We have had a great week in our classroom.  Monday was the 100^th day of school and we celebrated it with a Bubble Festival.  Not only was this a fun way to spend the 100^th day of school, but the children also learned a lot of science concepts.  They explored the properties of bubbles, discovered things that you can use to create bubbles and how to make bubbles of different shapes and sizes.

 Morning Meeting

Another component of our morning meeting is the Daily Data question.  After the children sign in each morning, they answer the data question that is posted.  Once all the children have answered this question, we look at the information that is presented.  With this information, we compare numbers, add and subtract results, make hypothesis, predictions and generalizations.    In addition to all of the math and science that we are practicing with Daily Data, we also work in reading skills when we look for sounds, word chunks and sight words in the questions.  Also, each day, I print out the Daily Data Questions and add them to our class Data Book so that the children can go back and reread the Daily Data questions during Center Time.  Here are some of the Daily Data Questions from this week.

-Do you like to play with bubbles?

-What was your favorite bubble activity?

-What is your favorite fruit?

 Shared Journals

The children are doing such a great job at journal time.  I wish you could hear the questions that they are asking and the points that they bring up during the negotiations.  They amaze me daily with their ability to think and reason.  This growth has really carried over to their writing.  I think you will be amazed when their January journals come home!

 Theme

This week, we have been researching the history of the circus.  We learned, that the circus originated in Rome.  We also found out that a circus back then, was much different to the circuses we have today. 

 Shared Reading

During Shared Reading, we continued to talk about things like the title, author, illustrator and other conventions of print.  We also talked about the difference between fiction and fantasy.  As we read our books, the children began to point out words and sounds that they noticed in the text and they also began to ask questions when these texts didn’t make sense to them.  All of these behaviors are especially important comprehension strategies.

These are some of the books that we read this week.

Bubble, Bubble- This book is about a little boy who buys a magic bubble blower and blows bubbles that come to life.  With this book, we talked about fantasy and we discussed how to sound out words containing double consonants.   We also took several things from story and practiced segmenting their sounds.

I Want to Learn to Fly!- This book is about a little girl who daydreams that she can fly.  It talks about all of the places she would visit if she could fly.  With this book, we made a chart of all the words we could make with the ending –ing.

Where the Wild Things Are – In this book, a little boy is sent to his bedroom for making lots of mischief.  While there, he pretends that he is in a forest and is king of all the wild things.  With this book, we worked on comprehension strategies.

 Center Time

During Center Time, we did more work on Goldie’s funeral arrangements.  Caroline wrote a song that she will sing during the service. 

We also worked on our circus fact books. 

William is having a body bubble made.

 Important dates & notes

Many of the children have taken their coloring books home.  We still need them in the classroom.  If your child has taken their coloring book home, please send one back to school.

 Tuesday, Jan. 30 – K registration

Tuesday, Feb. 6 – Learning and Lunch

Thursday, Feb. 8 – School Pictures