February News #1

 With Valentine’s Day approaching soon, I will send home a class list on Friday with your child. We will be creating a bag at school to put our valentines in. Our party will take place on Friday, February 10th due to no school/professional development for teachers on the 13th. Valentines can be brought to school on any day the week of February 6th.

When the weather is too cold, or the playground is not safe to play on, we do have inside recess time. We are lucky to have access to the gym for some of the inside recess times, which gives the kids a chance to be active. When we can't go to the gym, we either play in the classroom, or watch a movie. It is always best for the kids to get outside and burn energy and get fresh air. With the winter weather still here, please encourage them to bring all their winter gear so they can stay warm and play in the snow on those days we are outside.

Reading: Our reading goals will be vowel teams. During the next two weeks our lessons will focus on  reading and spelling words with ee and ea, as well as ai and ay. Our grammar skills will be to write compound sentences, and to capitalize months, days of the week, and holidays. Our comprehension skills will be to compare and contrast, problem/solution, as well as author’s purpose. Soon, we will read a fun story and we will compare two characters and their feelings about taking a trip in "The Big Trip". We will also read an informational story titled "Where do Foods Come From",  and we will write about why we feel the author chose to write this story for kids. For comprehension, we have been doing a written response activity for the main selection from our basal each week. We read the story three different times throughout the week, and for each read, we focus on digging deeper to understand what we are reading using the comprehension skill of the week. Now that we have become such "Good Readers" the stories are getting longer and the kids have noticed this. I'm really proud of the progress everyone has made as a reader. Once again, thanks for encouraging your child to read the books sent home almost daily, and taking the time to listen to them read. It is so much fun watching them grow as readers, and to become excited about getting their new book during group time. The following high-frequency words are ones we will be working on. Check to see if your child can read them: about, by, car, could, don't, maybe, sure, there, first, good, ground, right, sometimes, these, under, and your.

Math: We have worked on 3 different types of problems for problem solving. This skill is difficult, for they really need to listen to what the story problem is asking for. It is sometimes hard when the mystery of the problem is the starting number, or the number in the middle, rather than the outcome. We have worked on strategies to help us solve these types of problems. Last week, we also started working on “Place Value”  . Within this module we will work on identifying and representing the number of tens and ones in a 2-digit number.  We continue to have an equality page once a week as well. We also have "Math Slides" almost daily to review and keep on top of equality, problem solving, counting money, telling time, fact fluency, number sequence, and geometry. I also want to mention that I have been impressed with how many students are doing the homework pages that accompany our daily lessons. Thanks for returning those. The extra practice will give them a better understanding of the skill we are working on. 

Spelling: Thanks to all who have been working hard at home to prepare for the weekly spelling tests. I'm proud of the success the kids have experienced with learning their weekly words. Our "Making Words" lessons have also contributed to helping them become better spellers. Our lessons have focused on a variety of chunks found in words. I have been impressed with the dedication many have had with returning their "Making Words" homework. The extra practice at home is helpful. The kids may grumble about the homework, but it really does make a difference:) They continue to receive a prize for every 10 homework papers they return.

Writing: This week, your child may bring a favorite toy on Friday for an informative writing activity. I will send a reminder via email on Thursday. The following how-tos were done in our journals last week: "How to make a sundae" and "How to do a fire drill”. With the 100th day of school coming soon (February 7th I think!) we will be completing several writing prompts centered around the number "100".

Star Student: James was most recently featured. He likes to drink apple juice boxes and his favorite food is a happy meal from McDonald’s. He collects stuffed animals and his favorite toy is a train set and cars. When James grows up, he wants to be Ryder from “Paw Patrol”.

We are running low on clorox wipes. If you would like to donate some, it would be greatly appreciated.