Newsletter April 28- May 9

Volunteer Schedule for May
 

 

In Reader's Workshop we have been learning all about Fluency. Good Readers know that fluency helps their audience understand the story (mood, character, conversation) and it helps the reader understand the story (if children are having to work very hard to read and it is choppy then they're comprehension is negatively impacted).

Fluency is reading:

• smoothly (words are connected, they flow instead of 1 at a time)
• accurately
• with good pace (changing depending on the mood of the text)
• with expression (teacher voice!) 

We will wrap this unit up with a performance of a Readers Theater- in which the kids will have an assigned role and perform their most fluent reading for an audience. I can't wait!

 
The list is always on my website:

April 28 - May 2	New: by, may, just, work, after Practice Review:  once, over, rain, walk, house Practice
May 4- 9	New: open, round, behind, live, know Practice Review: by, may, just, work, after Practice
May 12+	We are "officially" finished with spelling at this point, however we will continue to review for children who have struggled with spelling throughout the year.

As always please visit the kidblog to see your child's work and give them some feedback! 

• The password is "2013/14". 

• Just be sure to sign your comments with who you are, you can just say _____'s Mom/ Dad, so the kids know who you are.

In Writers' Workshop we have been working on "How-To" writing, now formally known as Instructional Writing. This unit will help children learn to share directions to complete a task in an orderly way. 
Like all other expository writing we will learn "How-To" writing begins with an opening topic sentence, has details (steps), and ends with a closing sentence.
Some examples of things children have written about include how to:

• Brush your teeth
• Make a friend
• Plant a flower
• Play a game
• Do a chore

You can help your child at home by talking about things they do regularly but may not think of as a topic. Just make sure you help them review the steps in order and encourage them to use them during Writers Workshop!

Unit 4: Addition and Subtraction to 100
This unit relies heavily on our knowledge of place value (tens and ones) and what those number represent because of their location (tens place vs. ones place means the number 3 can mean 3 or 30!). Please, please, please continue talking to your child about numbers and their values :)

 

We have learned to put all that we learned about addition and subtraction to work in order to add and subtract numbers with tens and ones. While we will use the term "regrouping", we do NOT teach children to "carry" a ten or to do equations without manipulatives. It is imperative that they learn what is happening when numbers are being exchanged by building and breaking tens and ones so memorizing the traditional method will NOT help them get a deep understanding of the process. Here is the online version of digital manipulatives that your child uses on their iPad. We also use the actual base ten blocks at school.
Students will not only be asked to answer double digit addition with regrouping and subtraction by multiples of tens equations, but they will also have to demonstrate how they could find the answer using the appropriate tool (number lines, 100's charts, base ten blocks, ten frames, etc.).

For example, adding or subtracting by ten on a 100s chart is movement up or down. But to add using a number line students would have to start with the first number and then show how to add tens and ones.