Spring Break...

I hope everyone has a great Spring Break and if you celebrate Easter, I hope you have a wonderful Easter.  I look forward to hearing what the children did over Spring Break when we return back to school next week.  You can check back throughout the week to see what I have been up to...Lainey and I may have a few adventures happening (we may end up at the zoo, aquarium, the mall, a park, flying a kite, who knows, it all depends on the weather)!

 

Our Field Trip Fun...

 Our trip to the Cincinnati Children's Museum!  We had lots of fun exploring...

Week of Learning...

This week we are moving into Unit 5 of Reading Street. The big question that the children will be focusing on is “How do people and things get from here to there?” This new unit will introduce the concept of transportation. In this section of Reading Street we anticipate that the children will be excited to talk about different forms of transportation they have seen in the community, on television, or the computer. We are eager to access prior knowledge to engage the children in the question of the week, “What are different ways of going places?” We know the children will have a lot of ideas before learning this lesson, and we plan to build on the student’s prior knowledge and experiences.

With our new unit comes six new transportation words plane, jetway, subway, tunnel, ferryboat, and sidecar! These words will be taught through the story Max Takes the Train and reinforced with pictures and a song.

The sight words this week are changing to yellow, blue, and green. It is unbelievable how many sight words your child has learned! Our word wall at school is filling up and we are very proud of the children. Thank you for continuing to practice with your child at home!

We will begin Chapter 9 in Go Math!  This chapter begin the exploration of geometry.  The children will identify and describe various shapes.  Many of the children know shapes, but we will concentrate on the description of shapes, sorting shapes, and talking about the shapes.  There are 5 shapes which we will work with: square, circle, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon.  Rectangle typically is the hardest shape for the children.

Thank you for your continued support!

Fun...Fun...Field Trip Fun...

This week in Reading Street we will be springing into a new and exciting adventure. The question of the week is, “What kind of adventure can you have in the city?” Our city adventure will provide us with new amazing words, a new song, and fun classroom extensions!

We will begin the week reviewing our three sight words. Our words for the week are: here, from, and go. The sight words will continue to become more difficult as we come to the end of third quarter and begin the fourth quarter. We greatly appreciate you for continuing to work at home with your child! We have seen a huge difference in the sight word assessments – so thank you for all of your help!

In writing this week, the children will continue to practice story writing! As mentioned last week, we had started to discuss ideas of topics or events that we could write a story about. The children shared many very creative ideas! Last week, it was very fun to see their creative minds kick into high gear with their stories! This week, each student will have their own book and they will be writing and illustrating their own story. While writing, they will not only be focusing on transferring their story to paper, but they will be using proper sentence structure (a capital letter at the beginning, two finger spaces, and punctuation at the end)!

In addition, we will go on our field trip on Thursday (B Class) and Friday (A Class).  We are excited about our trip this week.  I know the children will have a blast learning in a different way than in the classroom.  Please make sure your child is at school on time because we will be leaving promptly at 9:15!  If you are chaperoning, please arrive to school between 8:45 and 9:00.  We will be back in time for lunch; therefore, they can buy lunch in the cafeteria if they would like too.

Antarctica...

The children are loving the Reading Street Unit this week: "If You Could Go to Antarctica."  I hope the children have been talking about this at home with you because they love talking about this at school.  In addition, NBC News has been in Antarctica filming various news segments about "The Journey to the Bottom of the World" with Kerry Sanders reporting.  There are some great short videos (1-3 minutes) for the children to watch to be able to see first hand what Antarctica is like.  FYI...Most of the videos have appropriate content while some of them do not.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Story Writing...

We have been working on our stories this week!  The children are becoming amazing writers...

Sight Words...

Some children are having difficulty with their sight words this quarter.  It is important to make sure you are practicing these everyday.  Please take 2-3 minutes to go through the sight words.  The best way is to put them on flashcards (if you need some, please let me know and I can provide them for you) and go through them with your child.  Another way to practice is using magazines, newspapers, mail, etc. to have your child go on a sight word hunt!  The children are required to know all 40 sight words at the end of the year.  Once the children know all 40 we will begin working on 1st grade sight words (I do have a couple of children who are ready for this task...woohoo)!  I have attached a list of the sight words we have learned up to this point!

Fun...Fun...

This week in Reading Street we will be diving into a new and exciting adventure. The question of the week is, “What would it be like to have an Antarctic Adventure?” Children will build on prior knowledge of what they know about Antarctica and have the opportunity to explore the topic more in-depth. It is always exciting to teach our young learners that the world is much bigger than the community we live in!

With our Antarctic Adventure come six new amazing words: Antarctica, continent, icebergs, penguins, seals, and whales. The students will learn these words through pictures, songs, and the book "If You Could Go to Antarctica." We will begin the week with three new sight words! Our new words for the week are: here, from, and go. The sights words will continue to become more difficult as we come to the end of third quarter and begin the fourth quarter. We greatly appreciate you for continuing to work at home with your child! Many of the children have shared with us that they are now using flashcards at home – this is fantastic!

In writing this week, the children will practice a the concept of story writing! Over the past few weeks, we have started to discuss ideas of topics or events that we could write a story about. The children have shared some very creative ideas! We are looking forward to getting their stories onto paper this week. Each student will have their own book and they will be writing and illustrating their own story. While writing, they will not only be focusing on transferring their story to paper, but they will be using proper sentence structure (a capital letter at the beginning, two finger spaces, and punctuation at the end)!

It should be exciting!

Picture Day Rescheduled...

The "A" class was suppose to have their pictures today.  It has been rescheduled for Friday.  The children will have their class picture taken and also they will have their individual picture taken too.  If you have any questions please let me know!

Snow Day...

I hope the A class has a great snow day today!  I would love to know what you did during this day.  I would love to see a picture and a sentence about what happened!  Have fun!

Teen Numbers...

Here is a great video I saw on youtube showing children tens and ones place value.  Many of the children are doing well with this concept, but music is a great teaching tool too!

Field Trip...

Our field trip is March 21 and March 22.  All children need to have their permission slips and money turned in prior to the trip.  If you are wanting to chaperone you must have your fingerprints on file.  This is for the safety of you and for all the children.

March is Here...

We will be working with the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."  We will be continuing to identifying the characters, setting, and plot.  However, this week, we will focus the majority of our learning and discussion on characters.  When reading with yoru child at home, it is a great idea ask them about the characters, setting and plot!



Our sight words this week are: one, two three, four, and five.  Please take 5-10 minutes each night to practice sight words, especially on the off days.  This will allow learning to continue and will allow your child more practice with these words.

This week, in math, we will be continuing our exploration with numbers.  We will be working with the number 20.  The children will be able to explain 20 is two tens and zero ones or 2 tens frames and zero extra.  We will also be continuing to practice addition and subtraction as we review past chapters.  A new homework packet will be coming home this weekend.

Please return the field trip permission slip form and money ($5.50) as soon as possible.  Mrs. Franz and I are very excited to be going to the Children's Museum this year.  It will be a wonderful learning experience for the children.

Thank you, again, for continuing to make this such a successful year!