January 30, 2012Thank you all for filling my birthday with lots of love! I am so blessed to share my days with your children!Wow! It's hard to believe we have celebrated the 100th day of school! We are certainly 100 days smarter!This is what we have been up:Religion- Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep. I call them by name. My sheep know me. I am willing to die for my sheep." (John 10:3, 11, 27)God Our Father loves and cares for us. He gives us everything we need. He gives us Jesus to be our Good Shepherd.This week has given the children a better understanding of the significance of the Good Shepherd parable.Literacy Centers-Area 1 "Nn Sound Page"- The students sort pictures that begin with the sound of /n/ and use their knowledge of sounds to write the words. This is our "KA Spelling" (developmental spelling). I do not expect these words to be spelled correctly I am simply looking to see which sounds they hear in the word.Area 2 "Real and Non-Sense Word Game"- This is a game they play collectively with their family. Each child takes a turn rolling the dice. The dice have onset and rimes on them. The onset is the beginning sound and the rime is the rest of the word. The group blends the two together to make a word. Then they decide if the word is real or non-sense and record it on their sheet.Area 3 "Project"- Our science unit is "Zoo Animals". This week we have been making lions at the project table with Mrs. Ware.Area 4 "Sound Spelling Books"- The children are assigned a page in the Sound Spelling Books and are asked to sound out each picture and write the word using developmental spelling. They are then asked to clap out the number of syllables in each word. Upon completion of this activity they are to complete our January Write the Room activity. Area 5 "Workshop" (small group with Mrs. Schumann)- This week we have been detectives looking for words inside of words. We also received our ABC journals. They are assigned a letter in their journal and are to think of two words that begin with that sound, use developmental spelling to write the words and illustrate the words they have written. They also practice proper letter formation.Math Centers-Area 1- "Shape Fill in Game" Two kids share one sheet. They each have a different colored crayon. The first child rolls 2 dice and adds the numbers together coloring in that number of squares on the shape. The next child follows repeating the same steps with a different colored crayon. The keep rolling until they have colored in the entire sheet. Then each child counts how many squares they have colored in. The one with the most squares colored in is the winner.Area 2 Workshop (small group with Mrs. Schumann)- "Unlucky Seven" In this game the children roll 2 dice and add the numbers together. Then they cross out the top sum on the chart. If it is crossed out on the top row, they move down the rows. They win if they cross out the numbers 2-12 in the top row without crossing out all the sevens.Area 3- "Dice in Dice Addition" The children roll 1 "dice in dice" and add the numbers. Then they record their number sentence on the recording sheet.Area 4- "What Comes Before?" This is a great game for practicing number order. To play the children roll 2 dice and write the number on the last line. The children then write the 3 numbers that come before the number.Area 5- "Snowman Buttons" The children read the text on the story book page and give the snowman the correct number and color of buttons. Then they write an addition sentence for the words on each page.Friday was the 100th day of school. We had a busy afternoon doing things the one hundred way! We made 100 fingerprint hats, 100 Dot Pictures, 100 Day Glasses, a 100 piece snack and played "Roll the Dice to 100".