Week 16 - December 20, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
Ask your child about what it means to be a fluent reader!
Students have been learning to read like the character.  They are learning to use the punctuation and quotation marks to help them read fluently.  We will continue to work no reading fluently after break.

Book Baggies:
Ask your child what books they chose yesterday.
Students brought home six books.  Two books below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books should be returned every Thursday.  If your child feels the books are too easy for them, that is okay.  They can build their fluency and confidence as readers.  Levels will change throughout the year, but they will NOT change weekly.

Writing:
Ask your child what a How to book is and what it has in it.
This week, the students came up with ideas and ways to make the Grinch Grin.  They wrote an introduction, steps and a conclusion.  After the break, students will continue to write how to books.

Math:
Ask your child the rules for measurement.
This week we learned to add problems with 3 addends.  Students learned to use doubles facts or make 10 facts to help them solve these problems.  After the break, we will continue to do this and then take our Unit 4 assessment.

Science/Social Studies:
Ask your child what sound is and how it is made.
As scientists, the students reviewed their exploration with the tuning fork and what they learned.  We also did some describing of sounds to learn about sound words.  When we return we will continue to learn about sound and begin to learn about light.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

December 23-January 5: No School - Winter Break

January 16: Family Movie Night (4:30-6:00)
January 20: No School
January 30: Multicultural Night (6-8pm)

Week 15 - December 13, 2019

Curriculum

Holiday Week Dress Up Days:

Tuesday, December 17: Grinch Day - wear green

Wednesday, December 18: Snow - wear white

Thursday, December 19: Wear holiday best for our holiday celebration

Friday, December 20: Pajama Day

Reading:
Ask your child about what it means to be a fluent reader!
Students learned to use the punctuation to help them as readers as well as to read at a good rate by reading several words in one breath.  They also learned that sometimes you read something the first time and learn all the words and then you reread it to become more fluent.  Next week, we will continue to work on reading fluently.

Book Baggies:
Ask your child what books they chose yesterday.
Students brought home six books.  Two books below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books should be returned every Thursday.  If your child feels the books are too easy for them, that is okay.  They can build their fluency and confidence as readers.  Levels will change throughout the year, but they will NOT change weekly.

Writing:
Ask your child what a How to book is and what it has in it.
Students worked hard to write How to Make Gingerbread Playdough.  Several students also had the opportunity to start a how to of their choice.  They worked to plan their writing and then draft it.  They also learned to include introductions and conclusions in their writing.  Next week, we will continue to write how to's.  Students will write about how to Make the Grinch Grin.  They will also have the opportunity to revise and edit the how to's they chose to write last week.

Math:
Ask your child the rules for measurement.
This week the students learned to measure items with nonstandard units.  Next week, we will learn to add with three addends.

Science/Social Studies:
Ask your child what sound is and how it is made.
This week, we explored what sound is and what we wondered about sound.  Students had the opportunity to explore with different items to learn about what causes sound and what sound is.  Next week we will continue to build on this learning.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

December 23-January 5: No School - Winter Break

January 16: Family Movie Night (4:30-6:00)
January 20: No School
January 30: Multicultural Night (6-8pm)

Week 14 - December 5, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
Ask your child about what it means to be a fluent reader!
This week we learned about what it means to be a fluent reader.  We will continue to work on this.  Students have learned that now that they know how to decode words, they should reread sentences after decoding to make it sound smooth when they read. Next week, we will continue to work on fluency as readers by working on our rate and using the punctuation to help us as readers. 

Book Baggies:
Ask your child what books they got today.
Students brought home six books.  Two books below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books should be returned every Thursday.  If your child feels the books are too easy for them, that is okay.  They can build their fluency and confidence as readers.  Levels will change throughout the year, but they will NOT change weekly.

Writing:
Ask your child what a How to book is and what it has in it.
As writers this week, we learned what a how to book is and why authors write them.  We also learned some of the features that how to books include (ie. introduction, steps in order, conclusion, materials listed, etc.).  This week, we wrote a how to on How To Build a Snowman.  Next week, we will be writing about How to Make Gingerbread Playdough or How to Catch a Gingerbread Man.

Math:
Ask your child what strategy they like to use when solving addition or subtraction number stories.
We are continuing to practice solving addition and subtraction word problems within 10 and showing our thinking.  The students are learning to use number lines, number grids, and different diagrams (part-total, change to more/less) to help them when they solve word problems.  They are also learning to write number models (equations) to represent their thinking.  

Science/Social Studies:
Ask your child what families are for.
This week, we wrapped up our thinking about families by discussing what families are for.  The kids came up with some great ideas about what we need our families for.  Next week, we will begin our science unit on Sound and Light.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

December 6: No School - Record's Day

December 11: Holiday Shop (4:30-8:00)
December 23-January 5: No School - Winter Break
January 16: Family Movie Night (4:30-6:00)

Week 12 - November 22, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
We have learned all of our decoding strategies and are continuing to practice using them when reading unknown words.  After the Thanksgiving break, we will begin our fluency unit.

Book Baggies:
Students brought home six books.  Two books below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books should be returned every Thursday.  If your child feels the books are too easy for them, that is okay.  They can build their fluency and confidence as readers.  Levels will change throughout the year, but they will NOT change weekly.

Writing:
We are wrapping up our personal narrative writing unit.  Students had an opportunity to write a personal narrative prompt for me today to show all that they have learned about writing personal narratives.  Next week, they will have the opportunity to finish any writing they are still working on and to share all of their hard work with each other!  After the Thanksgiving break, we will begin our How-to writing unit.

Math:
We are continuing to practice solving addition and subtraction word problems within 10 and showing our thinking.  The students are learning to use number lines, number grids, and different diagrams (part-total, change to more/less) to help them when they solve word problems.  They are also learning to write number models (equations) to represent their thinking.  We will continue to work on solving word problems as well as practice counting (skip counting, counting on a number line and counting using frames and arrows) and fact fluency within 10.

Frames and Arrows example:

Science/Social Studies:
Students have been learning about families over the last few days.  We will continue to do this in to next week.  We will look at our family traditions and how we are the same and different.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

November 25: Multicultural Feast - https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E084EACA72CA0F58-20191

November 27-29: No School - Thanksgiving Break

December 6: No School - Record's Day
December 11: Holiday Shop (4:30-8:00)
December 23-January 5: No School - Winter Break
January 16: Family Movie Night (4:30-6:00)

Week 11 - November 15, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
We have learned all of our decoding strategies!  Next week, we will learn to use multiple strategies when reading.  We will learn that sometimes using one may not work, so you may need to try another or more than one at a time.  We will then continue to practice using them when we read to self or read to someone.

Book Baggies:
Students brought home six books.  Two books below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books should be returned every Thursday.  If your child feels the books are too easy for them, that is okay.  They can build their fluency and confidence as readers.  Levels will change throughout the year, but they will NOT change weekly.

Writing:
As writers, we learned to revise our leads and endings this week. Next week, the students will learn to use the writing checklist to help them check to make sure they have included all parts of their writing and have made it the best they can.

Math:
We are continuing to practice solving addition and subtraction word problems within 10 and showing our thinking.  The students are learning to use number lines, number grids, and different diagrams (part-total, change to more/less), to help them when they solve word problems.  They are also learning to write number models (equations) to represent their thinking.  We will continue to work on solving word problems as well as practice counting and fact fluency within 10.

Science/Social Studies:
The students have displayed all of their learning from our air and weather unit. Please take a look when you are here for conferences next Tuesday!  Next week, we will be working on our family social studies unit.  We will be reading about families and then comparing and relating our learning to our own families.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

November 19: Conferences Rescheduled (Please use this link if you do not remember your time - https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A44A4A92EA5FE3-2017 )

November 25: Multicultural Feast - https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E084EACA72CA0F58-20191

November 27-29: No School - Thanksgiving Break

December 6: No School - record's Day

Week 10 - November 8, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
The students have learned many strategies to help them when they are stuck on words in their reading.  When you are reading with your child or listening to them read, please remind them to try these strategies before you tell them the word.  It will help to build their independence as readers and will make them very proud when they figure it out on their own!  Next week, we will learn to keep trying!

Book Baggies:
Students brought home six books.  Two books below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books should be returned every Thursday.  If your child feels the books are too easy for them, that is okay.  They can build their fluency and confidence as readers.  Levels will change throughout the year, but they will NOT change weekly.

Writing:
As writers, we've learned many ways to revise and now edit our writing.  We will continue to learn ways to make our personal narrative writing better in the next couple weeks, by writing better leads and endings.

Math:
We are continuing to practice solving addition and subtraction word problems within 10 and showing our thinking.  The students are learning to use number lines, number grids, and different diagrams (part-total, change to more/less), to help them when they solve word problems.  They are also learning to write number models (equations) to represent their thinking.  We will continue to work on solving word problems as well as practice counting and fact fluency within 10.

Science/Social Studies:
The students have learned so much about air and wind, weather patterns and the sky.  This week and next week, the students have been working and will continue to work on showing all that they have learned.  They are putting together all the main ideas and creating ways to show their learning on a bulletin board for all to see.  Please take a look when you are here for conferences next Tuesday!

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

November 12: Conferences (Please use this link if you do not remember your time - https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A44A4A92EA5FE3-2017 )

November 13: Picture Retakes

November 15: Bagels with Buddies (8:15 AM-8:45 AM)

November 25: Multicultural Feast

November 27-29: No School - Thanksgiving Break

December 6: No School - record's Day

Week 9 - November 1, 2019

Happy Halloween 

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween.  Thank you to all the parents who helped at our celebration here.  It seemed to go very well and the kids seemed to have a great time!  We really appreciate your time and effort to make it fun for the kids!

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, the students worked on getting their lips ready when trying to decode words.  They learned to look all the way through the word as well.  Next week, students will learn to stretch words out looking at each sound and how to skip a word and use the rest of the sentence to help them to figure out words they do not know.

Book Baggies:
Students brought home six books.  Two books below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books should be returned every Thursday.  If your child feels the books are too easy for them, that is okay.  They can build their fluency and confidence as readers.  Levels will change throughout the year, but they will NOT change weekly.

Writing:
Students learned to revise their writing by showing vs. telling.  In addition, they learned to edit their writing for capitals and periods.  Next week, we will continue to learn to edit by looking at spelling.  Students will learn to use the dictionaries I gave them, to use the word wall and to use their word learning skills to help them stretch words out to spell them.

Math:
This week students worked on counting and representing numbers in their counting collection journals.  They are working on counting in different ways and showing their thinking.  In addition, they practiced solving number stories, showing their thinking and using a number model (equation) to represent their thinking.  Students also learned to use a Change to More/Less diagram (shown below) to show their thinking. Next week, we will continue to practice counting and showing our counting.  Students will learn to show their counting along a number line.  In addition, they will continue to practice solving number stories.

Science/Social Studies:
This week we learned about how the Earth rotates to create night and day.  We learned that because of Earth's rotation, the sun seems to move across the sky from East to West.  In addition, we learned that we have seasons because of Earth's tilt and orbit around the sun.  When we are tilted away from the sun it is winter and when we are tilted toward the sun we have summer.  Finally, students learned that the seasons are opposite for countries that are in the southern hemisphere.  Next week, we will be wrapping up some of our learning about air and weather by figuring out ways to show our learning on bulletin boards outside our rooms. 

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

November 5: No School - Election Day
November 12: Conferences
November 13: Picture Retakes
November 15: Bagels with Buddies (8:15 AM-8:45 AM)
November 25: Multicultural Feast
November 27-29: No School - Thanksgiving Break
December 6: No School - record's Day

Week 8 - October 25, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
As readers, we've been focusing our learning on how to decode words we do not know.  Students have learned to use the pictures to help them as well as use chunks or parts of words to help them decode unknown words.  Next week, we will learn to get our mouths ready to say the first sound as well as look all the way through the word to stretch it out.

Book Baggies:
Students brought home six books.  Two books below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books will be taken home and returned every Thursday.  If your child feels the books are too easy for them, that is okay.  They can build their fluency and confidence as readers.  Levels will change throughout the year, but they will NOT change weekly.

Writing:
Students have been working really hard to revise their writing and make it better.  This week, they learned to use sensory details and transitions in their writing.  Next week, we will learn to show not tell and to edit for capitals, punctuation, commas and spelling.

Math:
This week and next week, we have and will continue to practice our counting skills through counting collections.  Students work with a friend to count items in as many ways as they can.  The tricky part for them is learning to show their thinking in writing, which they are practicing.  In addition, they've been practicing solving addition and subtraction word problems.  They work together with partners to solve problems and again show their thinking (their strategy).  They are also working on then sharing out their strategies orally.

Science/Social Studies:
The students looked at the patterns they noticed from the weather last week.  We also began looking at the moon phases as this was something they had observed in the sky a few weeks ago when we did our air, wind, sky, weather observation walk.  They are learning that the moon orbits over the course of the month and that the reason there are phases is because that is the part of the moon we can see based on its position and relation to the sun.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

October 25: Trunk or Treat (5pm)
November 5: No School - Election Day
November 12: Conferences
November 13: Picture Retakes
November 15: Bagels with Buddies (8:15 AM-8:45 AM)
November 25: Multicultural Feast
November 27-29: No School - Thanksgiving Break
December 6: No School - record's Day

Week 7 - October 18, 2019

Curriculum

Reading:
This week, we began our reading workshop.  We are still working on the transitions from one station to another, but it is coming along.  Students also learned about two of our decoding strategies.  We learned to use our Eagle Eye by using the picture to help us when we come to words we don't know and to look for chunks in the word that we know (Chunky Monkey).  We will continue to learn about Chunky Monkey next week.

Book Baggies:
We started book baggies this week.  Students brought home six books.  Two books  below their level so that they can practice fluency, two books on their level to help them practice decoding strategies and other skills we're learning in class, and two books above level to help students push themselves as readers.  Books will be taken home and returned every Thursday.

Writing:
As writer's this week, we went back into our writing and worked on revising.  Students learned to revise by making sure their story tells who, what, when, where, why and how.  We also learned about adding adjectives to make our stories more descriptive.  Next week, we will continue to learn some revision strategies by learning to add sensory details and transition words.

Math:
This week, the students were able to continue to practice their counting.  They practice counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s; whatever they choose.  In addition, they learned to solve story problems and show their thinking.  Next week, we will continue our counting practice as well working on solving word problems and showing our thinking.

Science/Social Studies:
The students have been tracking the weather over the week.  Next week, we will look at the journal to see what patterns we notice and how those patterns can help us to predict the weather.  We will also look at the moon phases to see how that may/may not affect the weather.

Purposeful Play
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. counting forwards and backwards within 120, 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.) 

Specials Schedule

Monday: P.E. (Wear tennis shoes)
Tuesday: Art (Bring an Art shirt labeled with your child's name)
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Media/Library
Friday: Rotates (See the back of your child's OWL folder (everyday folder) for a schedule.)

Important Dates

October 25: Trunk or Treat (5pm)
November 5: No School - Election Day
November 12: Conferences
November 13: Picture Retakes
November 15: Bagels with Buddies (8:15 AM-8:45 AM)