December 1, 2009

Ms. Stern started reading Flat Stanley. Stanley became flat when a bulletin board fell on him as he slept. That’s how he got his name!

During Reader’s Workshop, we practiced reading smoothly and NOT like a robot! Good reading sounds like a person who is speaking. Robot reading is slow and sounds like there are lots of periods in between each of the words. To make robot reading sound better, we practice and rereading!

We played a few math games today. The first was a matching game that showed number words (one, two, three…). We had to match the word with the correct number of objects that went along with it. It was a piece of cake! We continued playing Toss and Make. We also played a game of Turkey Takeaway. Some people thought they discovered different strategies. Eesha realized that the last row was really important in figuring out who the winner was. Stephen played against Ms. Stern. Stephen won! Together, we realized which turkey is the one to get in order to win.

We played freeze dance and used the instruments. Everyone got different ones. We used them to go along with rhymes that Mrs. Fox recited. We also did the dances for Chihuahua and the Macarena from the Dance Festival last year.

During Writer’s Workshop we shared what good writing should include. Good writing includes:
·events or memories about things that have happened to us
·words and pictures that match
·dialogue (what people were saying)
·feelings and examples
·a good beginning (when, who, where)
·a strong ending
·at least 3 "what"s
·multiple pages
·a story and not a list
·spacing, legible handwriting, punctuation
·your best spelling

Everyone continued to work on their writing.