Mystery Readers

Mystery Readers continue to be one of the highlights of your child's week at school. Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to spend some time in our classroom.

Sam and Rilyn were happily surprised when they saw their parents walk through the door!  😊

If you are not signed up for Mystery Reader and would like to read to the class, send me an email at lhancock@topsfieldps.org and I would be happy to schedule you in!

Read-a-Thon Minutes with Raz-Kids!

Are you looking for a fun way for your child to earn more Read-A-Thon minutes? How about logging on to Raz-Kids for 15-20 minutes?  Your child can listen first and then read books perfectly tailored to their "just right" reading level.  He/She can also enjoy listening to stories from the Book Room.  Click the picture below to gain access to your child's online books! 

 Research shows that one of the best ways to become a better reader is for children to practice reading books at their "just right" reading levels.  You would be amazed at the progress children can make by finding an extra 15-20 minutes a day to read at home!

P.S. I have only received 3 Read-A-Thon Trackers!        

Please let me know if you have misplaced yours and I will send home another one.  

Common Core Standards:

Reading: Literature 1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

A Month of Celebrating Dr. Seuss

We have been having so much fun celebrating Dr. Seuss!  Our activities have incorporated several of the Common Core standards.
Our month long celebration kicked off  with decorating our door based on a book by Dr. Seuss.  We chose I Can Read with My Eyes Shut.  

Click the image to hear the story read aloud

On March 2nd, Dr. Seuss' birthday, we welcomed Dr. Creeden as guest reader.  Many of the children did not recognize him as Superintendent of Schools; according the children his claim to fame was being the narrator for the first grade's production of the Polar Express.  :)

Dr. Creeden read What Pet Should I Get? The book includes information about Dr. Seuss' life and he shared a lot of this information with the students.  

  

He also brought along a new Dr. Seuss book! This follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories features familiar Seussian faces and places—including Horton the Elephant, Marco, Mulberry Street, and a Grinch—as well as an introduction by renowned Seuss scholar Charles D. Cohen. Seuss fans will learn more about Horton’s integrity, Marco’s amazing imagination, a narrowly avoided disaster on Mullbery Street, and a devious Grinch. 

Click image to hear story read aloud

Many thanks to Dr. Creeden for donating these wonderful books to our classroom library!

After reading many of Dr. Seuss' books we discussed characters, setting and major events in the story. Then the children graphed their favorite book using a bar graph.

After reading There's a Wocket in My Pocket...

For more Dr. Seuss fun, explore the Seussville website to find books read aloud, games, activities, and everything Dr. Seuss. Click on the Cat in the Hat below to get to this fun, educational, and engaging website!

Reminder!

 Wednesday March 30th is dress up as your favorite story book character!

Common Core Standards

1.MD.4

Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.

RL.1.3

Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

SL.1.5

Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Rainy Day Windsocks

Essential Question that is guiding our learning:  How do weather changes affect me?

As part of our weather unit, we enjoyed a rainy day activity which integrated science, reading, writing, and creative expression.  To begin with, students drew rainy day pictures.  They were inspired by the pictures in several books we've been reading about rain:   To help get the creative juices flowing, the children listened to the following  Epic Rainstorm Audio while they drew.

After competing their fabulous drawings, the children each got strips of paper and were assigned to do the following: write three facts about rain, include their favorite book about rain, and write about what they like and don't like about rainy days.

Finally it was time to put the windsocks together.  Thanks to Mrs. Gustafson for helping with this project.

100th Day Fun!

On the 100th day of school we had a great day of learning across several curriculum areas.  The following are some of the activities in which your child participated:

They entered the classroom through streamers, celebrating being 100 days smarter!

Race to 100

The children each had a 100 box grid.  They took turns rolling a dice and coloring in the appropriate number of boxes.  The first child to reach the 100th box was the winner!

  

Name Mosaics

The children wrote their names repeatedly in a 100 box grid.  Next they assigned each letter of their name a color and colored in all of the letters.  We had a great discussion about the unique patterns which emerged on the mosaics.  Here are a few:

100th Day Crowns

Some children chose to make crowns to wear during our celebration!

100 Is A Lot

Students added another poem to their poetry folders.  In order to practice fluency skills, they read these poems on a regular basis.

In order to reinforce skills learned during Fundations, children were challenged to find words with:

                              glued sounds:    /am/, /an

                                           suffix:     s

                                        bossy r:     /ar/, /er/, /ir/, /ur/, /ur/

                       consonant blends:    /fr/, /tr/, /pl/

                   consonant digraphs:    /ch/, /sh/, /th/

The following videos provide practice for the Fundations concepts we've been working on:

Bossy R

Bossy R

Consonant Blends

Consonant Blends

Consonant Digraphs

Digraph Song

The children demonstrated much creativity and were very innovative with their 100th day vests!  Click below to view the students' vests.

View on Flipagram

Our motor break was a special one for the 100th day of school!  The children got quite the workout, repeating a series of 10 exercises 10 times each!

Click below to try at home!

100th Day of School Workout

Last but not least, we celebrated Griffin and Finley's birthday!