Reminders:

• Please remember to sign up for parent-teacher conferences for the Week of March 9. Follow this link: https://signup.com/Group/1245488000105/
• Please make sure your child has outside clothing appropriate for the weather and shoes to wear in the classroom.
• Library on Wednesday’s!
• Keep reading the take home baggy books.  Reading at home is super important as we get ready for second grade!

Reading 

We have started a new unit in reading called “Be the Boss of Your Reading”.  In this unit  we will review strategies to read tricky words.  When student come to a tricky word, they should not just use their knowledge of letters and sounds but also the knowledge of what the text is about.

We will also learn that reading for meaning is key to comprehension.  We will learn, if we read something and say “Huh?” We need to STOP and try something like…

Does that make sense?

Does that look right?

Does that sound right?

Then reread the sentence or page to understand the text better.

 

Phonics 

In phonics, we have been learning about vowel teams.  We have learned that vowels join together to make new sounds. But… we must pay attention!! Some vowel teams sound the same but look different and some vowel teams make more than one sound!

Writing:

We are back to small moment narrative writing.  The kids are learning to be better at writing small moments by studying and reading the books by author Mo Willems.  He is the infamous author of Elephant Piggy books Pigeon books and many other great stories.  We are remembering to include good beginnings, details, and good endings. We are also trying some of the things that make Mo Willems a good author including things as speech bubbles, thinking bubbles, big bold words, humor,  and using a variety of end marks.

Math. 

We have been working on unit 5 in math.  This unit focuses on addition and subtraction story problems with teen numbers. We will also solve story problems with 3 addends.  We also will count and write numbers to 120 and find 10 more and 10 less than a given number.

Social Studies: 

We have studied some important people in history such as:  Christopher Columbus, The Pilgrims, George Washington, Abe Lincoln, & Martin Luther King Junior.  The kids were able to show the importance of these people in time using a timeline.

FYI

• Thank you for helping your child with the 100 day fashion show project.  What fun it was to see all the creativity!
• Please have your child bring/wear boots and snow pants to school.  They will not be allowed to leave the concrete at recess without these items.
• Your child should be working on Valentines for all the students in the class.  A paper went home with all the kids names and numbers on them.  If you need another paper, please let me know.  We will not be mailing Valentines until Thursday morning.  You can have your child bring them to school then, or I can hold onto them if they bring them in early.
• Our Valentine party will be on Friday, February 14 from 12:35- 1:25.  You are welcome to join us as long as you have a background check.  Thank you!
• Please make sure your child is reading take home books and returning them for new ones.
• Library is on Wednesday!

 

Reading    

Next week we will  start a new unit in reading where we will review strategies to read tricky words.  When students come to a tricky word, they should not just use their knowledge of letters and sounds but also the knowledge of what the text is about.

We will also learn that reading for meaning is key to comprehension.  We will learn, if we read something and say “Huh?” then we need to ask ourselves:

Does that make sense?

Does that look right?

Does that sound right?

Then reread the sentence or page to understand the text better.

Writing 

In writing we have just finished a  unit on ” How To Writing”.  In this unit we learned that directions must be in the correct order and easy to follow.  Students used procedural words- First, Next, Then, and Last to write the steps of their directions. 

Next week, we will start an author study using Mo Willems. We will study what he does as an author and the students will attempt to use some of these techniques in their own stories.

Phonics .

Our focus in phonics has been using “vowel teams” to help solve hard words. We have learned the saying “when two vowels go a walkin’, the first one does the talkin’.” We have learned about vowel teams  ee,  ea,  oa,  and ai. We also learned when we see -ay at the end of a word, it makes the long a sound.

 Math

We are starting unit 5 in math.  This unit focuses on addition and subtraction story problems with teen totals. We will also solve story problems with 3 addends.  We will count and write numbers to 120 and find 10 more and 10 less than a given number.

 

FYI

Culver’s night is Tuesday, January 21st from 5-8pm. Forget about cooking dinner and come to Culver’s for dinner, support the school and get your food delivered by your favorite Alward staff and parents. Invite your family and friends and come enjoy dinner and ice cream. Come join me and some fellow teachers from 5:00 to 6:30!!

 

Please continue to have your child read for 15 minutes at home each night. This is a great way to relax and wind down before bedtime.

Reading

We continue learning about non-fiction text. We have discovered that non-fiction books are true and we learn from them. We also learned that non-fiction books have text features that help us navigate the book. We learned about the table of contents, headings, captions, indexes, keyword/bold words, and diagrams. All of these text features are important information that we need to read to help us learn the information in the book. We are also focusing on retelling important information from our books to our partners.

 

Writing

In writing, we have started a unit on ” How To Writing”.  In this unit we are learning that directions must be in the correct order.  Students are using the words- First, Next, Then, and Last to write the steps of their directions.  We have written papers on how to make a root-beer float, how to make a smore, how to wrap a present, and how to brush our teeth.  We are also adding cautionary statements to our writing. The kids will be writing their own how to stories next week!. We have also introduced a rubric to the students so that they can “grade” their own writing.

Phonics

In phonics, we have been focusing on making more words into “snap” words. We have learned that some “snap” words are hiding in larger words. We can use these “super snap” words to help us decode those larger, trickier words.

Math

We have just started a new unit in math.  Our Unit 4 in math will focus on tens and teen numbers, place value to 100, and strategies for adding larger numbers.  We will practice counting groups of tens. We learned about teen numbers (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19) and noticed that every teen number has a 10 hiding inside along with some extra ones. We have also begun adding 1-digit numbers to 2-digit numbers.

Our holiday party will be on Thursday 12/19 from 12:35 until 1:25. You are welcome to join but you must have a background check.

FYI

*   Please keep food donations coming in for the food drive!   Thank you to all who have already donated.

*     Please continue having your child read the WEB bag books and return them at least  2X week.

*      Library is on Wednesday.  Please help your child remember their books.

*     Thanksgiving break 11/27- 12/1.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

*.    The next early release day will be 12/13.

*     The annual Christmas music program will be Tuesday, 12/3.

 

READING: 

In readers workshop, we have just started a new unit in non-fiction. So far we have learned to take a sneak peek to learn about our topic and that good readers look closely at each page. We noticed that there are many different text features to pay attention to in a non-fiction book such as headings, captions, and diagrams.

Phonics:

In phonics, we are learning to look closely at words and to read allll the ways through the word. We looked at common endings for words such as  -ing, -ed, -s, -es, and -er. We also learned that when we add -ing to a CVCE word, that E is very scared of -ing and runs away. So when we add -ing to a CVCE word we must first drop the e  before adding -ing.

Writing :    

We continue to develop our craft of writing persuasive letters.  We have focused on stating our opinion to the appropriate audience, coming up with the best reasons to support our opinion, and having a closing for our letter.

Math :   

Our focus for math has been solving for unknown partners or totals in story problems and equations. We are learning that there are different strategies we can use to solve for an unknown partner and that it is important to always show our work. We can show our work with an equation, math mountain, or a proof drawing.

Don’t forget the PTC meeting this Wednesday 11/13, from 7:oo to 8:00 PM.

We sure could use your support!!

Thank you to all the parents that helped with our Fall party. It was the BEST!!

FYI:

• The kids are doing a great job at school.  We are working hard and learning so much each day!  Remember to have your child read their take-home baggy books and return them when they are done.  They do not need to return them every day, but a couple times a week is great!
• Tuesday, October 29 is the Turkey Trot. This takes place at the football field by Baldwin Street Middle School.  See you there!
• Our fall party will be Thursday,  October 31 from 12:35-1:25. You are very welcome to attend but you must have a background check to get in the building. The costume parade will begin at 2:00 weather permitting. Please do not send your child to school with their costume on. They must bring it in a bag to change into after lunch.
• The book fair will be the week of October 21.  Our class look day is Tuesday, October 22 and our class buy day is Thursday, October 24.  If you would like your child to buy books, please send in their money and wish list next week.   

READING: 

In readers workshop, we have been focusing on working as partners.  We have learned that a good partner doesn’t tell the answer they help!  Partners help us become better readers by retelling at the end of a book and by helping us set reading goals.

Phonics: 

In phonics, we are finishing up our first unit. We have been focusing on reading and writing “snap words” in a snap. We have learned that some of our snap words are “Power Words”.  Which means we can use a snap word such as can to help us read and write other words like pan, fan, and man.

Writing: 

We just finished up our first unit in writers workshop. We focused on making our stories easy for others to read. We have concentrated on stretching out words to hear and write all the sounds.  We are also using 5 star sentences, which includes neat handwriting, finger spaces between the words, and using proper punctuation. We will continue to write personal narratives in class. Our goal this year is to write for readers!

Math: 

In math, we are working on addition strategies.  This week we learned to count on from the bigger number to make our calculations quicker and we learned to write an addition equation.  We have also learned to make proof drawings to prove our answer is correct.

 

Reminders:

• Thank you for helping your child raise money for the walk-a-thon!  We had a record-breaking year for money raised!  Great job!
• Please help your child return home folder each day.  Please take out papers each night.  Math homework is due each Thursday. Your child may turn it in early if they are done. 
• Our next early release day will be on October 18.
• Please remember to pack your child a morning snack.  
• Return library books on Tuesdays!

Take Home Baggy Books:

Today your child will come home with a bag of 2 books.  These are at home reading books at your child’s Independent reading level.  These levels were determined by the beginning of the year reading assessments.  

These books are meant to be fairly easy for your child so they are not making many errors, building fluency and confidence in reading, and where they can practice retelling in detail. You do not need to send these books back to school every day with your child.  Reread them and keep them at home for a few days before returning them for new ones.  

Please keep track of your child’s reading by filling out the “Lucky Listener” page.  Your child’s book levels will change throughout the year as I do ongoing reading assessments with your child. Thank you for taking part in this important activity with your child! Please let me know if you have any questions.

READING:   

In readers workshop, the kids are working hard on learning and using good reading habits.  Some of the reading habits for hard words are:  check the picture, look at all parts of the word, double-check the word-  Does it look right?  Does it make sense?, try the vowel sound 2 ways, and have persistence- Don’t give up!  The kids are also learning how to read with partners by giving book introductions and helping each other with hard words. 

Phonics . 

In phonics we have been focusing on reading “snap words” in a snap.  We have been learned strategies that help us solve hard words.  First, we try to read it, we clap out the syllables, we use the sounds of the letters, we study it closely and name the letters, then we notice the vowels, last we notice the blends and digraphs.

We have also been stretching out words to hear all the sounds as we write.

Writing: 

In writers workshop, we have been practicing the three W’s (Where, who, and what) in our writing. We also learned, “When you think you’re done, You’ve just begun”. We can always add more to the picture, the words, or start a new story.

 We have learned that we can attempt to spell any word by stretching it out and writing the sounds we hear in the word.  This is first grade sound-spelling!  We have also brainstormed small moment topics to write about in our “Tiny Topics” Notebook.  

Math: 

We just finished up our first unit of math by taking our first math assessment. The students all did a great job on this.

In our next unit, we will continue our use of number partners to develop a deeper understanding of how to break numbers apart. We will also begin practicing addition facts by creating their own flashcards.