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Peace, Love, & Learning. Mrs. Wainwright’s Groovy Group. Peace, Love, & Learning.
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Peace, Love, & Learning Mrs. Wainwright’s Groovy Group
Peace, Love, & Learning My primary goal each year is to create a classroom atmosphere of peace, love, and learning. I want each of my students to feel accepted, encouraged, and safe. I also want them to know how important each is to the group. We are a family and we should love and encourage one another. Our words should be kind and uplifting and never disparaging. I believe that all students can learn important concepts at higher levels when they feel like they belong and are a vital part of the group. My prayer each year is for God to give me wisdom and guide me to be the very best teacher possible. I know that God called me to be a teacher, so teaching is not just a profession to me!! It is what I was put on this earth to do.
Girls: • Allison • Amelia • Anna Claire • Ella • EllaKate • Jordon • Katanna • Maddie • Mya • Reagan • Sarah • Boys: • Blake • Brodie • Brooks • Cameron • Christopher • James • Kesler • Landon • Omari Our class has 10 boys and 11 girls !
MATH WORKSHOP Math Talks - We will look at very detailed pictures together on the Elmo and practice pointing and counting the different things we see in the illustrations. We will be use an illustration of ladybugs. Number Talks - We will spend part of our math workshop looking at “visual images” cards. These are cards that have an arrangement of dots or pictures. Students will look at the cards, determine the number on the card, and then share how they saw the arrangement. Ex. A card with five dots may be in the typical dice arrangement, and the students may see the two on top, two on bottom, and one in the middle. Others may see the triangle of three dots on top and two below. Discussing numbers and sharing our thinking helps build mental math skills and number sense. We will learn a great deal about counting and manipulating numbers through this practice. Math Activity - We will participate in varied activities with hands-on manipulatives that students will use to represent sets. They will also break apart sets and combine sets. This week we used counting blocks to make trains. Each student had ten blocks; five each of two colors. They used the blocks to make trains with different arrangements of colors. Afterwards, they used 1” graph paper to color representations of three of the trains they created. Math Menus - Menu items are math problems that students will work on during center time. I have attached a copy of two menu problem s we will begin with next week. Students will be using pattern blocks to build caterpillars at different ages. They will also use pattern blocks to determine the distance to and from work for some very busy ants.
Math Tools Students will use a variety of materials to construct knowledge about numbers. My goal is for them to have ample access to various representations of numbers. I have already witnessed phenomenal thinking by the students when we share after menu activities. Rekenreks are used to practice number sentences. DOT Images are used as flash cards. Students tell the number of dots and how they grouped them to get the total. Ten Frames are used to show combinations of numbers up to ten.
Reader’s workshop Readers Workshop Teacher read-aloud - Teacher reads a selection of authentic children’s literature. Before reading, the teacher will engage students through discussion to bring up schema and build on their existing knowledge. During reading, the teacher stops at appropriate intervals to model comprehension strategies such as thinking out loud, making connections, predicting, etc. (all those things that good readers do automatically). Self-selected reading - Students choose books based on their interests to read. Students will use the five finger rule for choosing books that are “just right” for them. After they finish reading their books, they sign up for a conference with the teacher. Students are engaged in self-selected reading immediately after the teacher read aloud and are encouraged to practice the strategies that have been modeled. Conferences - During the conference the student “tells” about the book. This may occur in the form of a summary, a complete retelling, or by providing facts if the book was nonfiction. The teacher will ask the student a few questions to check for comprehension. The student will also read aloud from the book. The teacher uses this time to “coach” the student in decoding and/or comprehension strategies as needed on an individual basis. Choosing Just Right Books • Student will flip through the book & choose a page to read. • If the page has 4 or 5 words they cannot read, it is too difficult. • If the page has 2 or 3 words they cannot read, it is a just right book. • If the book has only 1 word they cannot read, it is too easy.
Partner reading Partners sit side by side & take turns reading. They share interesting facts about strange animals. They help each other use decoding strategies to figure out unknown words.
Decoding Unknown Words • Sound out the individual letters. Cat /c/ /a/ /t/ • Look for spelling patterns & word families. • Pig “ig” family /p/ /ig/ • Look for smaller words inside larger words. • Intensity /in/ /ten/ /sit/ • Chunk the word into smaller parts. Cover up one part of the word at a time. Garden garden;garden • Skip the word and read on to the end of the sentence and think, “What word makes sense that starts with that letter?”.
The strategies at the left are the key strategies that we will practice this year during reader’s workshop. Each of the strategies supports the reader in understanding the text.
Harcourt storytownreaders Storytown readers are the hardback BASAL books that go along with the Harcourt Reading Series. Students have access to them in the classroom and can bring them home if they choose. You can also access the readers online at http://www.harcourtschool.com/storytown.
Reading Assessments: DIBELS DIBELS is used to assess a student’s early literacy skills. It was designed to identify strengths and weaknesses in the early acquisition of skills needed to become a successful reader. There are several components of the assessment. Letter Naming Fluency – identifies the accuracy & automaticity of the student’s ability to identify randomly arranged letters of the alphabet. Phoneme Segmentation – identifies the student’s ability to hear and break a word into it’s individual sounds. Nonsense Word Fluency – identifies a student’s ability to sound out three letter CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words and blend the sounds together accurately and automatically. Oral Reading Fluency – identifies the strengths and weaknesses of a student’s ability to accurately and automatically read words in a passage.
Rigby Diagnostic Reading Assessment • Rigby is an assessment tool that uses real books with illustrations. • Students read the book out loud to the teacher. • The teacher records the time taken for the student to complete the book. This provides the student’s current words per minute which is one element of fluency. • I also mark the places that students pauseduring reading. The pauses represent the student’s ability to read words in phrases. I also mark the student’s ability to show expression and emotion when reading. These are also elements of fluency. • While the student is reading , the teacher marks the miscalled words and records the word the student said. The teacher also marks those words that the student self-corrects when they realize their own error. If a student cannot identify a word in 3-4 seconds, the teacher will provide the word and this is marked with a “T” above the word. • After reading, the students are asked a series of questions to assess the level of comprehension and ability to recall facts. • The completed assessment provides the level of accuracy, automaticity, and comprehension.
Beginning &End of the Year rigby Levels: Harcourt Benchmark Assessment Students will complete three benchmark assessments; one at the beginning of the year; one in the middle; and one at the end of the year. Harcourt assessments are based on the skills taught throughout the year. It assesses reading comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary.
Communication: • Mrs. Wainwright’s Email address: lynne.wainwright@trussvilecityschools.com • Office Phone: 228-3200 • Husky pad Please use the clear pocket in the front of husky pad to send notes, money, etc. We check this front pocket every morning when we unpack. This pocket will also be used to send home important notes & documents during the week (except on Monday; everything going home on Monday will be in the Husky folder). • Absences: Written explanation within three days. After three parent written excuses, a doctor’s excuse is necessary.
Homework Homework will remain the same throughout the year. It is crucial for beginning readers to practice reading. Research has shown that students who are in the 90th percentile on standardized tests are those students who read for 60+ minutes a day for pleasure. That is one reason it is so important for them to choose the books they want to read. The math games are equally important. Mental math skills are essential for strategizing your next move. Number sense is greatly enhanced as students think about, break apart, and manipulate numbers. The math games are much more important than pencil/paper math sheets. Homework folders are sent home on Mondays and should be kept at home for use throughout the week. Homework folders with completed reading logs and math games should be sent back to school on Fridays.
Scholastic Book Orders Scholastic book orders are a great and inexpensive way to build your child’s home library with quality children’s literature. Information on the book order includes the level and the number of pages which are important considerations when choosing “just right” books. We are going to read several chapter books together in class and it will be wonderful if students have their own copy. We are going to choose books that are in the book orders throughout the year. We also receive bonus points that can be used to purchase books and instructional materials for the classroom.
Scholastic Book Club Online Ordering
Parties & celebrations • Thanksgiving Author’s Breakfast November 22nd • This event is to honor the authors in the classroom. Students will choose one piece from their published pieces to share. There will be a sign-up sheet for food and beverages. • Christmas Party December 13th • We will celebrate with special food and crafts. Instead of exchanging gifts, we will collect items for a charitable organization (TBD). • Valentine’s Day February 14th • We will have individual fruit pizzas. Students will decorate a large sugar cookie with frosting and fruit pieces of their choice. There will be a sign-up sheet for cookies, fruit, frosting, and beverages. • Garden Party March 11th • The garden party will be the culminating activity for our plant unit.
Field trips: • American Village November 15th • Children’s Theater • Best Christmas Pageant Ever December 2nd • Beauty and the Beast April 14th • All interested chaperones will have their name put in the hat. • Students will pull out the names.
Snacks: Please send nutritional snacksand water only. Please do not send cookies and snack cakes. We do have a late lunch this year, so you might want to send more than one thing for snack.
PE Please make sure your child wears sneakers every day for P.E.! We go directly from our specialist classes to PE this year and it is difficult for them to remember to change shoes which results in missed PE time.
