St. Patrick's Day

St. Patty's Day was so fun and these Leprechauns are so cute, beards and all! 

While we were in chapel, a leprechaun hid some clues in our room leading us to a special shamrock treat! We practiced reading and inferencing! 

We read the book "A Rainbow of my very own" and then the kiddos got to decide what they would do if they had a rainbow of their very own. The kids got pretty creative with this one!

We also reviewed "How to" writing with our Leprechaun Punch recipe. 

We also "made our own rainbow" with water, a mirror and a flashlight and this is one kiddo's recorded observation. 

We graphed and added up the colors of the rainbow (skittles!!)

Easter

We had a beautiful day for our Easter Egg hunt!  

The kids loved this fun and well shaded park! 

We played some grass games! We did sack races, pass the loofa and scoot the ball with a spoon. The kids thought the games were pretty silly!

We ended the day by making sock bunnies! 

Daniyah's birthday was this week!

 In science, we learned about clouds so here we are locating and naming the types of clouds in our sky.

Sometimes the computer doesn't like me and puts the pictures where it wants them :) 

What should my child be reading?

I have  had some great questions about reading material for your readers. I can tell that some of you have not just been reading daily but also engaging your students high order thinking by asking the questions I placed next to their weekly readers. This is so important for them to see the purpose and fun in reading! 

Here is another visual for those questions: 

The types of books that your reader is reading is also important in genre,level and purpose.

Each student should:

• Read a variety of fiction, non-fiction (newspapers, biographies, books),  and poems

       

• Fun books that are geared towards what they are geared towards!! If your kiddo loves video games, find books about video games and help him read it!
• Then we've got leveled readers-these are books that will turn your beginning reader into a fluent reader aka-a kid that can read by themselves!!  
• Most books have been reviewed and given a level that coincides with reading standards. Each of your students have a current reading level in their folder that can help you to find the right books. This can be tricky sometimes. 
• There are several different types of levels. At FCA we use the DRA level. Here is a converter site where you can get the lexile level for your student and then convert it to the DRA level using the chart below. For the site there are two ways to find books for your reader. You can look them up by your student's level or at the top right you can type in a book and it will give you the level in a colored circle and then you can use the chart to see if it matches your student's level. 
• https://lexile.com/fab/ 
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Here is a great site about chapter books for beginning readers: 

http://imaginationsoup.net/2015/03/10-engaging-beginning-chapter-books/

I would also recommend these two collections (you can buy the books individually): 

http://www.amazon.com/Billie-Brown-Complete-Collection-Books/dp/B00TONWIHW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1426540025&sr=8-2&keywords=billie+b+brown+collection

http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Jack-Complete-Collection-12/dp/B00TOO1EEE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1426540025&sr=8-3&keywords=billie+b+brown+collection

Here are two games that we have currently been playing that the kids LOVE!

I know that this all seems overwhelming but I have had a lot of questions and knowing the right book for your student will help you and them for several more years but please let me know any questions that you may have!!