Hello Mr. Eric!

Hello! Hope everyone has had a great week. This week in math, the students have really been focusing on what an attribute is, specifically connecting the definition with attribute blocks. One of the activities for them to do was go on a scavenger hunt all around the school to find specific blocks based on clues. For example, I left clues such as "I am a thin, blue, large, rectangle. You can find me where you create art." I would have about 3 different blocks scattered throughout the room, and it was their job to find the block that was described, and justify why the other blocks weren't the "mystery block." They did this in small groups so it was exciting for them to get their time out of the classroom and be able to explore their school with Mrs. Gentry.

In literacy, we have been focusing on making predictions about books based on what we know (it is called using our schema.)One of the activities we did was called "Preview, Predict, and Confirm." The children loved to preview the book first by only looking at the pictures, and then thinking of words that could be in the book based on what they saw. As we read the book aloud, we would check off the words they predicted correct. They were thrilled when a word was read that matched a word on the list. If you want to keep the fun going, try doing this at home with the books from their reading folders. Since the beginning of the year, we have been touching upon short vowel sounds, but these past couple weeks we have really been focusing on them. Any chance you have to reinforce these sounds would be greatly appreciated! The "e" (as in exercise) and "a" (as in a- a- choo!) seem to be the most difficult for them.

By using a web camera, both GSCELC and SCOPE had the honor of talking to a fantastic author and musician, Eric Litwin. He has such a wonderful, silly personality that the children absolutely adored. This was on Tuesday, and they were still talking him today. It was a great opportunity to take part in live music, an answer-question session, and a reading of his new book that will be coming out in May. We have been thinking about what we would step in if we were Pete. I have been getting answers like hot fudge, ice cream, and mashed potatoes. It is fun to hear their responses. Here is a video from the web cast for you to enjoy:

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