No School: Monday is Labor Day; therefore we have the day off. It is also the BIG rodeo, so we are lucky to have the day off (hopefully the weather will be better than forecasted).
Art: We will start art class next week (yippee)! Mrs. Boelman seems very nice. She has asked that when your children get dressed on Mondays that they NOT wear their finest clothes. She plans to get in and get messsssssssy!
Reminder: A lot of the kids have been wearing flip-flops and fancy shoes, then they complain at recess and can't participate well during p.e. Mrs. Barfuss loves to have p.e. outside as long as she can. Please remember to have outdoor, running shoes for your child on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Thanks!
Extra Clothes: This is my last wardrobe comment, I swear. I told the kids that I highly encourage them to bring in a big, labeled, Ziploc bag (or shopping bag) that contains a complete outfit for emergencies. The kids can keep it in their shoe cubby in our hallway. You would be amazed at all the things that happen and require a spare outfit. I told them to have 1-2 pairs of socks, underwear, pants and a shirt. The slide is responsible for most of our clothing emergencies. Kids go down and discover that it is wet and so are they (soaked through to their underwear). Again, not required but may spare you a trip into school.
Chapter Book: We just finished a book titled, Katie Lynn Cookie Company. At first the kids weren't thrilled about having just a few black and white illustrations, but then they were hooked. Ask them about Katie Lynn and her friend Tina.
Accelerated Reader: This is better known as A.R. Most of the kids have had the opportunity to take at least one A.R. test. The children read/listen to a story. Then they take a computer test about it. Most of the tests are five questions and half a point. A few of them are 10 questions and worth 1 point. The majority of the kids love the program. I will keep you posted on our progress throughout the year.
They can test on books that they have read at home (yes, you can read to them/with them) just send the book to school with them or write down the author's full name and the exact title for me. Thanks.
Spelling: Thanks everyone for helping your children to prepare for the test. There will be another test on Friday and the homework is due on Friday. Our words for this week focus on short o, u, and e.
Printing: Please notice that your child is graded weekly on their printing, too. Look at the bottom of their spelling test for the grade that they have earned.
Math: We will be using partner houses all year to help children understand number families. For example, 6 has these partners: 1&5, 2&4, 3&3 (3&3 are doubles - use the same #s). The partners can also be switched (switch partners): 5&1, 4&2, 3&3 (remain the same because they are doubles). The partner house visually displays the number families. There is homework on this (due Friday), but please wait until Tuesday night to try to complete. They may not have enough knowledge yet to complete it.
We will also look at counting-on as a strategy to solve a problem. For example, if the math problem is 2+4, the children are taught to determine the larger number (4) and then count-on 2 more.
Social Studies: Due to the large focus on learning the classroom rules and procedures, we have yet to start our unit on communities. We will try to get it started this week.
Special Homework: There are still about 8 kids waiting to get a turn. Thanks everyone for helping with this assignment. You have all done a super, nice job. I appreciate all of the thought and creativity that many of you have put into this project. One little girl had "live" flowers in a baggie because she loves the springtime and she had a cow tag because she loves ranching. Years ago a child had a little bag of sugar because she is "sweet." Last year a child had plastic silverware because he is always hungry! I love to see what people come up with for this activity.
Reading: Our next story is My Family.
genre - informational text (gives facts)
phonics - work on short o, u, e
grammar - identify the parts of simple sentences
vocab words (words to define) -
remembered porch crown spend stuck visit cousin piano
vocab strategies - learn to use a glossary
high frequency words (words to read quickly) -
bring children comes do family like make those use with
comprehension skills/strategies - practice comparing and contrasting
(last week we used a Venn diagram to do this - cool)
Thanks,
Jaime