Packer Day Friday

Packer Day Friday!!!

It is Packer Day this Friday!!!  Please wear Packer gear or green and yellow to support our team!  

GO PACK GO!!!

Pick Up & Drop Off Reminders

Pick Up & Drop Off Reminders

Please pick up and drop off your children at the main entrance to Oostburg Elementary School each day.  Please do NOT drop off or pick up where the buses drop off on New York Avenue.  

THANK YOU!!! :)  

Arctic Animal Study

Arctic Animal Study

Look at what we will be studying in our nonfiction unit
on Reindeer, Penguins, and Polar Bears!

Readers Workshop

· Generating questions about arctic animals using the words who, what, where, when, why, and how and then using non-fiction texts, magazines, and videos to find answers to our questions

· Identifying unknown vocabulary in our non-fiction books, learning the vocabulary by turning to the glossary, then using the vocabulary in our partnership conversations

· Describing what reindeer, polar bears, and penguins CAN, HAVE, and ARE

· Learning words with multiple meanings (buck &  buck, heard & herd, pray & prey) and thinking about other multiple meaning words we already know 

·Talking about what these word endings mean (-s, -ed, -less, -ful)

· Using KWL charts to decide what we already KNOW about the animal, what we WANT to know about the animal, and then what we LEARNED

· Identifying the main topic and key details of a nonfiction text

· Describing the features of a fiction vs. non-fiction text

· Comparing two non-fiction texts in a T-chart

· Identifying major events in a story

· Retelling stories with key details using the words beginning, middle, and end

· Summarizing a story

·Thinking aloud about characters, setting, and major events

· Recognizing and producing rhyming words
· Making text to self, text to text, and text to world connections from our books as well as telling why a part in the book is our favorite part

· Increasing our stamina to read independently for 40+ minutes

· Using our strategies to decode tricky words in our leveled books (Ask your kids what these strategies mean! :)   )
     - Eagle Eyes
     - Lips the Fish
     - Stretchy the Snake
      - Skippy Frog/Kangaroo
     - Peekin' Poodle
     - Flippy the Dolphin

Writers Workshop

We will be writing "How To" papers that teach our reader something we have expertise in!  Each of our papers includes specific steps that teach, numbered steps, a picture for each step, and labels that teach.  We have been including teaching diagrams in our writing and have also been practicing using the words you, first, next, then, finally, etc. in our papers.  With partners, we will be revising our steps so that they are both clear and specific, and also in sequential order.     

Here are items that we are continually working on to improve! :)

· Re-reading our pages to add more sounds or vowels in each of our words

· Using finger spaces between words

· Using "juicy words" that make details in our papers more exciting

· Writing in complete sentences

·  Increasing our stamina to write for 40+ minutes independently

·  Including a vowel in each word we write

·  Including correctly spelled snap words in our writing

·  Including motion, emotion, and speech bubbles across our pages to make our writing more exciting for others to read

· Giving our writing partners helpful feedback by providing them with ideas to make their writing more readable
·  Telling "Who, What, & Where" in our words
·  Showing "Who, What, & Where" in our illustrations

·  Using ending punctuation

·  Using only capital letters for the beginning letter of a sentence and names

·  Using a checklist to evaluate our writing

                                            Snap Words!

Keep practicing the list of 37 kindergarten snap words! 

These snap words are found regularly in our leveled reading books. 

We write these words frequently in our papers! :)

Math 

· Addition problems

· Naming shapes

· Telling about shapes and comparing them

· Counting and making sets

·  Identifying numbers 0-30

·  Writing numbers 0-20

·  Counting by 1's to 100

·  Counting by 10's to 100

December Pictures

Module 2A

GET INTO THE BOOK!!!

What a WONDERFUL first quarter!  Now, in second quarter, we are more deeply getting into the book!  During this next module, we will use a variety of comprehension strategies (making connections, predicting/inferring, questioning, monitoring, summarizing, evaluating) as we listen and respond to a variety of literature.  We will read cumulative tales, circle stories, and animal stories.  We will discuss the roles of the author and illustrator as well as define characters and setting.  Students will retell stories in a logical sequence and ask and answer questions based on the text.  We will continue our study of identifying words and pictures that rhyme, as well as producing our own rhyming words.  We will compare and contrast our Jan Brett stories as we think aloud about the characters, setting, and major events of each story.  We will read about "juicy" (descriptive) words while reading The Napping House and will include juicy words in our own conversations and individual work.  

·    

Snappy Words

                                 and, are, do, for, have, here, look, play, she, he, was

Please continue practicing sight word cards nightly :)

In Readers Workshop we will:
- Close our books and retell what happened in the book using the words first, next, then, last
- Monitor if we are reading too fast, too slow, or just right
- Practice using ALL of our strategies to help us figure out tricky words
- Make connections to the stories by sharing with our reading partner
- Re-reading our books to sound fluent
- Predict what will happen next or even after the story is over
- Choose fiction books to read for enjoyment and choose nonfiction books to learn new information
- Read a book and then tell facts/things they've learned from the book
- Ask questions before, during, and after reading a book
- Increase our stamina while reading independently

Please continue reading books nightly with your child.  

Our New Favorite Books

                                      The Napping House by Audrey Wood

                                  If You Give A … stories by Laura Numeroff

                                           
                                            Today is Monday by Eric Carle



                 I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (and other versions)

                                                 
                                                   The Hat by Jan Brett

                                  Fritz and the Beautiful Horses by Jan Brett

                                          Honey, Honey Lion by Jan Brett

                                          
                                           Hedgie’s Surprise by Jan Brett

                                              Annie and the Wild Animals

                                              
                                             Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

 In Writers Workshop, we will write narrative pieces again with a greater focus on print concepts, sight words, and awareness of sounds.  Students will focus on "true stories" about something that has actually happened to them.  We will work on:
- Beginning and finishing a new story every day (Beginning, Middle, End)
- Creating work that is "easy to read"
- Planning our stories first across our fingers or by touching our pages before we begin to sketch or write
- First sketching our pictures across pages so we don't forget our exciting idea
- Including the words "first," "next/then," and "finally/last" to show organization
- Stretching words out slooowly to write down one letter for each sound we hear
- Saying a sentence out loud before writing it down on paper
- Using finger spaces to make our writing "easy to read"
- Creating speech bubbles to make our people talk
- Including punctuation marks to show where the sentence stops
- Monitoring our own writing - writing a little, then re-reading our writing to see if what we have written makes sense
- Providing feedback to our writing partners to give tips on how to make our writing "easier to read"
- Including "juicy" words in our writing to describe people, places, or things
- Including sight words in our work and checking to see if we have spelled them correctly 
- Increasing our stamina while writing independently

Apples and Spiders and Bats, oh my!

Last week we finished up a nonfiction unit on apples, bats, and spiders.  We learned that readers read fiction books for enjoyment and nonfiction books to learn new things.  Unknown vocabulary words such as orchard, echolocation and arachnids were discussed.  Students created KWL charts where we discussed our prior knowledge, what we wanted to learn, and then what we did learn once the unit was over.  Diagrams and books were made to further our knowledge of each of these topics.  Our writer’s workshop unit also turned to nonfiction writing, as we were no longer writing about things that we did, but rather things that we know a lot about.  We look forward to future nonfiction units later in the year!

Upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences

Upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences

REMINDER!!! Parent Teacher Conferences will be held Tuesday, November 18th and Thursday, November 20th from 3:45 - 7:30 p.m.  We are all so excited to meet with you to discuss your child's progress.  Please return any paperwork that your teacher sent home by the given date so that we can prepare for meeting with your family.  Thank you and see you in two weeks! :)