We've had a great week at school! We came back rested and ready to work. We read the book Squirrel's New Year's Resolution and made our own resolutions for 2018.
Language Arts
We read the story Anansi Goes Fishing and talked about how creative thinking can solve a problem. We read another Anansi story, A Fool Goes Fishing, and compared and contrasted the two stories. There are many Anansi books you could look for when you visit the library. We also talked about past, present, and future tenses of verbs.
Math
We are working on one and two-step problems in math. These can be very tricky, and I am impressed with how well our class is doing. The way we teach it may be unfamiliar to you, so I will try to explain it below to show you the steps we do in class:
1. Read the problem through the first time.
2. Close read the problem again. Circle the numbers, box the key words, and underline the question.
3. Draw a bar diagram (part-part-whole.) This will help you organize your information. The whole is always on top, and it is the always the largest number. The parts are always on the bottom, and they are always the smaller numbers.
4. Decide where your information will go in the bar diagram. For example, in this problem we see that there are more yellow bricks than red bricks, so the yellow bricks will go on top. (I have students write a y for yellow and an r for red.)
We can see that there are 47 yellow bricks, so that number will be our whole and go on top. We don't know how many red bricks there are, so that is our mystery number. We can leave it blank or write a question mark. We know that there are 23 more yellow bricks than red bricks, so that will be our other part.
5. Once we have two of the numbers, we can solve. We all know two rules: part + part = whole and whole - part = part. When we are done, we check our work and plug the number back into the story problem to see if it makes sense.
I attached the reteaching page to the email in case you want to practice at home.
I will be sending home graded math pages on Monday. Please look them over to see how your child is doing. I try to have the children correct with me or with an aide or parent helper whenever possible.
We are gradually moving up in Reflex Math. Please try to have your child do this daily at home. It really helps if they know their math facts when we get into these difficult problems.
We are planning to have the math test on Wednesday. I will send home a review page before that. If students complete it at home and have you review and initial it, they will get a something to celebrate ticket. Thank you for your help!
Other Information
We have many students forgetting their signed planners each day. This is a good communication tool, so please help your child remember to get it signed and put it in his or her backpack. Please remind your child to bring a healthy snack each day, too. Water bottles are also a good idea.
Thank you so much to our parent volunteers. You help in so many ways. Here's a reminder of the schedule:
Every Monday 9:30-10:30
Michelle Fawson
Tuesday 9:30-10:30
1st week: Estephany Wolfe
2nd week: Megan Hansen
3rd week: Alma Mesic
4th week: Ali Gleason
Every Wednesday 9:30-10:30
Monet Palmer
Every Thursday 9:30-10:30
Michaela Tosh
Every Friday 9:30-10:30
Staci Caldwell
Benee Larsen
Work from home
Deidre Pickering
Alma Mesic
Staci CaldwellIt's great being back and seeing your cute kids again! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.