Spiders

I think this week's unit on spiders is the most loved one so far! The kids are so into spiders and had so many amazing questions that were very specific. We spent a lot of time researching these questions if they weren't answered in our books! We started the week with fun fiction stories on spiders: "Diary of a Spider," "Miss Spider's Tea Party," and "The Very Busy Spider." We sequenced the events of "The Very Busy Spider" and practiced retelling the story from our sequence. But the kids definitely loved the non-fiction books the most! I switched books on Friday to read one about black widows because that was the spider they wanted to know about most. We made tree maps about what spiders have, can, and are to plan what our sentences about spiders would say and the kids wrote a ton of sentences about spiders on the white boards (by choice).

We also had fire station 43 come to school on Wednesday to show us the truck and talk to us about Fire Safety Week!

On Wednesday, our assistant principal watched us do math for the entire math block and she couldn't get over how adorable this class is! She and I were just dying at some of the comments said. You all know how much I love them, but it's so wonderful when other people love on them too! She said that our classroom feels like a family and I couldn't agree more! :)

On Thursday, the kids and I weren't feeling reading groups and probably could've continued researching spiders all morning. So I busted out some witch fingers and suddenly I was "my greatest teacher ever!" and they "JUST LOVE reading at my table!" which they normally do anyway, but I'll take it! They loved the witch fingers so much to track the words as they read, that I sent them all home with a witch finger in their homework folder. It was supposed to be their Halloween gift from me, but I couldn't wait!

Ask Your Child About:

-Phonemic Awareness: What is the final (ending) sound in top? (/p/) Cat? (/t/) Fox? (/x/)

-Phonics: What do we say for H? (h, hat, /h/) K? (k, kite, /k/), L? (l, lamp, /l/) Can you tap out these CVC words: mat, bus, fun, hat, fix? (we practice writing CVC words on the white boards and the kids actually ask to do it every day!)

-Reading: Identifying the setting, Identifying key details- What was the setting of "Diary Of A Spider?" (school & Spider's house)

-Math: decomposing numbers 11-19- Can you show me 14 on ten frames? What are the parts of the tree map? (14 splits into 10 and 4) What new math games did you learn? (Bump It & War) What are you practicing when you play those games? (Teen numbers & Greater Than/Less Than)

***If you happen to be at the dollar store and see the plastic soap containers (little tupperware type things) and would like to donate some, we will happily take them! They are the perfect card containers and then I don't have to zip a bunch of bags! :)

-Science: Motion- What are the different ways things can move? (fast like a cheetah, slow like a turtle) Can a table move by itself? (no) How can we make something that is at rest move? (push or pull) How did your team collaborate to make your car move faster?

-Writing: What goes at the end of a sentence? What do you need in between words?

Reminders:

-Please be practicing letter sounds & sight words at home as much as possible!

-When reading decodable books at home, please do a picture walk & talk before reading so your child is familiar with vocabulary and has made a story in his/her head! They will be MUCH more successful and less likely to guess at the words instead of using his/her strategies.

-Our Halloween party is Monday, 10/31, at 2:30 and the kids can wear costumes! Please check out the signup genius that our wonderful room moms set up! :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

With SO much love,

Ms. Ham