Reading
During Reading Workshop, we identified describing words for characters, including defining characteristics of their outward appearance, as well as their personality traits. We learned that authors sometimes use speech bubbles and thought bubbles to help us get to know a character's personality better. Next, we practiced using a story map to help us remember important details in a story, and celebrated the end of our fiction unit by retelling and acting out some of our favorite stories! We will begin our nonfiction unit next week!
I wish this picture hadn't turned out so blurry- this is the cutest bunch of trolls (from The Three Billy Goats Gruff) that I've ever seen!
Word Work
Recently we have introduced two new sight words- is and play. Thank you for taking the time to review those sight word cards and sight word books that we keep in the blue book bags. All of your hard work does pay off! We have also spent time reviewing the rest of the sight words we have introduced this year, beginning sounds, ending sounds, and vowel sounds, as well as word families.
We also completed a special snowman project for the hallway, where we built snowmen with the letters of our names. We identified and color coded the vowels and consonants. It was fun to compare our snowmen and see how different names made the snowmen shorter or taller!
We have continued to practice our writing workshop routines with weekly writing about something that happened over the weekend. We also used what we learned during Reading Workshop to practice incorporating speech bubbles in our writing. Next week, we will begin our narrative writing unit, where we will learn to focus on a small moment and stretching it out to add details. We have also been working hard on our capital letters and numbers in our Handwriting Without Tears journals.
Social Studies
To honor Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, we created a special project for the hallway with the morning classes. We read The Crayon Box that Talked, a book about a box of crayons that learned how to appreciate one another's differences after seeing that when they all come together, they make a more beautiful picture! Next, we each drew a self portrait on a crayon, and colored the crayon our favorite color. We noticed that when we put all of the crayons together, our crayon box looked complete!
Math
We have been working hard on becoming more comfortable using a number line to move forward and backwards to solve number stories. In addition to counting practice, these addition and subtraction games have added another layer to our thinking!
We also learned how to play the game Top-It, which is the same as the card game, "War". You can play the game using number cards (0-20, or beyond if you are looking for a challenge!), a regular deck of cards with the face cards removed, or online by clicking on the Top-It picture below. Please let me know if you misplaced your child's login card and I can send you their login information!
Students of the Week
Last week, we loved learning more about Alessandro! He shared with us his Lord of the Rings action figure with special features like a removable sword and moving hands. Next, he showed us a real coconut he brought home from Hawaii. He also shared his elf (named Candy Cane), Pikachu to represent his love of Pokemon, and Mungus Chima, which he enjoys playing with his dad.
We enjoyed having Alessandro's family join us for a special reading of Dragons Love Tacos. It just so happened that his guest readers came on dress like your favorite book or movie character spirit day. Alessandro was in the spirit in his knight outfit, and with a dragon shirt on underneath his costume!
This week, we enjoyed learning more about our friend, Julia! She shared with us an adorable picture of her when she was little, one of her favorite Paw Patrol toys, and she brought a nonfiction book about America to show that she loves books! She also had a princess theme going with some special Disney perfume, lip gloss, and puzzle!
Art Appreciation
We were also lucky enough to have Kendall's mom join us this week to teach an Art Appreciation lesson on Mary Cassatt. We studied and discussed two of her great works, The Child's Bath and
After the Bath. Next, we had the opportunity to use oil pastels to draw our own representation of a time that we feel loved, like the children in the artwork seemed. We especially had fun using our fingers to blend the oil pastels, a technique we are not able to try with crayons or markers!
Book Fair
This week will bring the Scholastic Book Fair to Dryden! The Book Fair will be open on Tuesday and Wednesday during the school day, as well as Thursday during the school day and in the evening. The Book Fair will close Thursday evening. On Tuesday during our regular LMC time, we will visit the library to see what the Book Fair has to offer. (There will be no LMC book checkout this week- hold onto your library books until next week!) Dryden will also be hosting a Family Reading Night on Thursday from 6:30-8:30. Wear your jammies and visit different classrooms to hear some of the Dryden teachers' favorite stories. The reading night will conclude after a story and bedtime snack in the commons, but the Book Fair will remain open until 8:30 for those final purchases! Hope to see you there!
We Love Mrs. Kelly Day!
On Wednesday, we honored our amazing Mrs. Kelly in the office as she embarks on her next great adventure at the end of this month! She was always a friendly face in the office, and put in so much hard work behind the scenes, along with Mrs. Lane, to keep everything running smoothly at Dryden. Our class serenaded her with our own version of "Free as a Bird", and presented her with a large bird we colored for her to fit the school wide animal theme to bid her farewell. We followed up with a group hug! We will miss her dearly!
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