End of November

This is a major catch up post! So sorry for getting behind! Here's what we have been up to!

Math:

-We learned that 2-D shapes are flat and that a triangle has 3 vertices (corners) and 3 edges (sides). We made triangle man to help us remember that and also drew pictures of real world things that are n the shape of triangles. One of the most important things to remember about a triangle is that if it has 3 vertices and 3 edges it is ALWAYS a triangle, no matter if its skinny, fat, upside down or right side up!

-We have been working on decomposing the number 6 and double checking our work so we never do the same number sentence.

-We learned what the addition sign means and what kinds of words tell us to add: altogether, total, sum, both) We have practiced listening to story problems and drawing pictures of the parts and counting both parts to find out the whole. 

- We learned what "counting on" means. When we see two numbers that need to be added together we find the biggest number first, say it, and then add the next number from there. (Ex: 6+2....we would count 6..7, 8. Instead of counting back to 1)

Language Arts:

-Letter R, M and W are the letters we have been talking about. We know that the sounds of the letters are very important because letters make up words and when we know the sounds of the letters we can sound out words!

-During Daily 5 time your child is doing an excellent job of reading books, writing stories, learning sight words and listening to books...all great things to develop their minds into readers!

-Our word families have been en, et, and ed. Letter e is a tricky sound and we are working really hard to hear the /e/ sound and say words in these families. 

Writer's Workshop

-Last week we finished our unit on "How to" writings and we started a new one called "Writing for a Reason." In this unit we are learning that our words are powerful and when we want our reader to know something, we need to use powerful words so they can understand. We are learning that we can communicate with people through written words, not just spoken ones. 

Discovery

-Our two week unit on Native American ended Friday. We studied the Plains Indians, Southwest Indians and Northwest Indians. Although each area has a lot of similarities, they used different resources based on their environment to make homes, transportation and weapons. Tipis, pueblos, totem poles, clothing, food and traditions were the topics we covered. We made our own native american apparel and had a celebration at lunch one day. We are very thankful for the Native Americans and their kindness and friendship to the Pilgrims.