Weekly Update

Hello Families,

We made it without another snow day! Hopefully this will be the last snowfall this year. We had a great week and are getting excited for our zoo field trip coming up. We will be sending more information about chaperones soon, but you can assume if you paid the chaperone fee you will be able to come with us! J Only one chaperone per child is able to ride the bus and enter the zoo for the $10 admission fee.  

Math

We finished the week with our Topic assessment on comparing and ordering numbers to 100. Please keep practicing this skill at home. Monday, we are starting a unit on money. I am also going to change out math model and begin teaching with a workshop approach. This will be very similar to our reading workshop. We will begin each day with a 15-20 minute whole group mini lesson. During the next 45 minutes your child will meet with me for 15 minutes in a small group, complete a 15 minute math station and a 15 minute literacy station. Students who need extra support or enrichment will get that each day in their small group.

Reading Workshop

Great readers make inferences when they read. We make inferences when author’s clues and our schema come together to figure out what the author hasn’t told us. We will be working on inferring for the month of April.

Writer’s Workshop

We are starting to talk about our first grade research project. Each child will be researching an animal of his/her choice. If we do not have books at school on the chosen animal a different animal needs to be chosen or resources may be brought from home. These resources need to be for children, because they will be doing the research independently. We will complete an animal research report as a class before they will begin their own project.

 

This Week I Really Learned!

Thank you for writing to your child each week. We really do enjoy hearing all of the letters written each week. I am only able to check some letters each week. If your child’s letter is not adequate you are more than welcome to have him/her re-write it at home and/or write a letter back to your child stating expectations for next time. J

Word Workshop

We learned about the long i sound spelled with ye, ie, ind, int, and igh.The children know that there aren’t rules for many of these patterns. They know that reading more will help identify the correct spelling by how the word looks when tried a variety of ways. J

Grammar

We reviewed color words as adjectives. Students should be able to read and spell all basic color words: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, and pink.

Other

Tissues

We are on our last 3 boxes of tissues. If you have an extra box you’d like to send, we’d be very thankful! Thank you for those that have already come in! J Also, thank you to all of the families who sharpen pencils for us! I can’t tell you how much it helps us out every day. J

Water Bottles

Please remember that water bottles may only contain water. If you would like your child to drink something other than water at snack, please send a small amount (no more than 6 ounces) of a beverage that does not contain sugar. I’ve asked the students to bring their water bottles to school empty and fill them with water in the morning. I’m hoping this will eliminate the bathroom “emergencies” we’ve been having lately. Thank you very much for your help with this! J

Report Cards

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about your child’s report card. I would be more than happy to answer them. J

Have a wonderful weekend!