A Successful Week! Plus lots of freebies :)

We had a successful week this past week and it wasn't just because we survived the full moon for a whole week. Yes, you heard me right! There was a full moon all week!!! Can you believe it? I don't know if you feel the same way about full moons as I do but I don't care for them. Is it just me or are the kiddos more hyped up when it's a full moon? I'm not one to look up the moon patterns or anything like that but Monday I asked my EA "Is there suppose to be a full moon tonight or something?" because our friends in our class were a lot more chatty and on the go all day. Just as I guessed it, though I didn't know it would last all week.

Since we are only into our 2nd full week of school I am just now beginning to get some beginning of the school year assessments started. I am pretty impressed that all but 3 of my friends can write their name and most of them know a majority of the letters in the alphabet. For those that did go to "play" school as they call it here, most kids only go 2-3 days a week for half a day I believe since that's how things go around here. I know a lot of kids don't go because moms stay at home with their little ones.

Click on the photo to grab yourself a copy of the beginning of the year assessment.

This week we learned about the letter Uu. I keep parents informed about what's going on for the week through our weekly newsletter that's sent home every Monday. I also kind of use this a my guide, along with my jotted down notes of what we are doing for the week since this is the first time I don't have submit an electronic lesson plans that are pages long and take up much of my precious time.

Happy happy joy joy!!!

Here's a glimpse at a few books we read.

 

 

Our theme of the week was feelings where we discussed the different feelings we have and what may cause those feelings. We read Chrysanthemum and talked about how words can hurt our feelings. We did a wonderful activity I found from First Grade Wow that helped us think about how mean things can hurt others and that we should think before we speak. I recently found First Grade Wow and fell in love!!! She is a brilliant teacher who shares SO MUCH of her ideas and activities for FREE. I just cut out light pink printer paper into the shapes of Band-Aid. The kids wrote their name on their Band-Aids and glued it to the heart to try and mend Chrysanthemum's heart from the hurtful things others said about her name. It is taped to our wall and will be kept up all year.

 We also read It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr. I love that book. I saw a bulletin board on Pinterest based from the book but it was a broken link. :( So I just came up with my own and each student made a person that was different. While older grades can probably cut out their own people I did not want to risk that with 4/5 year olds. I pre-cut many different shapes in many different colours so that they could have many options to choose from. I made 4 examples of my different people that I made but told them I wanted them to be creative and create there own. And you know what... not one of my friends copied mine. They each made their own and I was so excited with how wonderful they turned out. This was one craft that I will do every year because they kiddos absolutely loved it!

Here's a close up view of some of their creations.

 

We also made umbrellas to reinforce the sound of Uu.

 

Our Uu picture/word cards helped us learn about a few things that begin with the letter Uu. These are also great to use for Write the Room and to refer to when completing a letter Uu sort. You can get the Letter of the Week A to Z Picture/Word Cards here.

 

Pssst...Hey you, yes you! Click on the photo & grab yourself a freebie :)

 

We are gradually learning how to write in our journals.

The journal focuses on our sight word of the week and letter of the week. This week our sight word was The.

Want more freebies? Head over to the FB Page to grab them.

Grab yourself our The Sight Word Reader and Pp/Uu Sorts!