Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!

In honor of Dr. King's birthday, which was Jan. 15th, we read the book I Have a Dream, which pairs an excerpt from his famous speech with beautiful illustrations.  We talked about who Dr. King was, and why he is such an important, honored man.  The girls were so interested in Dr. King, that we watched part of his actual speech from 1963.  We then made birthday cards after brainstorming a list of words or phrases the girls wanted to know how to spell.

We then started making our cards to the tunes of Mr. Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday.  We must have listened to it at least 5 times!

During Morning Meeting, we have been learning how to say hello or good morning in other languages.  So far, we have greeted each other in Spanish, Russian, Italian, French, and Chinese.



IMG 1812 from Jennifer Phillips on Vimeo.

Reader's Workshop has evolved from learning reading skills to applying them when reading "just right books."  Each girl decorated a book bag, which now contains a few books as well as songs we have learned.  During Reader's Workshop, girls practice using pictures clues, decoding words and blending sounds, as well as sight word recognition.  They also talk with their peers and teachers about their books, building comprehension.

We will continue to assess and conference with the girls to ensure that they are both feeling challenged and confident with their reading.

We have introduced two new games during free choice.  The first, Mancala, is a counting and strategy game.  SET is a game of sorting, visual discrimination and pattern.  Mancala is actually one of the oldest games in the world!