Weekly News: March 20-24

This is our last week of school before spring break. We have NO SCHOOL for the next two weeks. Spring break is a perfect time to work on your Community Service Projects! I hope you have a wonderful two weeks off with your families!

Upcoming Events:
March 27-April 7: SPRING BREAK!!!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words:  There will be no new sight words introduced until after Spring Break.  Please take this time to review ALL of our words introduced so far.  Remember, sight words are words that your child should recognize instantly.  These are not words your child should be sounding out!  Please continue to work on these words. 

Letter Team: There will be no new letter teams introduced until after Spring Break.  Please take this time to review ALL of our letter teams introduced so far. Many children know most of the letter teams, but have a hard time applying them into decoding words. A great idea would be to write words (or make flashcards) with letter teams inside them and have your child decode the word for you, applying the letter team. 

Reading: This week, we will read books about spring. Last week in our reading groups, we started "Book Studies" as each group read and discussed a different non-fiction book. We discussed and created posters for each of these books at different levels, identifying the main idea and details in each text. This week, we will read different level fiction books and discuss character, story events, cause and effect, and even learn about adjectives. The students have been having a lot of fun! As always, we will also continue to read fluency passages at their levels and their self-selected good-fit books from the library.
Writing: We will write all about spring. 

Math: We will continue to work hard on decomposing and composing numbers within ten, as well as addition and subtraction problems, and identifying the place value (tens and ones) of two-digit numbers. 

Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: March 20-24

Flashcards: Since we have no new sight words, this is a great opportunity to review ALL sight words and letter teams introduced so far.

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. In addition to Smarty Ants, we ask that you read your Book Bag every night. This includes: fluency passage, paper books, and library books. 

Writing: Practice writing EVERY day.  You can practice writing a 5 sentence Step up to Writing paragraph in your at-home journal.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss ways to make 5 (and ways to make 10!), numbers in base ten (in the number 16, how many tens and how many ones?), addition and subtraction number problems and word problems, 2D and 3D shapes, and the Doubles Song. Count the money in your bank.

SPECIAL Turn-In Homework:  None this week. 

Weekly News: March 13-17

We will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day this Friday by wearing green, sharing our Leprechaun Traps and having fun St. Patrick's Day centers. Don't forget to turn in your leprechaun traps by Thursday at the latest! We will have a special leprechaun museum on this day and set them up to try to catch them on Friday!  

Parent Conferences for this trimester will be on a NEED ONLY basis and will be taking place the week before Spring break, March 20-24. 

Continue to work on your community service projects. These will be due early May - They will need to be turned in before May 10th to qualify for the Leadership Banquet. Please see our Community Service Tab for more information and feel free to email me if you have any questions. 

Upcoming Events:
Friday, March 17: ST. PATRICK'S WEAR GREEN DAY AND CENTERS
March 27-April 7: SPRING BREAK!!!
   

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN. 

Letter Team: EIGH (sounding like "a" like in EIGHT and NEIGHBOR).

Reading: We will read books about leprechauns and spring. We will continue to explore non-fiction texts as we discuss the main idea and key details from the text. Students will continue to read fluency passages at their levels and their self-selected good-fit books from the library. Many students have begun taking AR quizzes on books they have been reading. 

Writing: This week, we will write a procedural writing on "How to Catch a Leprechaun". Students will use their very own leprechaun traps to think of and write the steps of how they plan on catching the leprechaun. 

Math: We will continue to work hard on decomposing and composing numbers within ten. A fun game that we've been playing in class that you can play at home: Take the face cards (jack, queen, king) out of a deck of cards so that you only have A(this is our number 1)-9. Hold a card up to your forward so that you cannot see it but your child can. Have your child tell you what YOU NEED to make 10 and guess your card. Take turns playing this - we have been having so much fun playing this in class! 

Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: March 13-17

Flashcards: Don't forget to make new flashcards for each sight word and letter team. New words for this week are: SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN and the new letter team is: EIGH (sounding like "a" like in EIGHT and NEIGHBOR).

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. In addition to Smarty Ants, we ask that you read your Book Bag every night. This includes: fluency passage, paper books, and library books. 

Writing: Practice writing EVERY day.  You can practice writing a 5 sentence Step up to Writing paragraph in your at-home journal.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss ways to make 5 (and ways to make 10!), numbers in base ten (in the number 16, how many tens and how many ones?), addition and subtraction number problems and word problems, 2D and 3D shapes, and the Doubles Song. Count the money in your bank.

SPECIAL Turn-In Homework:  Your homework is to build a leprechaun trap!!! We are going to be talking and writing about how we might catch a leprechaun. You will have two weeks to build your leprechaun trap with your family - be as creative as you can! A good idea is to google or pinterest leprechaun trap examples for lots of fun ideas! These traps will be due in class no later than Thursday, March 16th. We are going to have a leprechaun trap museum and do a special project with them! Have fun! 

Weekly News: March 6-10

We had so much fun dressing up and celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday. Thank you for all of your help, time, donations, and to all of our guest readers! Make sure to check out our pictures on the ParentSquare post. 

Parent Conferences for this trimester will be on a NEED ONLY basis and will be taking place the week before Spring break, March 20-24. 

Continue to work on your community service projects. These will be due early May - They will need to be turned in before May 10th to qualify for the Leadership Banquet. Please see our Community Service Tab for more information and feel free to email me if you have any questions. 

Upcoming Events:
Friday, March 17: ST. PATRICK'S WEAR GREEN DAY AND CENTERS
March 27-April 7: SPRING BREAK!!!
   

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: OVER, UNDER, LEFT, RIGHT, PUT.
Letter Team:  DGE (sounding like "j" like in BADGE, LEDGE, and FRIDGE).

Reading: We have been making a list of all the words that good readers should know, like COVER, AUTHOR, ILLUSTRATOR, TITLE, etc. This week, we will explore some non-fiction texts and add some non-fiction text features to this list. You can help at home by talking to your children about words like CAPTIONS, LABELS, TABLE OF CONTENTS, GLOSSARY, ARTICLE, INDEX, etc. 

Writing: This week, we will continue learning how to write our opinions. Remember that writing an opinion is telling "What and Why". This week, we will ask, "What is the best way to catch a leprechaun and why?"

Math: We will focus hard on decomposing and composing numbers within ten. You can help at home by asking your children problems like, "If I need 10 cupcakes and I only have 4, how many more would I need?" I am finding that students do a great job referring to the tens frame and answering "ways to make 10" questions, but struggle with ways to make other numbers, so let's make sure we are also asking, "If we need 7 apples and we have four, how many more would we need?" We will be discussing different strategies for this in class. 

Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: March 6-10

Flashcards: Make new flashcards for each sight word and letter team.  New words for this week are: OVER, UNDER, LEFT, RIGHT, PUT and the new letter team is: DGE - (sounding like "j" like in BADGE, LEDGE, and FRIDGE).

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. In addition to Smarty Ants, we ask that you read your Book Bag every night. This includes: fluency passage, paper books, and library books. 

Writing: Practice writing EVERY day.  You can practice writing a 5 sentence Step up to Writing paragraph in your at-home journal.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss ways to make 5 (and ways to make 10!), numbers in base ten (in the number 16, how many tens and how many ones?), addition and subtraction number problems and word problems, 2D and 3D shapes, and the Doubles Song. Count the money in your bank.

SPECIAL Turn-In Homework:  For the next two weeks, your homework will be to build a leprechaun trap!!! We are going to be talking and writing about how we might catch a leprechaun. You will have two weeks to build your leprechaun trap with your family - be as creative as you can! A good idea is to google or pinterest leprechaun trap examples for lots of fun ideas! These traps will be due in class no later than Thursday, March 16th. We are going to have a leprechaun trap museum and do a special project with them! Have fun!