Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Busy, busy, busy!!

It's been awhile since I've posted...

Here's what we've been working on with the firsties:

Reading:  We started our guided reading groups last Thursday and so far these seem to be going really well.  In my room I am alternating 5 groups of kids at a time.  Each group sees me every other day so that we can have an extended amount of time to read.  We're gradually working up to doing all of our Daily 5 activities (which include word work, listening to reading, reading to self, reading with a partner, and writing) and this is what the other kids are doing while I am working with a small group.

     We've also been learning about animal habitats.  Last week we read a story about the red-eyed tree frog that lives in the rain forests of Costa Rica.  This week it's all about deserts.  We're focusing our brains on thinking about how animals survive in the desert, especially with little water and hot temperatures.

Writing:  After going to Lazy 5, we wrote about our experience by writing at least 3 sentences and drawing a picture.  We're now in the process of revising this work and then publishing our work so that we can share with others.  The revising is a difficult concept because most of the kids want to just write their story and move on rather than reading over it and making changes (which is VERY hard for the kids to be willing to do).

                                      



Math:  We started measurement this week during our math block.  Yesterday we got to use cubes to measure different things in our desks, while today we scooped cubes out of the math tubs and then built towers so that we could order them from smallest to largest.




Science:  It was Play-doh fun today! We've started a unit on force and motion so today we broke out the Play-doh and then made different objects that would either roll, spin, slide, or move back and forth.