Sunday, October 27, 2013

Important Halloween Information:

Hi Parents,

Please don't forget that on Halloween we have a different schedule.  Students will be dismissed at 11:45 for lunch.  They must leave school grounds.  There will be no one on lunch duty to watch them.  If you will not be home or need to work, please make arrangements so your child has somewhere to go.  Your child is expected to be back at school at 1:30 dressed in their Halloween costumes.  The Halloween Parade will start at 1:45.  I hope to see you all at the parade.  Let's hope for great weather.  At least a little bit warmer then what we have been having lately…
Have a great week!

We Explored Poetry!


Reading:
This past week the students were introduced to poetry.  We talked a lot about or five senses and different words to use for different feelings.  We explored our senses and feelings as we read various poems.  We noticed that different poems can make us feel different ways and can cause us to think activate our senses.  We went on a nature walk to really activate our senses and explored the five senses of fall.

Math:
We finished with chapter 3 in math this week.  We pulled all our strategies together as we took our chapter 3 test. We definitely put forth our best effort.

Grammar:
In grammar we learned that a noun is a person, place, animal, or thing.  We worked on identifying different nouns.

What We’re Learning Next Week:

Reading
This upcoming week we are going to go back to exploring fiction texts.  We are going to do it in a fun and Halloween way by studying Fictional Halloween texts.  We will work on asking and answering questions about key details in a text, how to describe characters in a text and how to use words and phrases that help us examine feelings from the text.  Using different Halloween stories will make this upcoming week exciting and keep the students enthusiastic about Halloween!

Math:  
We will be beginning chapter 4.  We will be working on subtraction strategies to use.  We will start with counting back, thinking about addition to subtract, and using a ten frame to subtract.  

Grammar: 
We are going to be talking about proper nouns and what makes a proper noun

Friday, October 18, 2013

It was a "Batty" week...


We learned about an adorable little bat named Stellaluna this week.  We focused on quite a few different skills.  We worked on using adjectives to describe characters.  We talked about the story plot, the setting, and the problem.  We even compared and contrasted bats and birds.  It was a busy week for us!  We really enjoyed the story Stellaluna; it taught us that it is okay to be different and still be friends.

In math this week we worked on making tens to add.  It took some practice but we are getting the hang of it.  We worked on adding three numbers and adding three numbers with algebra.  We were hard at work using our best math skills.  We are learning a lot about how numbers fit together and the different addition concepts. 

Next Week


Reading: We are taking on a whole new genre and tackling POETRY!  We are going to explore poetry by reading poems that activate our five senses and evoke different emotions.  We are really going to focus on those words and phrases that cause us to feel a certain emotion or activate our senses.  We are going to do some really fun activities to help us learn these different words.

Math:  Next week we are going to be giving our math chapter 3 test.  We are finishing up the chapter with problem solving using addition strategies.  We are going to then review and take our test.  We will then begin chapter 4, which focuses on subtraction strategies.   Students will learn counting back as a subtraction strategy and how to use addition to help them subtract.

Grammar: We are beginning to learn about nouns and how a noun is a person, place, or thing.         

Important Dates:
10/25: Quarter 1 Ends!

10/20-10/25 Red Ribbon Spirit Week! 
Monday: Athletic Wear Day
Tuesday: Crazy Hats Day
Wednesday: Wear Read Day
Thursday: Hawaiian Day
Friday: School Spirit Day

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Class News 10/11 - 10/18

This past week we further investigated penguins!  We read a nonfiction text on penguins and then compared and contrasted real life penguins with a fictional penguin named Tacky.  This helped us to see how different fiction and nonfiction texts are when compared side by side.  We did some great writing this week, too.  We wrote some wonderful facts about penguins and did our best writing!  Our writing is now hung on a bulletin board in the primary hall for the whole school to see!

We did a fun craft with our doubles facts.  We came up with a "Batty Doubles" fact in honor of Halloween.  We are really starting to know those doubles facts!

In math we continued to work on adding within 20.  We practiced the many strategies we have learned.  This week we also we learned how to add using a tens frame.  This took practice, but we are getting the hang of it.

Math Tip:  Please remember to have your student login to xtramath.org and practice their math problems everyday.  It only takes about 5 minutes a day but you will notice a significant change in their math fluency if done daily! 

Don't forget about reading those 100 minutes a week.  This is considered to be a part of your child's independent reading grade.  This is also critical practice for your child to apply their reading skills and get that extra practice at home.