Sea Turtle News Archives
September 2006 News
We are into our 16th day of school and the year is off to a wonderful start. The Sea Turtles are exhibiting lots of terrific life skills and are diving into learning with all the gusto you would expect from sea turtles! Old friends enjoyed getting reacquainted and our new friends, Gavin and Sebastian, were welcomed into the class with open arms. We read many books about friendship and did many activities so the children could get to know each other.
The Sea Turtles have been learning about the different species of sea turtles and discovering how they are different from land turtles as well as how a sea turtle’s body is adapted to marine life. The nonfiction genre has been our focus during this unit. One of the children’s favorite nonfiction books has been Sea Turtles by Gail Gibbons, but we have also had fun with many fictional stories and, of course, our featured poem this unit, “Turtle Says” (ask your child about the magic word!). One book that has gotten many repeated requests is Somewhere in the Ocean, which is an adaptation of the book, Over in the Meadow. Many of our other discussions have centered around finding out where sea turtles live, what they eat, their nesting habits and the dangers threatening the existence of certain species of turtles. One of the many projects the children have been working on is a cooperative research project. Each child is working with a partner and together each group has chosen a specific type of sea turtle. They are working together to research basic facts about their sea turtle as well as cooperatively constructing a stuffed paper version of the turtle. Look for them hanging in our “ocean” area!
Most young children find writing to be a huge risk because they want to write every word correctly. As the days have passed, the Sea Turtles have become more comfortable with the idea of taking risks and sharing the sounds they think are present in words when we do modeled writing and when they write independently during Writer’s Workshop or for content writing. Please remember not to spell words for your child, but remind them to “say the word to themselves and stretch it like a rubber band” so they can hear every sound. Each child has already completed an acrostic name poem, brainstormed descriptive words about themselves, written about some of their favorite things and begun work in their Writer’s Notebook writing about the things that are important in their lives and close to their hearts.
The second graders have already completed their first chapter book in Reader’s Workshop and are well into their second book. Bravo!! The first graders have read individually with me and are doing a great job during Guided Reading. They are getting acquainted with our many literacy centers and enjoy rotating between different activities. Some of those centers include Listening, Games (each day a different game is spotlighted), Build-A-Poem, and Computer to name just a few. The first graders are currently reviewing their letter-sound associations as well as number and color words and have just finished their first step number wordbook. Our second graders are currently working on the concept of alphabetical order as well as reviewing many of the phonetic concepts from last year.
The Sea Turtles are proving to be great mathematicians! The first graders are currently reviewing patterns, graphing and number order to 20 along with the concept of addition while our second graders are reviewing word problems and working on the concept of money.
Our specials are in full swing and the children are busy strengthening their gross motor skills in PE with Kay as they participate in lots of cooperative games, serenading us with lovely songs in Music with Kathy Baker, doing lots of observational drawings and pattern work in Art with Leslie, using their eyes like scientists during Nature Study with Laurel and reviewing basic conversational phrases along with the names of the months and color and number words in Spanish with Senora Margarita.
I am looking forward to a terrific year working in partnership with you and your children. Our upcoming theme will be a Salute to Literature where the children complete projects based on their favorite book. Some important events to remember is our Meet the Teacher night on Wednesday, October 4th at 6:30 PM and our first field trip of the year to the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk on Thursday, October 5th at 8 AM. To give us ample time for rush hour traffic, I am asking that all children arrive at school no later than 7:45 AM so we can be buckled up in booster seats and on the road by 8 AM. All children are required by law to be in a booster seat and will not be permitted to attend the field trip without one. Thank you for your cooperation and I look forward to seeing everyone next week for Meet the Teacher night!
Laura
