Newsletter 1-30

This week we read a biography of George Washington Carver called A Weed is a Flower.  We learned some very interesting facts about his life.  On Friday we worked in groups to sequence and illustrate them.

We started our money unit in math.  This can be tricky for a lot of students, because they are skip counting by so many different amounts.  If you can let your child practice counting different amounts of change at home, it will help him or her feel more confident.  We're also practicing counting $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills mixed together.  There are links with money activities on this blog.  The game called Money Cup is especially fun for kids.

This week will be a review week.  There will be no homework packet, but please have your child read and practice math facts every day.  Lexia and Reflex Math are a great way to sharpen those skills.  I will be printing out Reflex Math progress sheets on February 10.  It would be great to have more students at 100% fluency.

Congratulations to Jack, Tayah, Lucas, and Drae!  They moved up a level in Lexia.  

Remember that you can start signing up for parent-teacher conferences starting today.  I look forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child’s progress this year.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns.  Have a great week!

Newsletter 1-15-17

In language arts we read the story Rosa and Blanca and talked about when a creative idea might lead to a surprise.  We worked on sequence and different tenses of verbs.

We have been practicing opinion writing with our Reading Street stories.  We also wrote our New Year’s goals.

We’re finishing our chapter on problem solving in math.  We worked on some very difficult story problems, but our class has been getting better and better with practice.  I’m so impressed with their problem solving abilities!

We made these cute elephants to help us remember to check our subtraction with addition.

We will be starting our money unit soon.  We will be working on coin recognition, coin values, and adding coins.  It would help if you could practice this at home, too.  There are some fun money links in the sidebar.

Please help your child remember to wear or bring gym shoes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so that he or she is prepared for P.E.

It is so exciting to see kids getting on Lexia at home in addition to school.  It is such a fun way to practice phonics skills, and it helps make them better readers.  Congratulations to Aliya and Nathan for moving up a level!

We have a few kids who are getting close to 100% on Reflex Math.  It’s so exciting to see them passing off math facts, and their fluency helps so much with their daily schoolwork.

It’s been great to see how many kids have been reading books for the 20 Book Challenge.  They can bring their chart for a prize every time they have read five books.  The prizes are now in for 100%, so keep reading!

It was fun to have the mountain man come back to our school this year and tell us about his exciting adventures.

Congratulations to Tayah for earning the citizenship award for fairness.

   

Our SOAR week starts Tuesday.  The theme is on Time and On Task, so we’re going to work hard at being at school on time each day.  We’ll also work on staying focused and turning our work in on time.  Remind your child to wear green on Tuesday.

Since it is a three-day week, we won’t have a homework packet this week.  Students should still read, practice math facts, and get on Reflex Math and Lexia, if possible.  Remember that the computer lab is open every morning for students to use before school.

Enjoy the long weekend!