On Tuesday the gang was a little low-energy when gathered for morning meeting. Reading the crowd, I asked if anyone felt like a song. I made a request for favorite songs, and a sea of hands shot up! Skidamarink a Dink a Dink, Skidamarink a Doo was the first suggestion from the crowd, and we went around sharing collective favorites for 15 minutes. With this sophisticated group of children, it is sometimes hard to remember that they are little kids who need to sing silly songs, wiggle and jiggle, and enjoy a good round of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!

Nouns: Common, Proper, Abstract, Compound and Plural!

This week during Writer’s Workshop, we have taken many opportunities to discuss nouns of all kinds. One day I pulled 3 nouns out of the “Parts of Speech” box, “grandma, nurse, pilot”, and created a fictional story of my grandmother who studied to be a pilot for many years and became the first female intercontinental airline captain. One day she became sick on a flight and called for a trained nurse…. this is a great game to play in the car, at dinner, at bedtime or during a bath! The children know that it takes practice to create and tell stories, and fun to make up silly ones!

Because the Lower Elementary children have become more fluent writers, generating ideas and telling stories, we have started editing their work for spelling, capitalization, and for parts of speech. At home it would be most helpful to make time and space for DRAWING and writing without comments, judgement, and corrections. The more that the children read, and integrate concepts of print, they will become more confident and prolific.

If you could continue to read aloud to your children each night that would be very helpful! They are sponges for language and vocabulary, and many children are reading words in the classroom at Quiet Book Time that they don’t know the meaning of. While we read aloud in the morning and afternoon, we stop at discuss vocabulary and meaning. Many parents stop reading to their children as soon as they are reading for themselves (guilty!) but here is an interesting article about the benefits of reading aloud to older children as well. Why Reading Aloud to Older Children is Valuable

Fractions

Ms. Vanassa’s and I have continued our investigation of fractions with the students by labeling, cutting, and organizing fraction circles up to 12ths. The children have begun to notice equivalents 1/4 and 1/4 is the same as 1/2, and 1/8 and 1/8th is equal to 1/4. After telling word problems about fractions, doing some hands-on investigation today, Vanessa brought the whole group over to the unit blocks and led a demonstration of equivalents. We are going onto adding and subtracting fractions! Please take the opportunities to talk about fractions in real-life… cooking, sharing food equally (crackers, pizza, cookies), and really dividing anything into equal parts!

Happy Weekend,

Ms. Jen