Saturday, October 17, 2009

Welcome Benjamin!


We got a new student in our classroom. His name is Benjamin. Welcome to our class, Benjamin!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Patterns, Trains and Hopscotch Paths

Our new unit in Math is on patterns. Making, finishing, copying and talking about patterns.... color patterns, shape patterns, number patterns, any kind of patterns we can think of! We started making AB patterns using linking cubes. We also made up patterns using our bodies: clap, stomp, snap, etc. We will continue with our Patterns unit until the end of November.
We will add AABB, AABAAB, ABBABB, and ABC patterns to our repertoire. Talk to your child about patterns you see in the environment!

Todd works on matching patterns in the duck folder game.

Laila completes a pattern of hanging clothes in a folder game.


Abby is practicing writing her letters...great writing, Abby! That's a kind of pattern, right?

We also have been matching numerals.

Great AB pattern, Grayson. Red-orange-red-orange....

"Look at my AB pattern," says Yasmin.


Joseph loves making patterns with his favorite color. brown.

Skills Block

During Literacy Skills Block each day, we sing the Alphamotions song to reinforce the students' knowledge of the letter names and the sounds each letter makes. We took turns last week holding up the letters during the song instead of Mrs. Beaver holding them all by herself. These pictures were taken the first day we tried it this way. Some of the students look a little lost...but after a few trials we got into the groove. :) We also do Phonemic Awareness activities, such as give me a thumbs up if these two words start with the same sound, or a thumbs down if they are different. Examples: fish / garden : thumbs down - they start with different sounds. Tianna / Tasha : thumbs up - they both start with the same sound /t/.