November 21st Newsletter

                    

Important Dates

November

     25 – Flashlight Reading Day - bring a

                      flashlight to school and read

                      your favorite book in the dark!

     26, 27, & 28 – No School –

                             Thanksgiving Break

December

          2 – Report Cards Go Home

          16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

          19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

          22 – Winter Break Begins

     Sara will be our “student of the week” for the week of December 1.

   Since next week is a short week due to the Thanksgiving Break, there won't be a newsletter or a spelling test.  Our next spelling test will be on Friday, December 5. The words for that week are listed below. 

Spelling Words

bed, wet, prod, holly, party, story, happy, so, my, family

Reading

     This week we read the book, My Teacher for President by Kay Winters.  The students did a comparison of the teacher in the story to myself.  In small groups, the children compared how we were the same and how we were different.  Each group completed a chart with their information on it.  The children used the book to get ideas from the pictures as well as from the written text. They did a nice job on this activity.

Phonics Skills

     We will be working on initial blends (grin, crab, flag, etc.).  We will also work on using a 'y' at the end of a multisyllable word.

Grammar Lesson

     We will work on reviewing pronouns.

   Report Cards

       Report cards will be going home on Tuesday, December 2.  You may keep the paper that is inside the envelope.  Please sign the envelope and return it to school.  We will use it to send home the 2nd report card later on in the year.  Thanks.

I hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving with your families.

November 14th Newsletter

 Important Dates

November

          14 – Movie Night

          25 – Flashlight Reading Day -  bring a

                      flashlight to school and read

                      your favorite book in the dark!

26, 27, & 28 – No School –

                             Thanksgiving Break

December

          2 – Report Cards Go Home

          16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

          22 – Winter Break Begins

   Math

   In math, we have continued to work on addition strategies.  We learned about the concept of “doubles” facts and recognizing them when adding.

   12 is the double of 6, so 12=6+6

We also looked at “doubles plus 1.”

  If 5+5=10, then 5+6=11

We followed the same patter with “doubles plus 2.”

  If 5+5=10, then 5+7=12

  Paige will be our “student of the week” for the week of November 17-21.

Author of the Month

    We have been reading Leo Lionni books during the month of November.  The children are getting good at figuring out the moral to each story.  We visited the Random House website about Leo Lionni and were able to watch a couple of short videos explaining how he made his drawings and what he was like growing up.  It was very interesting.

    

Reading

     This week we read the nonfiction book, Abraham Lincoln by Caroline Crosson Gilpin. During the week, we looked at nonfiction features in the book, such as: the table of contents, captions, maps, the glossary, and timelines

 Vocabulary:  assassinate, lawyer, surrender, politician, Civil War, The Union

Phonics Skills

     We will be working on –ck.  We will also be reviewing the short vowel sounds.

Grammar Lesson

We will be working on verbs and verb tenses.

Spelling Words

hop, fit, grin, duck, neck,

clock, lick, go, no, broomstick

November 7th Newsletter

 Important Dates

November

          10 – Picture Retakes

          14 – Movie Night

          25 – Flashlight Reading Day

          26, 27, & 28 – No School –

                             Thanksgiving Break

Math

     In math, we will be starting topic 5 which deals with using different strategies to learn addition and learning how to add 3 numbers.

      Our student of the week for the week of November 10-14 will be Caitlin.

      

Exploration Station

     We will be starting a new unit in social studies. The students will be learning about the flag, monuments, and famous Americans, such as George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln. This unit also discusses voting – how it works and why it's important to vote.

Comprehension Strategies

         Last week we read the story called, Martin’s Big Words.  It’s about Martin Luther King, Jr.  We went over the vocabulary words and entered the words “segregation “and “admire” into our vocabulary books.  We drew pictures and found an antonym and synonym to describe each word.  We also used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast this week’s story with last week’s story, Ruby Bridges.  The children did a nice job on this activity.

       Next week, we will be working on the comprehension strategies of sequencing, retelling and referring to the story to support their thinking,

Phonics Skills

     We will be working on words that end in –ss and -zz. We will also work on clusters with “l” (block, plan, etc.), blending short “o” words, clusters with “r” (train, crow, etc.) and contractions.

Grammar Lesson

     We will be working on pronouns (he, she, it, you, we, I, and they).

Spelling Words

ox, run, from, buzz, cross, less, miss, there, they, crossroad

Have a relaxing weekend!