New units of study…
Writing-we have finished the upper and lowercase letters using Fundations and we will begin our first
writing project-Poetry. We will read lots of poetry and then we will use the writing process to write
our very own poems. It should take most of the month and then we will hang them in the window for
all to see.
Science- New kit for next few months is Life Science, my favorite. We will do lots of observation and
labeling of parts of plants and animals. We will do a big science activity every week in place of our
counselor time.
Week of January 10-14
• Ma’ii and Cousin Horned Toad-Focus-Students will retell the story using a puppet and the
theater. This is a continuation of our unit on storytelling.
• Promise letters-Focus-Students will write a letter to parents promising something they will do in
the new year as a thank you to them (a Belgian new year tradition)
• Our body-Focus-Students will create a paper body and label it with our body parts.
• Build a Number Book-Focus-Students will create a number using other numbers (number sense)
such as a 5 can be a 3 and a 2 or a 4 and a 1.
• EDM-Revisit- What’s my rule game, Domino Concentration, introduce a teen # game and roll and
record game
• Writing-Poetry-brainstorm ideas, work in pairs
• Computer-Brainpop
• Science-journal about crickets and their parts, needs
Week of January 18-21
• NO SCHOOL Monday, January 17th-Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
• Snowflake subtraction-Focus- introduction to taking away, subtraction symbol, and story
problems
• Rabanada-Focus- Making French toast, a New Year custom in Brazil
• Chinese New Year lantern- Focus-Recognizing different cultures in New Mexico, cultural
symbols
• EDM- Introduce the 100 number grid and game “race to 100”, play a game “spin a number”,
revisit train game and monster squeeze
• Writing- Continue our poetry, working in pairs on rough draft of poem
• Science-how animals move, classifying
• Computer-Math story problems
Week of January 24-28
• 10 by 10 drawing-Students will draw 10 groups of 10 making their own 100 collection, skip
counting by 10s. Standard-Math-skip counting
• Healthy food book-Students will listen to a story about the five food groups and create their own
book with the pictures of each type of food (proteins, vegetables, fruits, etc). Standard-Health-
Healthy
foods
• 100 day necklace-Students will create a necklace with 100 beads, choosing to group them in
fives
or tens. Standard-Math-Skip counting
• Guided reading- Word family book-Cat (at)
• EDM-
o We will introduce game, Follow my pattern, using various items in the classroom for patterning
o 2 digit numbers-students will use a 100 number grid to learn about 2 digit numbers using cards
to
pull numbers and put them together and find them on the 100 grid.
o Roll and Record-rolling a dice and recording the number-focus on graphing vocab-most, least,
same, more, fewer, total
o Number workbook-focus on number formation and drawing to show that amount
• Science-Animals/babies activities-Standard-Science- adult and offspring look similar
• Writing-We are continuing with our poetry writing. We will be working on our rough draft this
week.
Week of January 31-February 4th
• Chinese New Year Unit begins-Students will listen to a story about CNY and create a foldable
book
about this cultural holiday. Standard-Social Studies- Learning about holidays from around the world
• Chinese New Year Dragon Noisemaker-Students will create a noisemaker to use during our
parade.
Standard-Social Studies- Learning about holidays from around the world
• Counting by 10s using items and then putting 10s numbers in order. Standard-Math-Skip
counting
• Guided Reading-Word family book and vowel focus (-en)
• EDM-
o Top it-a card game similar to war
o Roll and record using 2 dice
o Revisit follow my pattern game
o Revisit spin a number game
Week of February 7-11 (some activities are carried over from this week’s snow days!)
I am starting reading groups, which means that I have started partner work stations where kids rotate
to different stations while I pull kids for reading groups. Little small books will come home from this
small group work. At this point, I call students over to read with me (doing a picture walk, making a
prediction about what the book is about, tapping out the words and looking at word families). Please
keep these books at home for your child to read to you!
Students are now working at a work station with a partner. Work stations are (but not limited to
the following) listening center, big book center, Everyday Math center, math center, blocks, journals,
science station, buddy reading, a volunteer station with a read aloud book (usually), and a center run
by Mrs. Rioux (usually based on theme or unit).
• Chinese New Year celebration traditions sequence- Standard-Social Studies-Students will listen
to a read aloud about the holiday Chinese New Year and create a sequence of different traditions at
this time of year.
• Chinese New Year Dragon shaker-Standard-Social Studies-A Chinese New Year tradition
involves creating a noisemaker to scare away evil spirits and welcome good luck into the new year.
• Count by 10’s-Standard-Math-Students will count math manipulatives by 10s to 100 and create
an ice cream cone with 10 scoops of ice cream labeled with numbers by 10s.
• Guided Reading- “Ben” focus on vowel sound “e”, word families
• EDM-Sequencing daily events (3 parts), find my block (listening and looking at blocks with
certain attributes), revisit Top It and Roll and Record with 2 dice.
• Computer-Chinese New Year video of dragon parade
• Art-Valentine special activity!
• Writing-Working with partners, students are finishing their final drafts of their poem
Week of February 14-18
• Special Valentine Activity- Standard-Math-Students will sort, count and graph candy hearts
(thanks to Yvette for supplying the class with candy ☺)
• Chinese New Year Dragon-Standard-Social Studies and Art-Students will create their own paper
dragon for the parade
• EDM-Measuring with feet (nonstandard measurement), Number grid counting by 5’s and 10’s,
revisit sequencing (finish), find my block (attribute game)
• Computer-Starfall-word family book reading
• Science- Oobleck- using five senses to describe states of matter (liquid, solid, gas and oobleck?)
Week of February 22-25
• Information book-Standard- Health-Safety information. Students will listen to a read aloud
book about where they are in the world and write their information in their very own book.
• Months of the year- Standard-Math-Time and ordering. We will listen to a story about Chicken
soup and rice and different things that we do during different months. Students will then color, cut
out and order the months of the year using pictures clues and reading month names.
• EDM-We will work on nonstandard measuring with our feet and record this in our workbook, we
will play an attribute game by describing a shape and guessing it, and we will revisit the train game
using subtraction and race to 100 game.
• Fundations-We are reviewing how to form our letters upper and lower case and we will work on
building simple three letter words.
• Science-we are catching up on our missed week of school and will read a Dr. Seuss book
Bartholomew and the Oobleck and make our very own oobleck. We will ask ourselves, “What is
oobleck, a solid, a liquid, a gas?!@#
• Computer-We will watch a video about Chinese New Year and discover the story behind the
Chinese Zodiac signs.
Week of February 28-March 3rd
• Measure of time-Standard-Math-Time awareness of a minute, hour and day. Students will listen
to a read aloud book about how long it takes to do certain activities. The students will respond by
writing what takes a minute to do, an hour, and a day.
• St. Patrick day traps-Standard-Social Studies- Students will identify holidays of various cultures
in New Mexico. Students will create a rainbow trap to catch a leprechaun for St. Patrick’s day.
• EDM-Comparing objects by size using nonstandard measurement, number writing and drawing
objects to match, introduction to shapes-rhombus, hexagon, trapezoid, creating a picture and
graphing number of shapes.
• Fundations-We will continue to sound out and write 3 letter words (Unit 4)
• Science-We will look to the sky at constellations and create our own.
• Computer-We will introduce students to Photo Booth and let them explore the special effects.
• March 2nd Dr. Seuss’s birthday-We will have a special surprise for the kiddos to celebrate this
special day.