LUCK OF THE IRISH

That is exactly what we are hoping for this week. The children excitedly prepared all week to work with their groups to build their leprechaun traps. The groups were responsible for bringing in all needed materials, designing a plan, and finally the fun part of building their traps. They are hoping to catch one of these tricky little fellows so that we may get his pot of gold and be granted wishes. Log on to our  kidblog page by clicking on the link below to see what our wishes would be if we are successful.

http://kidblog.org/MrsSilversteinsClass/dbfe1806-3345-4589-ba15-ae0417c1c939/89/

 

Working with Words

The children and I continue to create and recognize CVC words on a daily basis. At this point, remarkably the children are able to read almost all CVC words they come across. It was time then to touch upon long vowel sounds using Silent e; also known as Magic e. It's amazing what a small amount of exposure to this spelling rule will do for some of the children's decoding abilities. The children were able to see the power Magic "e" has on his fellow vowels by viewing this cute YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3oA4wfUBak&feature=share

We will continue identifying & working with Silent/Magic e in our words throughout the remainder of the school year.

Reading and writing

The children listened to many stories about St. Patrick's Day. They learned about many things surrounding this day like clovers, shamrocks, shillelaghs, and of course the mythical tricky leprechauns. Many questions were asked about these wee folks and their pots of gold; some of which we needed to research. What the children were most interested in was catching a leprechaun, so most of our research was about that.  They did however, spend some time sequencing stories, writing about what is more important to them than gold, and sorting shamrock word families. But it wasn't hard to see that their minds were anxiously creating the plans to make the perfect leprechaun traps.

READ ACROSS AMERICA WEEK

& 

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

To kick off Read Across America Week the whole school participated in a pep rally. The lower grades created different styles of Dr. Seuss themed hats to show their enthusiasm. Pictured below is the kindergarten Thing hats. The children looked absolutely adorable. You can view Bayview's kickoff celebration by logging onto the Middletown Township's school district website or Bayview's website. Many of our friends and their writing made it onto the big screen. :)

http://middletownk12.org/site/default.aspx?PageID=1

clearlykindergarten.com

 

Working with Words

Dr. Seuss is known as the King of Rhyme. So how could we not celebrate this magical man without perfecting our own rhyming skills. The children spent the week happily creating words and nonsense (Dr. Seuss) words that rhymed. It appears that we have several rhyming kings and queens in kindergarten. :)

Reading and Writing

It's almost guaranteed that the most beloved characters of Dr. Seuss are Thing 1 and Thing 2. They are magically mischievous and the children are instantly drawn to them. Whenever I read Dr. Seuss' Cat In The Hat, Thing 1 & Thing 2 get the biggest reaction from my class, along with the Cat's Thingamajig mobile. All the excitement that surrounds these two colorful characters lends itself to many fantastical conversations amongst the children. What would a day spent with Thing 1 & Thing 2 look like? You would get a chuckle or two from some of their written responses. I certainly did!

 

Blogging Spotlight

The children continue to blog their responses to questions related to our weekly themes. Dr. Seuss's birthday was the perfect opportunity to practice our opinion writing skills. The children had the fabulous opportunity of reading and listening to many of Dr. Seuss' books throughout the week; especially those read by our Mystery Readers. And they all had an opinion & a reason as to which books they liked better than others. Naturally the blog prompt had to be:

Which is your favorite Dr. Seuss book and why?

Please log on to our kidblog page by clicking on the link below to read your child's post.

http://kidblog.org/MrsSilversteinsClass/wp-admin/post.php?post=36&action=edit

 

Culminating Activity

To end our very exciting week, we spent that Friday comparing the book and movie version of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! The best part was our movie snack of choice: Green eggs.

A special thank you goes out to all our Mystery Readers who surprised us during Read Across America week. The children & I are still talking about your visits & probably will be for days to come. Thank you!