Week of March 3rd- March 6th

I am glad to be back in good health this week. Unfortunately, I was unable to complete my plans detailed in last week's blog due to being out sick. I will be engaging the students in read-alouds and "cooking up" "story pies." Please see last week's blog for a detailed explanation.

I will also be engaging the second graders in narrative writing. They were asked to bring in three items that are important in understanding who they are. We will explore these items and write personal narratives in a five paragraph essay.

Week of February 23rd - February 27th

In addition to working on phonics this week, we will be engaging in read-alouds to focus on fluency and comprehension. Why are read-alouds important, you ask?? Well, let me share the reasons. Read alouds expose students to a positive reading role model, new information, the pleasures of reading, rich vocabulary, good grammar, a broader variety of books than they'd choose on their own, and richly textured lives outside their own experiences. At the same time students imaginations are stimulated, attention spans stretched, listening comprehension improved, emotional development nurtured, and the reading-writing connection established. Outside of all that, reading aloud doesn't do much. ;)

After reading, we will be "cooking up" a "story pie." Each student will get a slice of paper and a task to write and illustrate their "piece" of the story (the setting, the characters, the problem, etc.). As students retell their parts, the pie will be reassembled, taped together, and displayed.

Week of February 17th - February 20th

Kindergarten
Students will continue to work with their "popcorn" words. They we continue to produce rhyming words within the following word families: -ill, -ick, -im, -ist, & -ish. This week's focus for beginning sounds is short vowel /i/. Students will blend individual sounds to form whole words and they will chop words into individual sounds.


First Grade

Students will continue to work with sight words and spelling words. They will continue to work with -l and -r blends, such as sl/cl/bl/gl & cr/dr/br/pr. Students will identify final and medial sounds. They will substitute, add, and delete sounds in words. They will transfer their knowledge of sounds in words by segmenting individual sounds and writing the corresponding letters to create words and sentences on paper or white boards.


Second Grade
Students are staying in their homeroom classes this week for Reading. They will be writing biographies on significant historians. I will be working with a small group of 2nd graders. We will be creating timelines demonstrating significant events in a specific historian's life.

Week of February 9th - February 13th

Iowa tests are going to be administered this week so I will not be working with my reading groups. I will be analyzing our current interventions to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each. I will also be researching alternative interventions that may be utilized for next year.

The students at Elizabeth Ide are continuing to read "around the world." This month, we are "traveling" to New Dehli, India. Since tigers are natural inhabitants in India, students are encouraged to dress like a tiger or wear stripes to school on February 27, 2009.

Week of February 2nd - February 6th

Kindergarten
Students will continue to work with word families to create rhyming words and they will listen for short /i/ at the beginning of words. Students will blend words saying individual sounds while sliding chips into Elkonin boxes. They will segment words by chopping it into individual sounds. Students will also add and delete sounds at the beginning of words to create new words.

First Grade
Students will create rhyming words specific to categories and word families. They will blend individual sounds and will chop the sounds into individual phonemes. Students will identify final sounds within a series of words, they will substitute, add, and delete sounds in words. Students will also work with -r blends this week: dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, br, & cr.

Second Grade
Students will continue to work with singular possessive nouns, base words, and noun endings. They will continue to write in their journals, trying to include words that have the nd, ng, or nk endings. Students will also listen to a read-aloud this week while focusing on comprehension, specifically cause/effect and questioning.