew as a praise word
The same as “great job” so you can try it on your kids if you wish.
The kids are able to have simple conversation now (like three-word sentence)
and they love to do it with pictures of the kids from Israel or with each other.
Vocabulary for “Hay” and “Vav”: Hagada ,Havdala , Har (mountain), Vered (rose)
Varod (pink) Vilon (curtain).
Have a great week
Leah