Newsletter Dec. 11th- 20th

Thank you so much for all of the thoughtful, yummy, and/ or unique gifts. From the brown haired soccer player ornament wearing a Toney jersey to the book of strange facts because I "like to read and always know weird stuff,"  I'm so amazed by your kindness and was so touched by how personal the gifts were. The kids were so excited for me to open their special presents, too! I can't thank you all enough. 

Don't forget if you are looking for another opportunity to come into the classroom, you can sign up anytime- there are LOTS of volunteer openings available! I would LOVE to have a parent to run a games station in the afternoon during math!
Volunteer Schedule for January

 

In Reader's Workshop we've wrapped up the unit on basic comprehension (thinking about and understanding reading). Here are the big ideas from the unit:
Good Readers...

* Think about the beginning, middle, and end of a story
* Retell beginning, middle, and end with a partner
* Think about characters and setting
* Use a sticky to mark an interesting character and tell a friend about it
* Use a sticky to mark an interesting detail or part and tell a friend about it (a funny part, a sad part, a part that reminds me of..., etc.)
* Are "detectives" and use clues to make a smart guess about what the book is about, what might happen next, etc. These are called Predictions.
* Use prior knowledge (what they already know) to make predictions about the story. They predict throughout the story and revise their predictions as they gain new information.

* Reader’s retell using Main, Idea, Character, Setting and Important details.

 



Don't let your little reader forget those strategies we learned about in our last unit. Please continue to encourage them to use picture clues, beginning sounds, ending sounds, word families/ familiar chunks (such as -at, -in, etc.), skip and return, and most importantly... think! Ask "what makes sense" and cross check it with the words first and last sounds.

Up next- Nonfiction Unit of Study

 

1/2 - 1/10

new words:  ask, into, good, out, ran
Practice

review words: they, ate, his, her, be
Practice

We have just wrapped up our unit on WORD CHOICE.
Good writers:
* Replace boring words with juicy words!
* Collect fancy words from writers  (the books we read and the stories our friends write)
* Try to add juicy words to good stories to make them great!

Up next- Nonfiction paragraph writing (informational/ expository writing)

In Math Workshop, we will continue to talk about fact families, addition, and subtraction and apply all that we have learned about problem solving to numbers up to 20. 

Please continue practicing facts such as doubles:

and reviewing sums of 10 to help us add and subtract fluently (quickly and accurately):

We are also learning that fact families or related facts are also called number bonds.  Number bonds show how three numbers are related (part-part-whole) and can help us solve problems to 10 quickly.

An  interesting shift in the way math is taught under the common core is that children should understand the "=" as "the same as (equivalent to)" rather than as the answer sign. This is especially important as they are asked to find ALL of the correct solutions to a problem, rather than the traditional 1 right answer.

Thank you for all of your help in supporting your child as they learned about the different holidays being celebrated in December. It was an exciting unit and the kids were so very excited to learn! The cookies and cocoa celebration was a big hit and all of the parents who volunteered or donated items are so appreciated!