March went by so
quickly, didn't it? We kept a running tally of the lion and lamb days in
March - there were definitely a lot more lamb days that lion! At any
rate, welcome April!
The children have
been doing amazing work in Writer's Workshop! This week we completed an
entire writing piece on Stegosaurus. We are learning about and included
introductions, comparisons, and conclusions. The children are very
knowledgeable about the Stegosaurus, so their piece also included facts
regarding this dinosaur. We were working on 'catching' the reader's
interest! I think that when you see their pieces you will be very surprised at
the amount of writing that each one of them is doing!
This
week in Math we
'formally' started the concept of subtraction. During our calendar time each
day we have discussed it informally, but now we are down to the nitty gritty of
what it means. The vocabulary that we will be introduced to throughout our unit
is 'subtract, minus, take away, difference, and left'. We have been using
workmats and dinosaur counters to create word sentences. The children
have loved using the dinosaurs, they love to play with them a couple of minutes
each time before we get down to the lesson! Because the children are so
good at addition, subtraction is coming quite easily to them.
We finished up the
theme of dinosaurs this
week. The children have become experts on these creatures! This
topic has been an awesome springboard for all areas of our curriculum - we have
been able to use the different facts in every aspect of our learning! We had a great time being 'paleontologists' and digging in our sand table for dinosaur bones, dinosaur teeth and artifacts!
The children also had a wonderful time using our plastic dinosaurs to act out different scenes.
Below are a couple of pictures of when we measured the Stegosaurus and T-Rex last week. Everyone is still talking about that!!!!!
Below are a couple of pictures of when we measured the Stegosaurus and T-Rex last week. Everyone is still talking about that!!!!!
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| Measuring the Stegosaurus! |
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| T-Rex was so tall! |
Conversation Starters:
- How small were some of the dinosaurs? (the size of a chicken!)
- What is one theory as to why the dinosaurs became extinct? (A meteoroid hit the Earth, causing a great deal of dust to cover the sun. Possibly the Earth became too cold for the dinosaurs to live, or possibly all of the plants died without the sunlight, causing a chain reaction of everything else dying.)
- Does anyone know for sure why the dinosaurs became extinct? (no)
How You Can Help:
- Encourage your child to practice writing their #'s at home. We are currently practicing this in class by starting with a particular #, such as 41, and then writing up to 60. The children love this challenge and are doing a wonderful job! As always, we continue to practice correct # formation.
- Practice the sight words lists that were given out at parent conference time. It is amazing how many words many of the children know already!
- Encourage your child to use a pencil when completing their Homework Journals. Thank you so much for your support with this endeavor, they are doing a great job on them!
Looking Ahead:
- Thursday, April 5 - Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon) author visit
- Slingerlands Art Show / BOGO Book Fair - Thursday, April 6 - 4:30 - 6:30
