February 9, 2015

A note from Mrs. Tabor…

I hope you are having fun creating Valentine boxes! Please send them in on Friday.  We will have an award ceremony to celebrate our creative boxes at the end of the party.

We will have a short visit from Prospect Pediatric Dentistry on Thursday morning.  They will be teaching the children how to properly care for their teeth and gums.  The visit is supposed to be from 9:45-10:00, so it should not affect those who attend reading groups on this day. 

Remember that your child’s word list now includes words from their weekly word work. Please be sure to check your child’s agenda to see the words they should be practicing.    Look for each word list posted on Spelling City by Wednesday.

We are still collecting items for the Animal Care Society through this Friday.  Last week I sent home a reminder note with the list of items they are collecting.  Thank you for your generosity with this!

Our class Valentine’s Party will be on Friday, February 13th at 12:45.  Students can bring in an unhealthy treat and drink to eat during the party.  They should also bring Valentines for every classmate.  We are not allowed to pass out candy along with the Valentines; only non-edible treats.  I will send home a class list in Wednesday’s envelope.   

 Reminders

*Send in a healthy snack and water bottle every day!

*You may want to check on how much money your child has in their lunch account.

*Now that the weather is turning colder, please make sure your child comes to school with a coat, hat, and gloves.  There have been many days recently where students have come to school and not been prepared for outside recess.  Our recess is at 10:00 or 10:30am, and we will go outside unless it is below 32 degrees (with the wind chill factor). 

*Be sure to sign and return your students planner every day! Don’t forget to record their reading!

What are we learning?

 Reading Workshop

This week we will continue our fifth ELA Unit, A Long Journey to Freedom. We will practice reading aloud poetry to work on our fluency, which means reading smoothly, pronouncing words correctly, using the appropriate rate, having voice with expression, and reading with punctuation in our voice. We will first use poems by Langston Hughes that connect to our unit.  Then we will look at Valentine reader’s theater. Students will help to create a fluency rubric and will record themselves to self-assess.      

Writing Workshop

In Writing, we will complete our fictional narratives based on a picture book titled Henry’s Freedom Box.   We will also practice writing about our opinions on current events from our Time For Kids magazines and give our opinions on books that we have read.  

Word Study

This week’s word wall words are: 

Life, against, need, since, number

Long vowel group: long e, CVCe and CVVC patterns

r-influenced vowel patterns group: oar, or, ore

suffix group: when to drop the e or double the last consonant of the root word, and add –ed

word endings: ar, er, or

 Math

In Math we will review our place value / time unit to prepare for our end of the unit assessment on Tuesday.  Students are still having difficulty with time phrases such as quarter past, half past, and quarter to.  We will continue to practice these throughout the year.  We will begin our next math unit which is focused on addition and regrouping of larger numbers.

 Social Studies

In Social Studies we will learn about Mary Bethune, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  All of these people were influential during the civil rights era.  We will discuss why each person was important to creating equality for all.     

Related Arts Schedule

Monday-Tuesday	Wednesday-Friday
P.E.	Technology