Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!
This month will be filled with lots of exciting wintery-themed lessons!
* The girls will learn about what it means to welcome in a new year and traditions people have (ball dropping in Times Square, horns, party hats, streamers, etc.).
* They will learn how to write 2012 and the letter Yy for year.
* We will then go into a study on learning to identify the 12 months that make up a year. Through riddles, the girls will have to guess which month. We will discuss how many days are typically in a month; longer months and the shortest month. We will discuss holidays and special events in particular months as well. They will also write about which month is their favorite and why. We will then review the seven days that make up one week.
Other topics of study for this month will include:
* Learning about the season of winter (looking for signs of winter); exploring weather (learning weather words, and reading a thermometer to record the temperature inside and outside).
* We will compare/contrast clothing worn in the colder season vs. the warmer ones....through a fun retelling of The Jacket I Wear In The Snow.
* We will create a Venn Diagram on the SmartBoard to compare/contrast two very different, yet similar versions of the story, The Mitten (one by Jan Brett). Students will practice retelling both versions of the stories (beginning, middle, end....problems/solutions; characters, etc.) using a mitten prop and the corresponding animals that go with each version of the story.
* Students will learn about symmetry as they design a pair of symmetrical mittens to put on our own version of The Mitten Tree; another piece of literature we will read.
* We will learn how to use describing words to describe our mittens in detail. We will make a book on mittens that reviews opposites (old/new; clean/dirty; fancy/plain). The girls will also use pictures of winter clothing to create an intricate pattern. We will also identify our right from our left.
* We will learn about the -ING chunk as we locate it in winter words: skating, sledding, skiing, sleeping, hibernating, snowing, drinking.
* We will learn about words and word meanings as they are encountered in stories and lessons and discuss descriptive language in stories: characters, setting, problem/solution, retelling a story, identifying beginning, middle, end of a story; drawing story parts.
* We will discuss what a compound word is, as we locate the two words that make up snowman, snowflake, snowball, snowfall, snowshoes...etc.
* In learning about SNOW, the children will learn how to look for little words within a word when writing sNOw. They will learn how and why it snows; how six-sided snowflakes are all unique; how snow can be both good for us and dangerous for us as well. We will examine water in its phases as a solid, liquid, and gas. We will have some fun with snowmen as we make great books and learn some new HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS (HERE, HAVE, THAT, COME, SOME). The girls will make an edible snowman using cookies, marshmallow fluff, M&M's, chocolate chips, and pretzels. They will have to graph how many of each product they used to make their snowman. The girls will also be introduced to subtraction this month through a fun book about 5 fat snowmen who melt away because of the sun.
* We will learn about hibernation and animals that do/do not hibernate. We will learn about the deep hibernators, the torpor hibernators, and the non-hibernators. We will learn about how animals adapt and survive in the winter (hibernation, migration, camouflage), and how they get their food. We will learn about some polar animals and how they adapt to their surroundings (characteristics, habitat, survival techniques). The girls will be able to write at least one FACT about the animal.
* We will also learn about Martin Luther King Jr. The girls will learn about who he was and how he helped to change rules and laws so that all people would be treated equally and could live in peace. We will compare his teachings to those of Saint Francis DeSales.
* We will focus on reviewing vowels within words, and continue with word families, phonics/phonemic awareness skills, and begin using the Rigby Reading books in groups (in addition to the little books made in class).
* In math, we will begin simple subtraction, make six-sided snowflakes using pattern block shapes, learn about what comes in pairs (counting by two's), and begin simple and basic standard and non-standard measurement. We will also have some fun with geometric shapes: cube (ice cube); sphere (snowball); cylinder (Frosty's broom); cone shape (Frosty's carrot nose/ New Year's party hat).
