September continued

We had our first Phonics lessons this week and they went really well.  We start with the letter Ll and the kids really enjoyed me joking about how difficult it is to write the lower case l ;)

They caught on to the sarcastic tone and so every day they would say, "oh Mrs. Vetter, l is the hardest letter to write!"  

Here they are skywriting the letter L and turning themselves into a lower case l. 

Mrs. Van Eck came for a visit and taught us how to use rekenreks.  She also taught us some hand signals to use to show the kids how to indicate that they are thinking about a problem and that they agree with the thinking of a classmate. 

We began our first set of Literacy Centers this week!  

Here is a peek at what the kids are doing this time around :) 

Recess!  

In Math, we have begun lessons and activities about sorting according to specific attributes.  I was very impressed listening to the kids explain how they sorted various counters according to the attributes that they selected.  

We got to hear about another special item and how it is cared for in Social Studies.  

Literacy Centers later in the week.

In Social Studies this week, we read The Rainbow Fish.  The kids then discussed how the rainbow fish felt after giving away all of his precious shiny, silver scales.  When they returned to their tables, they created their own fish with just one color... I left a pile at each child's seat.  Then, we went on our first "Gallery Walk"... hands behind our backs so that we are not tempted to touch anyone's work.  

We talked about how each fish was beautiful and how the scales were arranged differently by each student.  Then one student, thankfully as I was waiting for this comment, said, "I wish that I had a shiny scale."  We talked about how we could SHARE all the colors and that I indeed had a pile of shiny scales to share.  We practiced asking, "May I please have...?" and responding, "Of course."  "Thank you" and "You're welcome."  They had such wonderful conversations and by doing so, created their own rainbow fish!  :)

In Math, we read The Button Box and talked about the various attributes that the main character used to sort his grandmother's collection of buttons.  The kids really enjoyed sorting our classroom collection of buttons!  They came up with great observations and articulated the attributes that their sorted piles had in common.  

Another day of Literacy Centers

This was my Twitter post.. 

we showed a body part that started with the letter L (legs!) and then talked about our lungs as well.  The kids also sorted their names according to whether there was an L.  

Four little monkeys :)