Our Daily 5 routine!

Today we learned about a new tool called a "fancy finger!" We use fancy fingers to point to each word as we read. Fancy fingers help us stay on track by reading and pointing to one word at a time. We had a chance to practice our fancy fingers by reading a book we have learned!

We have recently been learning different components of what we call our "Daily 5 Routine." While I am leading reading groups, students will be doing one of five things: 

• Read to Self
• Read to Someone
• Listen to Reading
• Word Work
• Working on Writing

Today was our first day of following our "Daily 5 Schedule" and rotating between three different stations.

 Read to Self

 Listen to Reading

 Word Work

 Read to Someone

We have built 13 minutes of stamina for staying in one place and working the WHOLE time!

Today was our best day yet!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

Happy Birthday, Constitution!

Today we learned the word Constitution as we celebrated "Constitution Day." We read a couple of books about the Constitution, which is a book of rules written in 1787 for all of the people in the United States.

We then created "Happy Birthday, Constitution hats!

See you tomorrow!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

Sorting and Graphing!

This week we continued our learning about sorting. We sorted objects by color, shape, and size. We also practiced sorting words into groups such as nouns and words that describe. 

Today we read the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle. Afterwards we colored the animals to match the story. 

 Everyone then received one package of M&M's and sorted them by color to match the animal colors in the story. 

Our last step was to graph each color of M&M's.

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

Our Class Compliment Jar and Number Writing!

We filled our class compliment jar AGAIN! Our class voted to celebrate with an extra recess on the 3rd-6th grade playground! It was A LOT of fun!

During math we used white boards, markers, and erasers to begin learning how to write numbers 1-5. We learned verbal paths that make it easy to remember how to form each number. 

1: a car goes whizzing by. 

2: around the puddle, straight down the street.

3: around the puddle, around the puddle.

4: down the street, turn the corner, a car goes whizzing by.

5: down the street, turn the corner, around a BIG puddle.

Sometimes writing can be hard, but we know practice makes progress!

Thanks for a great day!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

Read to Self and Read to Someone!

This week we learned three different ways to read a book: 

• Read the words
• Read the pictures and tell your own story
• Retell a familiar story 

We also learned the word "stamina" means to do one thing for a long stretch of time. After learning what it looks like and sounds like to "Read to Self", we practiced building stamina! Our class record was 10 minutes 19 seconds of Reading to Self before an expectation was broken! We were all SO excited and proud!

Today we learned what it looks like and sounds like to "Read to Someone." In our classroom we can choose to read with another friend in our class or read to a furry friend. We learned this chant as a reminder of how we sit when we read with a friend so we can both see the illustrations:

Elbow, Elbow
Knee, Knee

I'll read to you
And you'll read to me!

It was a week filled with hard work! Have a great weekend!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

Measurement and toys from home!

Today during math we described the words: shorter, longer, and same. Each friend was given one strip of white paper and had to find another friend who had a paper the "same" length. We then had to find another partner whose paper was "longer" and "shorter" than our own. 

Afterwards we compared pieces of colored construction paper and had to determine which was "shorter" and "longer."

Yesterday we filled our class compliment jar to the very tip top! We voted to celebrate with "toys from home" which was REALLY fun!

See you tomorrow!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

September calendars!

In the past week we have talked a lot about the days of the week and months of the year. With the start of a new month, we worked hard to create September calendars! First we traced numbers 1-30 because there are 30 days in the month of September. Many of us traced our numbers in a color pattern. 

Next, we carefully colored a picture of an apple and cut it out to add to our calendar.

They turned out GREAT!

Many of us decided we may cross out each day as it happens and count how many days remain in the month of September.

See you tomorrow!
Love,
Ms. Conlee