Reader’s Workshop

Ask your child: I continue to practice the

reading comprehension strategy, asking questions, before and during my reading of books, articles, texts.

I am learning how to infer or use clues to find information in a story or text.

I continue to practice visualizing text as I read to help me with my comprehension of a story.

Ask me about Colonial Day! Ask me to compare and contrast colonial life to life today.

I have been working on reading fluently as I read the lines with my Reader’s Theater group. I know reading with expression, I need good tone of voice, good volume and good expression.

Ask me about Holidays Around the World! I learned about Kwanzaa, Diwali, St. Nicholas Day, Boxing Day, Hanukkah, Three Kings Day and Christmas Day.

Writer’s Workshop: Ask your child: I am a poet! This week I have been learning

strategies poets use to write poems. As a poet I am finding a moment, detail or

object that holds a big feeling. I am using my poets’ eyes and seeing this ordinary thing in a new way! Poets write about it experimenting with line breaks.

I am trying to read my poems with “music” in my voice!

Writer’s Workshop: Ask your child: Ask me about different types of poems: conversation poems,

poems of address, list poems, story poems, mask poems. I am trying to read and write different kinds of poems.

Ask me about reading a poem with poets’ eyes. I read it slowly, noticing and naming details I see. I ask, “Why might the poet have decided to write like this?” I try to borrow some of the same techniques, using them in my poems.

Ask me about our Poetry Celebration! I am very proud of my published book of poems!

Mrs. Smoral’s Class Dec. 19, 2018

Math Workshop: Ask your child: Ask me to count a collection of coins and/or dollar bills. Ask me to write the

amount of money using the dollar sign, decimal point, cents sign. I am working on solving story problems involving money. Ask me if all polygons are quadrilaterals? Ask me If all quadrilaterals are

polygons? Ask me to give you examples to support my answer. Ask me how many vertices are in the shapes listed below in the math

vocabulary. Ask me how many lines of symmetry are in the shapes listed below in the math vocabulary.

Ask me to draw a 7 by 6 array. 7 squares in each column and 6 rows. Ask me to write an equation for this array. I am learning that multiplication is repeated addition!

Ask me which math Work Places I visited this week.

MATH VOCABULARY: intersect, parallel, angle, obtuse, acute, vertex, vertices, isosceles triangle, scalene triangle, equilateral triangle, trapezoid, hexagon, pentagon, octagon, nonagon, decagon, quadrilateral, polygon, quadrilateral, vertex, congruent, symmetry, expanded form, array.

Word Study: Ask your child: I continue to practice using they’re, their and there, to, too and two and

it’s and its in sentences. What does the BOSSY R do in a word? Ask me to tell you the three

bossy r combinations that have the same sound! What do the suffixes re, un and less mean in a word? I continue to learn syllabication rules to help me spell words. I am learning to use my visual skills as I spell words.

I ask myself does the word look right?

New Vocabulary Words

Ask your child to define, syllabicate and use these words in a sentence.

occupation vicious independence astonishment cobbler

Learning Experiences

Special Happenings Ask your child: Ask me about the picture I drew after I listened to

the Polar Express! I should wear my pajamas on Thursday which is Polar Express Day!

Ask me about reading books and singing holiday songs to the preschoolers.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!