Ahoy Me Hearties!

Shiver me timbers, what fun we had last week!  Who wouldn't love a fun filled, action packed week centered on pirates?!  Blow me down, why the cap'n was so impressed with the amount of learning and fun that took place with her little buccaneers that she didn't want the week to end!

Here are some awesome books we read:

We did soooo many activities!  In math we are really really working hard on subtraction.  I am in awe of how fast they are picking up on it!!!  We did lots of subtraction activities this past week, but we also reviewed addition by playing the fun game below.  Basically the kids had to build a pirate ship by rolling two cubes and finding the sum.  If they rolled a specific sum then they got to put the corresponding piece of the pirate ship down.  The first person to build their ship won.  This idea came from Deanna Jump's pirate unit and the kids just loved it!

We also played a lot of file folder games in math.  In the game below we had to match up the number words with the actual numbers. :)

In language arts we are still working hard on our phonemic awareness and blending.  We have been concentrating on digraphs: th, sh, wh, ch.  Oi/oy have also been introduced.  We read, read, read, and are really practicing our high frequency sight words.  I sent home a third quarter sight word list in the newsletter, so please continue to practice these at home.  I know I have already said it, but I seriously adore this time of the year.  There is sooooo much growth and I really see their reading fluency increase. They begin to gain confidence, and it is just so exciting to witness.  A little boy the other day during guided reading looked over at me and delightfully exclaimed, "Mrs. Bagby, I'm reading!"  That is something I will truly treasure forever.  <3   

Aren't these little readers adorable?!

We practiced our sight words this week with pirate flair!  The kiddos had to roll a cube with our new sight words on it.  Then, they got to color the part of the pirate picture that had the word they rolled on it.  They kept rolling until everyone had their picture colored.  How fun! :)

The next few pictures don't have anything to do with pirates, but I thought the activity was super cute and wanted to share it with you.  Mrs. Kurt, our school social worker, came in and taught an awesome lesson about personal space.  The kids were taught to pretend there was a hula hoop around their body and in order to keep good personal space they didn't want their hula hoop to touch anyone else's.  Then, we did the activity below, where we squeeze a few kids in a hula hoop and they got to see how unsettling it is when you don't have adequate personal space.  It is little lessons like this that are sometimes just as important as reading and writing. :)

Okay, back to pirates!!!  Of course our little buccaneers had to make their own pirate hats and eye patches!  Argh!

We also made ADORABLE little pirates.  The way we did this was very fun.  We took surveys throughout the week on pirate things and that is how they had to build their pirates.  For example, if they had ever been on a boat they had to make a black pirate hat, and if they hadn't been on a boat they had to make a bandana.  Also, we took a survey of their favorite pirate book they read.  If they liked one particular book better, they had to make a hook, and if they liked the other book better they had to make a peg leg.  This was really fun and they just turned out so cute!

This week we are doing an awesome unit on the five senses.  I am trying to remind myself every day to take pictures.... so hopefully there will be a post coming soon!  :)

Until next time,