Presidents

Poem: Presidents
Sight Words: down, when

Comprehension Strategy: This week we took time reviewing Author's Purpose. Author's Purpose is defining the reason why an author writes a story. The three different reasons are: persuade (change our mind), inform (teach us), or entertain (for fun; to make us laugh). We used books to go with our theme, presidents, to review this strategy. At the end of the week we listened to the story "Duck for President" and they had to decide the Author's Purpose by voting on a ballot.

Accuracy: This week we spent time learning about words in the -ake and -ate word families. This week we learned about the strategy Flippy Dolphin. Flippy Dolphin reminds us when we are reading and a word doesn't make sense, change the sound the vowel makes. If we used a short vowel, we flip and say the word with a long vowel and vice versa.

This week in writing we learned about how stories are everywhere! We got items around the room and talked about how we can recall and tell a story by looking at any of these items. Then we talked about how books are stories and how we can tell a story based off a book we have read. We used "The Day It Rained Hearts" as an example. Then we looked at pictures from our community and our school as a reminder that places are stories. We were able to turn and talk with a buddy about a place that inspired a story.

We also talked about the 5 W's. When we are writing a story, we have to remember to include:
-Who the story is about.
-Where the characters are.
-What they are doing.
-When it happened.
-Why you were doing it.

Vocabulary: This week we reviewed addition and subtraction talking about the words plus and minus.

Throughout the week we practiced deciding if we were adding or subtracting when looking at a math sentence. Each day we used a different strategy to find the answer including counters, a number line, a tens frame and drawing a picture with a dry erase board.

Content: This week we learned about presidents. We learned that a president is a leader of a country and they have an important job. We started the week by learning the responsibilities that a president has. Then we learned how we elect a president. We watched a video that explained voting and we all registered to vote in our classroom. The next day after reading the story "Grace for President" we voted for either Grace or Thomas. Each student stood in line and went to the private office space to mark on their ballot who they thought should win the election. We counted the ballots and revealed the winner. Each student got a sticker to wear showing off that they voted.

The end of the week we learned about 2 important presidents in our country's history; George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. After watching a video we made a circle map with important information. On Friday we chose our favorite of the 2 presidents and created our final craft.

We also went on a Google Expedition to see the White House! It was so exciting to look through rooms on the 1st floor of the White House!

SEL (Social Emotional Learning): Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

This week we learned about anger. Anger is an emotion that everyone feels, however we use strategies to handle our anger in a positive way. We introduced anger with Mad Max. We took the bottle of coke and passed it around the circle stating something that makes us angry; each time shaking the bottle 2 times. At the end I opened it up and it EXPLODED! We talk about how if we bottle up our anger and don't do things like take deep breaths, go for a walk, eat healthy, etc. we can also explode and that's not safe. 

• March 6: K-2 Movie Night 
• March 11: PAC Meeting 3:45-4:45
• March 13: End of the 3rd 9 Weeks
• March 23-27: Spring Break NO SCHOOL

Make sure you are practicing the sight words that are coming home. The ones your child should know at this time include:

• I
• a
• see
• the
• can
• we
• is
• at 
• to 
• me
• it
• look
• up
• my
• like
• and
• go
• am
• have
• will
• on
• has
• do
• had
• got
• his
• she
• he
• did
• play
• are
• come
• for
• him
• said
• here
• was 
• all
• where
• they
• what
• this
• with
• that
• of
• get
• down
• when