Dear Parents,
This week during
writing workshop we continued studying the craft of certain authors and added
what we learned to our pieces. For
example, Mo Willems uses speech bubbles, writes in large text to convey sound,
and uses ellipses. Kevin Henkes
sometimes writes in short choppy phrases to convey action and or emotion. We are also working on revising our own
writing with partners as well as by ourselves. This month we will also begin
our Informational Writing unit.
The reading
strategies focused on this week were “jumping” into the first 3 sounds of
unknown words while thinking of what word would make sense and reading on,
practicing retelling our stories with a lot of details, flipping vowel sounds
in unknown words from short to long (as well as the two sounds c and g make,
and rereading favorite books many times.
This helps with improving our reading fluency. J
Our
comprehension strategy this trimester is learning about how text is organized
into characters, setting, problem, and solution. We have started to identify
these particular parts of a story and filled out a graphic organizer
together.
Next week,
our third vowel will be introduced during Spelling through Phonics. It is the short (i) when found in the medial
position in words. We will continue to practice
writing words daily that contain the short (a, o, and i) along with the
consonants taught thus far. We are
becoming great little spellers…even some 5 letter words!
In math, we started Unit 3.
We will be building on our counting skills, working on place value, and
we will investigate the structure of the base-10 number system. Please look for your child’s Unit 2 math
packet (on geometry) in Friday Folders
this week. We are also learning to
“attend to precision” as a mathematician.
This means that we are careful mathematicians, we label our work, use
numbers and words to describe our thinking, and we use different strategies to
check our work.
In Science we
are continuing on with our weather watchers unit. Your child has been exploring
wind direction and speed, precipitation, cloud cover and the different signs of
fall. Ask your child to give you a weather report for the day!
For Social Studies
we learned about Election Day Veteran’s Day this week. We are so thankful for the right to vote and for the service of
all veterans! We will also be looking at
family traditions surrounding the holidays.
Soon, special ‘projects’ will be coming home to be completed and returned,
stay tuned!
Parents,
the cold and flu season is upon us. Please
keep your child at home if they are sick.
This is the only time we don’t want to share! Also, your child must be fever free for 24
hours, without medication, before returning to school.
Thank you
for your continued support. Enjoy your
weekend with your family!
Jennifer Mason
and Kelly Putnam
Reminders:
·
11-11-16: Popcorn Day,
Picture Re-takes
·
11-14-16: Firemen visit
·
11-18-16: Spirit Day! Wear
Your Teacher’s Favorite Color
·
11-18-16 Coupon Book Sale
begins
·
The week of November 21st we
have school on Monday and Tuesday. No
school Wed.-Fri., Happy Thanksgiving!
