OCS Newsletter: Happy 100th Day!!

100th day partiers!

Wow! What a wonderful 100th day of school! Our entire day focused on, you guessed it, 100! We counted to 100 by 5s and 10, filled in a 100s chart by following clues, did 100 exercises - 10 exercises, 10 times (I'm still sore!), played 100 Tally Marks and Roll to $1.00, completed a 100 piece puzzle, and of course, wrote equations that equal 100. This was followed by a 100 snack (a pretzel stick for the one and two pretzels for the 0s) - yum!

Be sure to check out our 100 year old portraits and what we will be doing in 100 years - cute!! We also had fun being creative with the numbers 100 and using the numerals to make a picture - check these out on our classroom door.

We ended our day with making our traditional 100 piece trail mix with 10 pieces of 10 different items. The kids had fun searching for 100 chocolate kisses that were hidden outside and putting them on the 100s board - they found them all!!!

Math
After visiting counting by twos in January and revisiting addition (double-digit and for some regrouping (carrying)!), we are now deep in the world of subtraction this past month. We are practicing strategies to help us figure out math facts and also deciding what strategy is best depending on the equation we are solving. When is it helpful to count back or when is it easier to add-on? Spending quality time with our addition math facts has really helped us see the patterns in subtraction, giving us more ease in learning our subtraction facts - yay!! Some our working on their 1-10 facts while others focus on 1-20 facts and doing double digit with regrouping (borrowing). We have been revisiting favorite addition games that have been transformed into subtraction games - Four in a Row, Five in a Row, Number Race, and Subtraction Tic-Tac-Toe, to name a few.

Literacy
In writing workshop, we experimented with using quotation marks when there is dialogue in our stories. We had fun playing with this using macaroni on our own sentences or sentences we found in a book. We continue to practice editing our own stories and creating stories with solid beginnings, middles, and endings.

We have been spending time with the amazing and Magical e! We learned that baby vowels can grow up (become big kids) who still need someone to look after them (need a babysitter). However, Magic e comes along and give them a look that says, "Hey, you're a big kid, you can say your name! Better mind me!" So, cap becomes cape! The kids enjoyed acting this out and taking turns being the baby vowel that grows up and the Magic e that gives a quiet look. Our focus these next week will be on those long vowel patterns.

Blends have also been something that we are taking time to notice in our writing and reading. We love to listen to "Put in the blender" song and coming up with words that have beginning blends. During reading workshop, kids often excitedly share a word they read that has a beginning blend, and on our class list it goes!

We continue to add to our reading strategies. For accuracy, we have added "Using the pictures" and "Skip the word, then come back" to our list. For comprehension, we have "Check for understanding" and "Retell the story." And for fluency, we have "Practice high frequency words" and "Reread text." All our reader keep growing and growing!

To help us write a story starring our own mythical creature, we used a story map to help us define all the characters, setting, and plot. We used the idea of a mountain to help us create a beginning that leads us to the top (the exciting part!), and an ending that gives us a tight conclusion.

Theme
Ancient Greece has been fascinating! Our focus in this country has been the stories of Ancient Greece and learning about gods/goddess, mythical creatures, Aesop fables, architecture and the general culture of ancient Greece. We learned about the major Olympian gods and goddess and LOVED drawing them. The most popular were Aphrodite and Hades. We also learned about different mythological creatures and had a hard time picking just one or two to draw and write about, they are all so cool! We enjoyed creating our own mythical creature and choosing its magical powers or purpose.

We enjoyed reading a few of Aesop's fables and guessing the morals to the stories. We picked our favorites and have begun working on a puppet show to share with the other classes, or maybe as the entertainment for our Greek feast on Friday.

Learning about the gods and goddesses would not be complete without looking at the temples that were built in their honor. We learned about the three types of columns and took a video tour (thanks Rick Steves!) of the temples of Athens. We then tried our hand with three dimensional drawing and drew a temple sitting atop the acropolis. Look for these on the wall soon!! They are amazing!