Patterns and Story Telling

December news

Story telling

We have begun a story telling unit based on the fairy tale "Hansel & Gretel". We have read several versions of the story.  We have talked about who the characters are, the locations in the story, the main problem and the solution (happy ever after ending). 

The children have paper Hansel, Gretel and the witch. This week they retold out the beginning of the story with the characters. At the beginning of next week we will retell out the middle section with the witch and finally the grand finale.

I have plans for the children to create a cage that will hold their paper witch as well as an activity where they write up a "For Sale" ad for the witch's candy house. It should be a busy week that will include a lot of hands on activities to help with the pre- Christmas energy!

Of course we have our candy house building afternoon as well!




Patterns 

We have begun a unit on patterns in the class. The children are creating patterns with 3 or more elements in them. You will have seen an example of this in the art project that they brought home on Friday. 

This week, we have made patterns, made pattern with a mistake in them that our friends had to fix and we have learned how to name a pattern. We will continue with this work next week as well with some more art and craft projects as well.



Ed Inform

Recently I have added some assessments to Ed Inform. They are:
  • a writing evaluation under "Family"
  • an evaluation for art and drama under "Forest and squirrels" which accompanies a writing evaluation
There are also new evidence under the following assessments. These do not yet have full evaluations as the evidence is meant to show you what your child is practicing to become proficient at this skill.
The new evidence items are:
  • pictures and video under "Math- patterns" 
  • pictures under "story telling"
  • pictures under "reading"

What you can do at home:

  1. With the busyness of the season, the children are extra tired and may need some more "down time" at home. Our days are busy at school.
  2. Look for patterns in wrapping paper, lights, blankets etc. 
  3. Ask your child to tell you the name of the pattern. Then can your child make another pattern of the same name.
  4. Can your child make a pattern with a mistake in it for you to find?

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