Alphabet/Word Wall, Colors Explorations & MORE!

 Yet again, we had another very productive week.  One of our biggest accomplishments was our alphabet/word wall.  It has been a process to complete the "wall," which I'll explain later. 

We started by choosing a letter, reviewed it's sign in sign language, and sound(s).  Then we made a list of words that start with the respective letter.  We consolidated our list to 5-6 words that start with each letter and then the students added illustrations.  Students were reminded to do their most beautiful/quality work because their illustrations were made into letter books.  Students practiced writing both the capitol and lowercase letter that corresponded with the picture and labeled their illustration.  Below you will see students illustrating objects for the letter U.  

The illustrations are made into a book using a collection of the students work using oil pastels.  

All the students have had the opportunity to complete one of the illustrations and letter.

 The students wanted to add their names so their friends would know how to spell their names when writing them.  They wrote their names on a black piece of construction paper and added it to the word wall.  Several of the students will add their names this week.  

We have also started to add some of the sight words we have learned.

Here is a picture of our completed alphabet wall.  

We will continue to add sight words throughout the year. 

This week we also continued to focus on colors. 

 We looked at all these different shades of paint samples to find our favorite shade of color.  For some, it was a very difficult choice.

 As you can see, many of our friends like the color pink!

We also wanted to see what would happen if we mixed the colors red and yellow.  I brought in a few large containers of vanilla yogurt and together we added food coloring to make them red and yellow.  

Each child got one spoonful of red and one spoonful of yellow to start.

 Then we mixed the two colors together.  Students noticed the more red they added, the darker the orange, and the more yellow they added the lighter it turned.

Later we documented our experiment in our "Exploration Lab Journals."  You can see students are labeling color words and are beginning to write sentences about their results.   

 Here is a look at a students documentation from both our 

green lemonade and orange yogurt experiments. 

Finally, upon finishing up our students treasure blocks, students were very excited to start writing their very own books during "Writing Workshop."  Some of the books our students wrote were titled "Flowers," "Zombies," "Butterflies," "Iron Man," and "Pumpkins." 

Take a look at the beginning stages of our students becoming author/illustrators. 

 

Like I mentioned, we were very busy and productive this week!  Stay tuned for a special "Literacy Night" post.  I hope everyone enjoys the beautiful week that's upon us!

Mrs. Julie Atkin