Santa Fun!

If you haven't written a letter to Santa yet, you can send him an email!  While you are at the site, you can link to lots of other Christmas activities!  Have fun!

Gingerbread Man

We have read three tales of gingerbread people during the month of December:  The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Baby.  Some of the elements of the story were similar while many of the details were different. 

Here are two other versions of the traditional story:

Version 1 and Version 2

Read each one.  Encourage your child to read as many words as s/he can, but support your reader as needed.  Students should know the "trick words" and be able to tap and read short vowel words as well as the words family words we have studied. Read further to find the COMMENT BOX activity.

I thought you might enjoy the song, too.

Source: reallyroper.blogspot.com via Ms. on Pinterest

COMMENT BOX:  Choose one of the following to do:
A:  Tell two ways the stories are alike and two ways the stories are different.
B:  Retell one of the stories in your own words.
C:  Write a new ending for one of the stories.

HOMEWORK 12-15-11

This week we took a ride on the Polar Express!  Students boarded the train with their tickets, listened to the story, and even received bells!  Enjoy the story again tonight and be ready for an Accelerated Reader test tomorrow.  The test will ask for details about the story. 

COMMENT BOX:  The Polar Express is featured on the main page of Storyline Online.
Underneath the LET'S READ IT! line, there are two icons that suggest activities.  Select one of the activities to complete.  You may complete the assignment in the comment box or on paper and send it to school.  Please let us know if you choose 'Related Activities' or 'More Activities' as well as which activity you have chosen.  For example:  Related Activity #1  or More Activity #4.  If you choose an activity that says "discuss", you should write your thoughts down in the comment box. 

HOMEWORK 12-8-11

For tonight's homework I have selected some activities that reinforce skills that we are practicing in class.  Although suggested earlier in the year, Tens Frame Addition helps students use tens frames to add two addends.  This week we practiced finding sums greater than ten.  We used two tens frames and then made a group of ten and added on.  For part of tonight's homework, select the link above and select the "ADD" activity.  Play until you have successfully completed 10 number sentences.

Next, practice finding a missing addend.  We have done several problems like this at school.  If your child struggles, remind her that the sum is whole and that they already know one part and need to find the other.  You may want to have pennies available as manipulatives.  If the question is 5 + ___ = 8, you can have your student take out 8 pennies all "heads up".  The part we know is 5.  Keep those pennies "heads up" and have her flip the others to show the "tails" side.  That is the missing part.  Play this game until your child has answered 5 number sentences OR the "free practice" for the day is done (this site only allows a certain amount of free practice daily; if you are responsible for homework for more than one student, you may want them to look at the computer at the same time and work out the questions simultaneously).

Last, go to Storyline Online.  We have begun to use Accelerated Reader at school.  It is a reading program designed to provide an incentive to read because they earn points and prizes.  Students read or listen to a story and then take a short comprehension test.  Listen to the story A Bad Case of Stripes and be ready to take a test on it.

COMMENT BOX:  What part of A Bad Case of Stripes did you like best?  Why?

Frosty-Day 2

Frosty ended up in our fish tank on Friday!  Maleia thinks he was catching fish to eat at the North Pole.  We can't wait to see where he will be on Monday!

Where's Frosty? Day 1

Frosty was quite mischievous on Thursday!  Tyler found him in our box of linking cubes!  After finding him, we took his picture and then wrote a class piece on PowerPoint to explain where he was and what he must have been doing in that box.  The class decided that he was building a "big, colorful tower" so he could escape.  Later, each student illustrated his own picture and wrote his own piece to show where we found Frosty and explain what he was doing.  Most of the class thought he was trying to hide from me!  Right before dismissal we received an email from Frosty!  It was EXCITING!!!  Check it out!!!