Language Arts
*Read Alouds
The students have enjoyed listening to several stories about spring. Classroom favorites include: The Rain Came Down by David Shannon and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett.
*Letter Sounds
>Over the past few weeks we have been flipping over many new sound cards. The students have enthusiastically learned new poems for the following letter sounds: Uu, Gg, Jj, Ff, Ee, and Xx. Students continue to practice forming these letters in their Phonics workbooks and continue to listen for these letter sounds in the initial and final position of words (as well as medial positions for vowels).
*Phonemic Awareness
The students participated in several activities where they were asked to segment, or separate, words into sounds.
>As a whole class, the students were shown a picture card of a 3 letter word. The students had to name the picture, figure out how many sounds the word contained, name the letter sounds, and write the corresponding letters onto a grid (one letter in each of the 3 connected boxes).
>Students also worked to manipulate letter sounds on their own. In a game called “Say It, Move It,” each student received a grid with a butterfly on the top and a series of 3 connected boxes on the bottom. Students placed 1 block in each of the 3 boxes and were given a 3 letter word. Students then moved 1 block for each sound in the word. For example, I would say the word jug and the students would move 1 block as they said, “/j/ /u/ /g/.” Within the activity students identified the number of sounds in each word, blended the sounds to say the word, and named the letters that made up the word.
*Writing
 >The students have continued to work on their writing in their journals. Before the April vacation students heard a story called Flora’s Blanket by Debi Gliori about a young bunny who can’t sleep because she has lost her blanket. In the middle of the night the whole bunny family searches their entire property searching for Flora’s blanket. Students responded to the story in their journal by drawing and writing about their favorite part.
>Since vacation students have been working on pages for a Mother’s Day book.
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Math
Exploring 2-D Shapes~
>We began our study of 2-D shapes by reviewing the names and attributes of the 3-D shapes we had learned earlier in the school year. Students were introduced to the idea that the flat faces of the 3-D shapes could be used to create 2-D shapes. We dipped the faces of the 3-D shapes in white paint and stamped them onto pieces of colored construction paper to create circles, squares, and rectangles.
¡r¨ Within this unit students also:
>Learned to identify and name 2-D shapes. Because most students are already able to name the 2-D shapes we focused upon students being able to identify the shapes regardless of size and orientation. The students looked at a page from our Discussion Book containing 4 shape robots (there was a circle robot, a triangle robot, a square robot, and a rectangle robot). We talked about the similiaries and differences among the shapes contained within each robot.
>Made their own shape robots out of 1 of the 4
2-D shapes.
>Learned the attributes for each shape (# of sides and corners).
>Sorted the shapes by type.
>Graphed several 2-D shapes by the number of their sides.
Pattern Blocks, Sorting, and Patterns~
>The students worked with pattern blocks and were introduced to their names (square, triangle, hexagon, rhombus, and trapezoid).
>Students analyzed a pre-made pattern block design. They compared quantities as they created a graph of the blocks used with the design.
>The students learned to sort items by 2 attributes: type of object and color.
>Students revisited the topic of patterns at the end of this unit. Students described patterns made from African animals, dolls, and other artifacts on a Discussion Book page of ours.
>Students continued to identify, label, and extend patterns on their own.
Centers
We have one last round of centers this year with parent volunteers (April 21st – May 15th). A special thanks to all those parents who have come in to help us.
Over the past 2 weeks some of our center activities have included:
>Listening for beginning sounds- Dd, Pp, Nn
>Sorting classmates’ names by beginning letter
>Sight word bottles and puzzles
>Art- Creating daffodil pictures and pattern block designs
>Sorting teddy bear counters by 2 attributes
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