Week of October 1st

Hello Parents!

We're settling into our routines nicely and the kiddos are doing great!  Now that these routines are in place and we have established behavioral expectations, we can really start digging into some fun learning!  We're doing an amazing job completing homework at home as well!  Thank you for your help with this! Here's our plan for the next two weeks:

Important Dates to Remember:

• Wednesday, October 3rd: Picture Day
• Friday, October 12th:  Fun Run
• Friday, October 19th:  1/2 Day:  Staff Development

Spelling: Spelling words have been introduced! You may have noticed a Spelling pre-test in last week's Friday folders.  I normally run two spelling groups...a group that focuses on high frequency words and another group that focuses on patterns.  If your child already has many of their high frequency words in place, they will begin in my spelling patterns group.  Keep in my that the groups are flexible and if I notice a particular student doing really well on spelling tests and daily writing, I may move them up to the patterns group. We will receive new words on Monday and we'll test on Friday.

Math:We are rolling right along in the Place Value unit in our Everyday Math program. We have reviewed writing the value of numbers, writing number in word form, expanded form and have also worked on rounding numbers.  A big piece of the Everyday Math program is the spiral piece which means that when a concept is introduced, it will circle back many times before the concept is mastered.  This program also focuses heavily on mental math and the introduction of many different strategies to solve a problem.  One of the things that have been holding us back lately is our math facts including addition, subtraction and multiplication.  I will be sending home corrected timed tests in next week's Friday folders and we'll begin working on our math facts more heavily because as you know, this will really help them as new concepts are introduced.

Language Arts: Over the next two weeks, I'll be incorporating several lessons into Reader's Workshop such as choosing "just right" books, setting reading goals, and keeping our eyes and mind in the book.  During reading time, we'll also be working on fluency.  I'll be introducing a fun fluency activity called Fluency 1,000 which takes about 5 minutes but really helps with word accuracy skills. We also started discussing two important reading strategies...making connections and inferring. We've talked about how making meaningful connections helps us understand how characters feel and helps us to understand the story better.  I've also started assessing students to determine their Fountas and Pinnell reading level.

In the area of writing, we have been working to identify fragments and run-on sentences. This will help us as we get more into our writing units. The first writing unit is called Launching with Realistic Fiction.  In the next few weeks, we'll be focusing on important parts of our narrative writing piece such as how to organize our writing piece, adding a catchy grabber, developing a strong introduction, and we'll also be using a story mountain to ensure we have included all parts of our story. 

Social Studies: Our first unit in Social Studies will focus on the United States Government. We'll begin by talking about the purpose of government and the many services the government provides us with. There are many tricky vocabulary words associated with this unit so I'll be adding some fun activities to help the kids understand the concepts better. 

Science: We will also begin switching for Science and Social Studies and Mrs. Lindenberg will be teaching the Science curriculum this year. The first unit focuses on Electricity and Magnetism. We will actually be making electrical circuits using D-cell batteries.  It's a very fun, interactive unit so we're all looking forward to it!