Family Reading Night

On Monday we will be sending home a notice about our upcoming K-2 family reading night. It is going to be Thursday, December 2. The doors open at 5:45 and the event will begin promptly at 6. There will be two stations. One will be a "make and take" area where you will make an activity to help your child learn sight words. Knowing sight words automatically is a vital component of successful reading. The other station will be a grade-specific session about our phonics program, Fundations. Babysitting will be available for younger children. After the sessions, there will be snacks. The CHES Literacy Committee hopes to see you there!

To practice reading and spelling sight words, try HANGMAN. :0)

Thanksgiving

In class we have been learning about Thanksgiving. One of the books we read was Thanksgiving is... by Gail Gibbons. Do you remember what kind of text it is? Remember, the question is not asking for you to make a connection (text to text, text to self, or text to world). Think about this...is the book a "character/problem/solution"? Ready for the answer? If you answered expository to the first question, you are RIGHT! :-)

Want to see an interview with Gail Gibbons? Click on her name. You can also visit her official website to learn more about her and find a list of all her books. Try one of these activities:

* In the comment box, tell about your favorite Gail Gibbons book.

* After looking at the list of Gail Gibbons books, tell about one you would like to read.

To learn more about Thanksgiving, check out National Geographic for Kids and try one or all of these activities:

* Read First Thanksgiving by Lyssa Walker. Post your 3-2-1 chart in the comment box (remember: 3 things you learned or discovered/2 things you found interesting/1 question you still have or want to find out).

* Read Thanksgiving Traditions by Sara Zeglin. In the comment box, tell us if you celebrate the holiday. Tell us what your family traditions are on Thanksgiving day.

* Check out the other Thanksgiving activities on the site. In the comment box, tell what you did. Some of those crafts look like a lot of fun! Those mini turkey pies look delicious!

* Look for other sites with Thanksgiving information and share them in the comment box so others can enjoy them.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR NEWER POSTS!

AFRICA

We have been learning about the continent of Africa in preparation for our study of Anansi the Spider. This week we explored this incredible place by helping Anansi find the missing pieces of the calabash on PBS Kids' Africa! After reading about it, we used the 3-2-1 strategy to help us remember what we learned, what we found interesting, and what we still wanted to know. Post YOUR 3-2-1 ideas (remember: 3 things you learned; 2 things you found interesting; 1 question you have). Posting will earn you a prize!!

Ordering Numbers

Numeration skills are essential for building a solid mathematical base for future math learning. Here are some fun games that will practice and/or extend skills we have been working on since the beginning of the year.

Counting Caterpillar asks the student to order five numbers from least to greatest. What is especially nice about this game is that the range of numbers can be set individually. The goal for first graders is to be able to compare and order numbers from 1-99.

Oldsmobile Cars asks students to order four numbers. The directions change throughout this game. Sometimes students are asked to order the numbers from least to greatest, other times they are asked to order the numbers from greatest to least.

Penny Prizes asks students to compare two numbers and choose the one that is either the greater or lesser number for numbers up to 99.

As always, let me know which games you like best and if you find any others that you think are fun. :-)

Word Family Practice

Working with word families allows students to explore spelling patterns so they can discover how English works. Understanding how words "work" leads to a deeper understanding and enables students to read and write well. To practice several of our phonics skills, check out Sadlier-Oxford Phonics. Scroll through the activities on the site. To practice identifying the digraphs we have been studying, use the games under the heading for second grade entitled Beginning Consonant Digraphs and Final Consonant Digraphs. The Word Drop games in both the K and Grade 1 sections will help your child improve their skills with sight words/high frequency words (typically what we refer to as "trick words" in Fundations). Quia also provides word family practice for some of the word families we have studied. Students will read a sentence and spell the word that correctly completes the sentence. Not only will they practice creating words, but they will use context clues to select the correct word. While playing with your child, ask how s/he knew what word was correct. Encourage him/her to tell you the words that helped determine the answer. Have fun learning!