Mrs. Whitehead's
Reading Round-Up News
2000 - 2001

May
We have been playing games with words and sentences. Mrs. Whitehead plays Bingo with us. She reads stories to us. We are learning how to make the sounds of the letters in a word to see if we can figure out new words. All month we have been learning to read little books. We love reading!

April 23
What Rhymes?
by Mrs. Whitehad

There was an old lady who swallowed a shoe.
Oh my goodness, what will she do?
There was an old lady who swallowed a cow.
Oh my goodness, what will she do now?
There was an old lady who swallowed a pie.
Oh my goodness, will she die?
There was an old lady who swallowed a boat.
Oh my goodness, will she float?
There was an old lady who swallowed a pin.
Oh my goodness, what shape she is in!

* Can you draw a picture of what the old lady did that rhymes?

April 2 to April 20
1. Go Fish Game (with "bossy r" words)
2. Concentration game with sight words; also finding rhyming sounds
3. Book: When will it be spring? Comprehension and concepts about print
4. Book: Dinosour Eggs
5. My Pet is a --------- (picture) Reviewing the short "e" sound
6. Sounds of short "u" up, tub, rub, mut, fun, tub, sub, hut, nut, but
7. Mix and Match letters and vowels: initial consonants, final consonants, use of vowels "a" "u" "o"
8. Bingo Game: review of sight words: cat, rat, the, take, on, mat, sat, etc.
9. Read Bunny My Honey Book Review the short "u" sound
10. Spring: list activities you can do in the spring; contrast to winter activities on a LEA chart. Compare/contrast winter clothes, sports, plant life, sounds, smells

March 19
The Sh--Sh--Sh--Sh--SHARK!
By: Mrs. Whitehead

One day as I was swimming in the ocean, I saw a shark. I began to yell to everyone, "There is a shark in the water!" No one looked at me or the water.

I began to think that the shark was not there, too. But then the shark swam next to me. He got closer and closer. I wanted to shoo it away. It still didn't move.

At last I swam to the shore. I was safe. That was a long time ago when I was a child. Now I love to swim with sharks. If a shark is not too big or dangerous, they can be a lot of fun.

The Sh--Sh--Sh--Shark

Comprehension Questions:

1. Who was in the water with the shark? (a little girl)
2. What did the little girl do? (she yelled)
3. Did anyone hear her? (no)
4. How do we know no one heard her? (It said in the story no one looked)
5. Did the shark swim close to the girl? (yes)
6. What did the girl do when the shark got closer? ( tried to shoo it away)
7. Did the shark move then? (no)
8. What did the girl do next? (swam to shore)
9. When did all this happen? (a long time ago)
10. Does the author like to swim with sharks now? (yes)

Concepts of Print:

1. Point to the title of the story
2. Point to the first word in the story/ last word
3. Point to a space between any two words
4. Can you show me an upper-case letter? / lower-case?
5. Can you circle a period / exclamation point / question mark ?
6. When you see a period, what do you do if you are reading?
7. Can you count the number of sentences in this story?
8. How many words are in the first sentence?
9. Count all the words in the story that start with "sh"
10. Count all the words in the story that begin with the letter "s"

March 12
We've been working on the story "City Mouse-Country Mouse." On Monday we made a list of "things" we could find in the city/country on a chart. Then we made a list of what you would be doing for "fun" if you lived in the city versus the country. We listed games and how you would play. For example, in the country you might swing on a long rope over a pond and in the city you might play on a concrete school yard.

March 5
The Story of a Little Child
by Mrs. Whitehead

Little Pat was living in a hut near the lake. He had no mom or dad. He was all alone except for a fox that came to visit him. He was so sad. Many times at night, he would lay under a tree and wish for a friend.

One day, a little child came walking in the woods and saw Pat. Pat and his friend Matt began to chat. Both were very happy to find each other. Never again were Pat and Matt lonely.

COMPREHENSION:
1. What do you think this story may be about?
2. What did little Pat live in?
3. Did he have a mom and dad? How do you know?
4. What did he often wish for?
5. Did the story say he was lonely? What does that mean?
6. What happened at the end of the story that made Pat happy?

CONCEPTS ABOUT PRINT:
1. Point to the title of the story.
2. Can you show me a space between two words?
3. Can you point to an uppercase letter? lowercase letter?
4. What do we call the punctuation mark at the end of sentence number one? What does it mean for us to do?
5. Can you circle all the "periods" in the story?
6. How many "sentences" are in the story?
7. Can you show me the first papagraph? 2nd?, 3rd?
8. Can you find in the story another word that rhymes with Pat?

January 29
Mrs. Whitehead met her new class and did an activity with the "at" word family. On Friday we played a concentration card game with the words.

January 22
Mrs. Whitehead did the "Concepts About Print" with all the kids. On Friday Mrs. Whitehead treated us to a pizza party on our last day with her.

January 15
No school on Monday or Wednesday. Mrs. Whitehead was absent on Friday.

January 8
Mrs. Whitehead gave us each a copy of the sentence:
"I have yellow yarn and a yo-yo in my yard."
We circled all the y's, copied the sentence then tried to read the words.

January 3
Ann (our high school helper) was Mrs. Whitehead's substitute and had us practice making the "Yy" sound. On Friday, Mrs. Whitehead read us a story about "snow."

December 18
Ann (our high school helper) was Mrs. Whitehead's substitute and had us follow directions to make an elf. On Wednesday, Mrs. Whithead read us a story about "Sarah's trash."

December 15
We played with the "Letter of the Week" letter sound in this sentence:
Roger rabbit runs real long relays. We read this story:
The Rat
I like rats very much! They are really funny.
They sit on mats and like hats. I think they are cooler than bats.

December 11
We made and read a book called Bears, Bears, Bears. Your child should read the book to a parent then write the title on our monthly Read-To-Me form.

December 4
We read the book My Spider Book. Your child should read the book to a parent then write the title on our monthly Read-To-Me form.

*****

Mrs. Whitehead has been playing with words that begin with the Letter of the Week. The children listen for letter sounds and match word cards.

*****

Mrs. Whitehead has been teaching "Concepts About Print." The children played a game identifying the parts of a story such as the title, capital letters, the story end, words that match, punctuation and other concepts.

*****

Mrs. Whitehead has been playing games and helping the children learn to read words in the "at" word family.

Here are the group stories the children wrote:
Kevin said, "The rat is fat."
Marissa said, "My dog is fat."
Nicole said, "The rat is fat."
Gwen said, "I sit on a mat."
Ruslan said, "I take a nap."
Amy said, "I sat on the mat."
Shane said, "I have a hat."

Monica said, "I am on the mat."
Franky said, "The cat is on the mat."
Sara said, "The rat is at the store."
Tyler said, "The fat man sat on the mat."
Hollie said, "The fat rat sat on the mat."
Annie said, "I put on the cap."

Maddie said, "My dad is fat."
Thomas said, "Rats are fat."
Staci said, "Someone sat on a mat."
Victoria said, Someone wants a nap."
Chris said, "You are fat."
Stephen said, "The cat is fat."

Here is a list of the "at" words from the sentences above for your child to read and practice. If your child is frustrated trying to read the words please stop. Many of the children CAN read them so please encourage your child to try. Praise all efforts!

The      rat      sat      on      rat      sat      mat      fat

on      The      to      mat      on      take      to      take

fat      rat      sat      on      fat      sat      take      to

mat      on      sat      rat      to      take      a      rat

a      fat      fat      bat      bat      sat      sat      rat

mat      a      take      to      the      the      at      at


Back to Mrs. Jones' Class