Mrs. Murphy's Starfish: January 2015

Dear Starfish Families,

It has been a very busy three weeks in the starfish classroom. It's been so much fun to be a part of their growing progress in reading, writing, and mathematics.

In reader's workshop, our focus has been learning the features of nonfiction texts. We have been reading non-fiction books together during our lessons. Today the starfish had a book share where each child recommended a book to a classmate. Recommending books it's a great way for the kids to learn from their peers. I was so impressed with how thoughtful the kids were about their classmate's interests. We will continue to make book recommendations throughout the year to introduce the kids to new series, charters, and genres of books. Ask your child what book they recommended and who they chose to recommend it to.

During writer's workshop, we are continuing with our informational books. The kids continue to write books to teach others about topics of interest. As we are becoming more familiar with nonfiction texts, I have seen the kids begin to add these features into their writing. This week we have been learning how to spell challenging words in our nonfiction books. Specifically in nonfiction texts, you often find larger vocabulary words. We are teaching the kids strategies to be brave and tackle these words in their writing. Some of the strategies include thinking about syllables in words, stretching the word part by part, and saying the word out loud slowly to hear each sound.

Another focus with our nonfiction books is learning how to plan out a story. The kids are learning to create headings for the pages and making quick sketches to remember the ideas for each page. The kids are beginning to use Ipads to voice record what they would like to write on each page. It has become a great planning tool and is building independence during writer's workshop.

In addition to our nonfiction writing unit, we are working to write more detail about one topic. As part of our their morning work, the kids can choose to sharing anything with me in their writing. With modeling, I have been encouraging them to write about one topic and include detail sentences to support it. We have been thinking about the question words (who, what, where, why, when) to help dig a little deeper. We are also trying to apply these strategies with our letters home in our circle notebook. Last week many chose to write about Martin Luther King Jr.

We have also been working hard to practice our lowercase letters. With more of a focus on the handwriting strokes in the past few weeks, I have been impressed with the progress of their letter formation. A great app that you may want to consider downloading is called Letter School. We use it in the classroom during literacy centers or to support a stroke we are working on. You may notice that a lot of their work has their first and last names. I am trying to hold them accountable to writing their full name as more practice.

This week we have started our new math unit. Yesterday I sent home the family letter that provides a great overview of the lessons, vocabulary, and games we will play. The kids have been working with the place value blocks to build two digit numbers. Together as a class we have been playing this great game called Guess the Two Digit Number. It's a challenging game that allows the kids to think about the place value of numbers. I will send home a copy of the game to try over the weekend. Today I introduced the greater than, less than, and equal symbols to compare two digit numbers. I showed the kids some great youtube videos that helped the kids to understand and apply the concept.

Maker Space

I wanted to share Mr. Gagnon's blog about the maker space in case you were interested in learning more about your child's related art class. http://smsmakerspace.weebly.com/blog

Mr. G has been getting the kids excited to code. Please check out the website to learn more about Hour of Code. http://hourofcode.com/us

You child may enjoy these apps for their home devices:

1. The Foos

2. Kodable

3. Scratch Jr.

Valentine's Day

Valentine lists will go home next week for homework. Please have the Valentines ready by February 12th and have your child include everyone in the class.

Here are some apps we are using in the classroom...

1. Word Wizard- This apps is a great tool to practice sight words. It also allows you to add your own list which could be a fun and a hands-on way to practice their Words Their Way weekly patterns.

2. Motion Math: Hungry fish- a math app that helps kids with addition facts. Some of the kids used this app in kindergarten and were very excited to try it again during math centers this week.

3. Wurdle- This a fun word app that challenges the kids to find three letter, four letter, and five letter words with letter tiles. This is an app if you wanted an extra challenge and enjoyed word puzzles.

4. 1st grade Splash Math ($)- If your child enjoys reinforcing math concepts with the use of technology, this is a great apps that allows the kids to practice all strands of 1st grade math.

Questions to promote school talk...

Can you name some text features of nonfiction books?

What is the difference between fiction and nonfiction books and how are they the same?

Can you name the doubles facts?

What can you tell me about Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Can you tell me what you did in Social Detectives this week?

Can you tell me about the apps you are using in the Maker Space?

Have a wonderful weekend,

Megan Rochford

It's been a great two weeks learning the differences between fiction and nonfiction texts. The kids are immersing themselves with a variety of nonfiction texts. Together we are learning the features of nonfiction books. This week some of our lessons during readers workshop have helped the kids to understand the difference between a storyteller voice for fiction and reading with a teaching voice for informational books. The kids have started using the iPads to record their voices to help practice their 'teaching' voice!

It's been wonderful to watch the kids begin using these features in their informational books they are writing. The kids are adding table of contents, headings, bold text, and labels to their illustrations. Some of our informational books are about soccer, hockey, being a hairstylist, swimming, puppies, cats, penguins, helicopters, taking care of a baby, American girl dolls, and so much more! We look forward to continuing our stories next week as we continue to build a stronger understanding of informational books.