Our weeks are always packed full with learning and fun! This week was an especially big week.

We were waiting all week as our caterpillars were in the chrysalis stage.

We knew it could take 10-14 days for the butterflies to emerge, so we got busy with our new unit: plants.

We read some good books about plants including what is in the soil and what happens above the soil, what happens when the seeds germinate, parts of a plant, and the life-cycle of a plant. We will continue this next week.

Then we planted some green bean seeds!

The plants live outside during the week and I bring them in on the weekends so they don’t dry out too much.

In reading, we learned about long a, i, o, and u. We learned about “magical E” and how the E makes the other vowel say it’s name. We did a LOT of practice with this but will continue when we learn about long E this coming week. It’s going to take a lot more practice. I decided to go back and teach some important sight words that they didn’t know and will do this until the end of the year. This week’s sight words were am, is, are, and it.

I read lots of books to them all of the time (this is their favorite thing). This week I brought out my Mother Goose book and a Mr. Rogers Poetry Book. They love them both! I also read The Tale of Peter Rabbit among many other great books.

I was able to get all of the kids assessed this week except for the ones who were absent. I’m finishing up those report cards this weekend and they will receive them Monday. Now that I know where they are, I have split them up into groups: butterflies, ladybugs, bees, and caterpillars. I will start meeting with small groups during our center time starting this coming week. We will start reading decodable books and I will teach them reading skills through the stories.

For math we are learning coins! We learned about pennies, nickels, and dimes this week. I’m going to start doing a number of the day with them as well because I’ve noticed the teens are hard for a lot of them. We also do some math centers every day that include practicing subtraction, using pattern blocks, sorting, and more! During our calendar time every day, we talk about the month, day, yesterday was, tomorrow will be, year, and we count by 10’s, 5’s, and 1’s to 100. I often play counting by 10’s and 5’s songs that they get to dance to. They love that.

Thursday one of our butterflies emerged! Then the rest emerged on Friday! Some of the kids got to see it when it happened. It was a big deal. Monday after they have had some time to dry out and drink some “nectar” (sugar water), we will release them into the world!

As you can see, we stay pretty busy. We also have PE every day, art on Mondays, computer lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays, music on Wednesdays, lots of center time, and more.

I have enjoyed being with your kids, and I feel like I have always been there. I’ll be sad when the year ends!

I don’t have pictures of everything, but I thought I’d let you know what we are up to!

First of all, the kids are super excited. Their caterpillars have turned into a chrysalis and we are now in the process of waiting (patiently) for them to turn into a butterfly! It has been a super fun process to walk through the stages of metamorphosis (so far!).

In English/Language Arts/Reading (ELAR), we are learning long vowel sounds (long a and i, and all about that magical E). We have 4 sight words this week: out, know, take, and same. We are also learning about Text Features in informational text along with vocabulary from the books that we are reading. These books are Plants Feed Me and Planting Seeds. I read various books all week (I LOVE reading aloud and it’s so important for their reading development). Today we read one of my favorites: Miss Rumphius.

Every day we have some specific routines. In the morning, the kids do a page of morning work then they come to the rug. At the rug we do a lot of important things. We have a morning message; we do calendar time; count to 100 by 1’s and 10’s (5’s soon); read our sight words; go through letter cards saying the letter, picture, and sound(s); then we do a program that teaches something called phonological awareness. This is important pre-reading skills such as rhyming, saying the beginning sounds and ending sounds, breaking words apart, putting words together, etc. If we have time (we do most mornings), I read a book.

Every day we also do literacy centers (with some art and Legos/blocks for fun) and math centers. During these centers, I work with individuals or small groups on specific skills that need extra instruction and practice. I’m currently in the middle of doing a little assessing so we will pick back up tomorrow. I just assessed what letters and sounds that they know. We have some more assessments coming up as we are entering the final few months of the year.

I wanted to explain the behavior chart that comes in their folders. We use a clip chart system for behavior. They begin on “ready to learn” every day. They can move up or down based on behavior. When they move up, they have the opportunity to get something from the treasure box. If they move down, then they have a warning (think about it), a consequence (teacher choice), or I contact you, their parent (parent contact). I watch for behavior above and beyond so that I can move them up! That’s always my goal.

Lastly, a book comes home with your kiddo on Mondays. It’s important to read and re-read this book through the week. It may seem boring to do that, but it’s so important for your child’s reading fluency. It’s important for you to read to them as well! The more reading, the better. All around.

I’m always here if you have any questions or concerns! I will do my best to update the blog, but it won’t be every week!