Happy Spring!

Dear Families,

Spring is such a fun time for young children, and I am trying to stay positive and thinking that we are finally towards the end of the bitter cold and snow! The kindergarteners are very eager for it to be warm out, and so am I! This upcoming week, we will be preparing for our garden by learning about the basics of gardening and the survival needs of plants. Thanks to you and the online school day, the children were able to be introduced to the concept of plants even before coming to school! It is one of my favorite things to teach and I am looking forward to having them try all the healthy, delicious, and fresh vegetables they plant! To celebrate the first day of spring, the children made butterflies out of coffee filters, markers, and water. After the coffee filter dried, they pinched the middle of the paper and wrapper around a pipe cleaner to make the body and antennas.  Take a look!

 
This past month, the students have been exploring weather and seasons. This is the perfect time to teach and learn about weather because the weather has NOT been consistent... so the children are able to experience it all! The children designed a weather station for the classroom, where they can become meteorologists and give the weather forecast for the day. They have explored wind by blowing through straws at objects and making wind socks. They have learned about the water cycle by conducting multiple experiments re-creating the process. They are recording the temperature and their observations in their weather journal on a daily basis. Mr. Tom was kind enough to set up a "green screen" for them so they could experience how a meteorologist does not really stand in front of a map, but rather in front of a green screen. Not only are they learning about science, but they are also practicing writing larger numbers, comparing length, height, and weight between objects and classifying objects into given categories. Whenever the weather channel is on at your home, please encourage your child to watch it and discuss any familiar vocabulary they may hear. This week, the children will be learning more about the water cycle and digging deeper into an investigation on clouds.

Above (Left:) Rook and Jadon are putting together their water cycle re-telling bracelets. (Right:) Kaiden and Drew are creating their own wind by blowing through straws and making masterpieces with paint! 

 

 Above (Left:) Kale worked hard to try blowing the rock and making it move. The children were blowing different objects and comparing the distance they traveled. (Right:) Mackenzie measures the streamer for her wind sock.

The students have also been busy learning how to read informational texts closely. When students "read closely,"  they are determining what the text says explicitly and making logical inferences. Close reading involves reading for deep understanding. The goal is to enable an interpretation or explanation that includes the details as well as the bigger ideas. The students went on a scavenger hunt with a partner to find the different parts of an informational book, such as the main topic and table of contents. Using a venn diagram, we compared and contrasted two different non-fiction books about weather. We looked at the difference in things like the pictures, the length of each book, and whether the books had a table of contents or labels within the book. They also learned that it is okay to ask questions when reading a non-fiction book, and the more we ask questions, the more we learn. We looked at the different resources we have that could help them answer their question, such as the internet, another book, or a friend.

Above (Left:) Nina and Isaac work together to complete their "Informational Text Scavenger Hunt." (Right:) Our completed venn diagram comparing and contrasting two different non-fiction books.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Mrs. Bowen :) 

Happy Friday!

On Wednesday, the children at SCOPE Academy celebrated World Read Aloud Day, which is an awareness day advocating for literacy as a right that belongs to all people. It is celebrated around the world annually on the first Wednesday in March.World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another. By raising our voices together on this day, we show the world’s children that we support their future: that they have the right to read, to write, and to share their words to change the world. Our kindergarteners studied the book Snow by Uri Shulevitz, which is a book about a small boy who wishes for snow in Belgium. The students made berets to wear and snowflakes to hold for their performance. We were lucky to perform for Miss Dunaway's fourth grade class. The kindergarteners were so nervous! Kale and Luke took turns reading the words, while the rest of the class acted out the story. I was so proud of them! Mrs. Dodson's class performed for us and boy, was that a treat! Each 3rd grader had a different multicultural book and were dressed up like the main character. The kindergarteners moved in groups from reader to reader and were able to listen and experience six different books. Below are pictures that captured this spectacular event. 

In reading, we have also been learning a lot about word families, which are groups of words that have a common feature or pattern- they have some of the same combinations of letters in them and a similar sound. For example, at, cat, hat, and fat are a family of words with the "at" sound and letter combination in common. The 37 most common word families are: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck ,ug, ump, unk. When reading with your child, point out the word families that are found in the book and have a discussion with your child about all the other words you could make with that word family. What would happen if they substituted the word for another word with the same pattern? Would it be a silly sentence? "Playing" with words is one of the most favorite things children like to do!

Have a great weekend! 

Mrs. Bowen :)