Week 26 - March 16, 2018

Curriculum

Reading

Next week, I hope to have students begin working in small groups to explore different characters and discuss them.  We are hoping that students will begin to learn to talk to each other about books in a respectful and meaningful way.  I'm hoping that students will begin responding to each other rather than all sharing separate ideas.

Book Baggies:
Students have 6 books in their bag (two below their reading level to help them work on fluency, two at their level to focus on good reading skills, and two above level to continue to push and grow as readers).  These bags will stay at home all week for students to practice reading.  It is good to encourage reading and rereading of these books!  We will exchange books on Fridays, so please have students return these books next Friday.  (Just FYI, Library books are sent in on Thursday.)  If a student forgets or is absent one week, they will need to return them the following Friday. 

Writing
This week we began talking about how to write and give our opinion.  Next week, we will begin writing an opinion piece on our favorite season.  This will also help to wrap up our Science weather unit.

Math
Students reviewed telling time to the hour and half hour.  We also reviewed fact families.  Next week, we will learn about different subtraction strategies.  Students will learn to use addition, count up and count back when solving subtraction problems.  It is my hope that they will learn when it is easier to use each of these strategies as well and have them as part of their tool kit when solving different problems.

Unit 7 Skills
o I can use the turn-around rule to generate fact families.
o I can "think addition", count up, or count back to solve subtraction facts.
o I can find the unknown rule relating to two numbers and describe the relationship using a number sentence.
o I can show time to the hour on an analog clock with both the hour and minute hands.
o I can name defining attributes of 2-dimensional shapes.

Unit 7 Study Guide - You may use this to guide you in helping your child study for this Unit 7 Assessment.

Unit 7 IXL Skills - If you would like to, students may use IXL to help them practice these skills.

Social Studies/Science
Students are working on taping and putting their weather forecast presentations into a green screen app so that we can then send it to our 1st grade friends in Kuwait to help them better understand the seasons and weather in Michigan.

Purposeful Play
Students are really enjoying the opportunity to be creative and use their imagination.  I enjoy seeing the problem solving and collaboration that happens. Ask your child what he or she created!

Please see the Purposeful Play tab on the blog to learn more about our weekly Play Time and donation items we could use for it!

Homework

• Read every night
• Work on a math skill (i.e. adding and subtracting to 20 - play a board game for this, telling time, counting coins, measuring - length and volume -  have your child cook with you to practice this, talk about shapes - 2D and 3D - find items around your house, etc.) 

Important Dates

March 26 - Spring Conferences - I have contacted those who I feel I need to meet with.  If you would like to meet and I have not contacted you, please let me know.
March 30 - Good Friday - No School
April 2-6 - Spring Break - No School
May 18 - PBL Presentation (AM) - more information to come, Celebration of Learning (PM)
May 28 - Memorial Day - No School
June 15 - Last Day of School - 1/2 Day (12:30 dismissal)