Newsletter 1/27/14

 

A note from Room 205…

I am not sure about you but I am elated to be back in school!  I hope you and your family enjoyed all of the snow days last week. 

 

I hope you and your child have continued to visit Raz-Kids.com.  Raz-Kids.com is a great resource with tons of books to read.  If you have an iPad, you can download the Raz-Kids app for free.  If you have another child who you would like to be able to use Raz-Kids, please let me know.  Our classroom subscription offers 36 student spots.  Since we only have 21 students, we have a few extra spots.  Of course, the extra spots are first come, first serve.

 

Our special visitor was able to reschedule!  Thanks Mr. Arnold!  Mr. Arnold is a community helper.  He will be coming on Friday and he is arriving in a very exciting vehicle (police helicopter!  Shhhh!)  What a fun surprise! 

 

100th Day Project     Our class has been adding one number for each school day to our Growing Number Line.  The 100th day of school is coming up soon, and it will be a major celebration!   One of the things we will do to celebrate is to hold a “100th Day Fashion Show.”  Please help your child glue, safety pin, or sew 100 things on a plain t-shirt.  Children have been thinking about things they could glue to their shirt including buttons, beads, pennies, paper clips, bows, stars, cereal, etc.  Be as creative as possible!  We have been talking about ways to count the collections without losing track of the numbers.  Making groups of 10 is a good way to count and display the objects.    Children may need a little help gathering materials, but they should be able to do most of the counting themselves.    Please have your child wear their 100th day t-shirt to school on February 6th (will change if we have any snow days)!

 

Dates to Remember

·        February 6^th: 100^th Day of School

·        February 17^th: We will have school due to the super cold day!

 

What are we learning?

Reading Workshop

We will learn how to retell the key details in informational and literary texts.  We will also learn how to tell the difference between key details and non-important details. 

Writing Workshop

 We will continue to learn more about community helpers.  This past week, students chose one community helper that they’d like to learn more about and began a research project.  Now, they will delve into research and begin writing a book all about their community helper and what their job is like.  We will begin by writing an introduction and drawing a diagram with labels of that person in their work setting.  We will complete a Family Journal entry at the end of the week. 

 Word Study

This week we will learn about the hard-Gg (as in goat and gorilla) and soft-Gg (as in giraffe and change).  Our word wall words for this week are:  when, get, will.  Have your child sing you the songs for these words.

Math

This week continue addition and subtraction strategies, and learn how to “Count on”.  If you are adding 8 + 2, it is much more efficient to begin at 8 and count on.   During indoor recess, some children have enjoyed playing “Chutes and Ladders”!  This is a great addition and subtraction game.

Science/ Social Studies

We will continue lessons on nutrition, “The Food Plate”.  We will also have some creativity/open ended lessons to promote out of the box thinking. 

 

Related Arts Schedule

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Music	P.E.	P.E.	P.E.	P.E.