Picking up ideas from last week's literacy review, this week we started working with the sounds of vowels and consonants and then delving deeper into why these letter sounds start to change when we put them into words and speak them.
Students began dividing words into bites and then with more practice, discovered why we can't separate words into any bite size we want to, that we must take bites in certain ways; just like we can't eat in the same way we did as babies. Now, at mealtimes, we are expected to eat in a mannerly fashion, and doing so helps us get what food we need (and be good table guests). We've grown out of that way of eating and grown into new ways, just as students are growing into new ways of reading words. Breaking words into specific syllables (in class we are calling them bites), helps us understand more about the word, and how its letter combinations work together, which lets the words come together into a tasty meal on the book's page.
The saint story for this week was about Hubert, an avid outdoorsman who overcame tragedy and grief to advocate for animal rights. The fable, The Stag and His Reflection, was brought in juxtaposition.
On Friday, we harvested seeds from a pumpkin grown by Mrs. Bowers' third-grade class, who generously shared their bounty with us. We enjoyed watching their garden grow and look forward to planting ours at the end of the year.
Daily dictation, besides providing math and literacy practice, introduced ten new sight words and a new writing idea this week. Students received sections of a short story that stopped on a cliffhanger. On Friday, they independently wrote an ending to the story.
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