Weekly Update 12/13/13

I can't believe how quickly December is going!  Oh my!  It has certainly gone quicker than I anticipated!

A few things to keep in mind:

* With the cold weather, especially after the holiday break, please remember to send your child in with boots, snow pants, etc. to stay warm and dry at recess.  Students without the right clothing will not be able to play in the snow.

* December break is Saturday, the 21 through Wednesday, January 1.  We return to school on Thursday, January 2.  

* If your child will not be here next week or after vacation, please let me know so I can plan accordingly.
* Next Thursday is fitness preview in PE class.  Our class will be going 2:00-2:30 on that afternoon. 

* Next Friday, the 20th, will be pajama day in our class.  We earned our last baseball today from Ms. McManus who complimented the class on stopping, looking, and listening, so quickly today when she stopped by to talk about recess!  

* Don't forget…Heritage Bears were due today, Friday.  If your child has not completed it, please complete this weekend so we can began sharing next week.  

* Moon calendar is due next Friday, the 20th.
* Don't forget to check out "What did we learn this week?" on our class webpage.  

What's happening in room 235?

In literacy, I've begun doing some assessments for mid-year.  Students are assessed on reading sight words, decodable words (Fundations words), and reading assessment.  I will continue doing assessments and reading groups till they are completed.  This will help me be sure they are where they are in reading groups, change groups if needed, provide more instruction in particular areas, and prepare for progress reports.  We've also started focusing on questioning when we read.  We've been focusing on creating "I wonder…" statements and "I learned…" statements to help us understand and learn as we read.  

* Ask your child why we wonder or ask questions as we read.  

We also received our pen pal letters back from NY!  Students have completed their responses and now we will decorate bookmarks and I'll mail them off this coming weekend!  Their letter writing skills have improved with just 2 letters!  They are not only "just writing a letter", they are learning letter format, focusing on correct sentence structure and grammar, practicing writing sight words, sounding out decodable words, and learning how to answer a question correctly (not just a yes or a no) and how to ask appropriate questions.  We've also been working on tiny seed stories in writing workshop and reviewing punctuation during morning work.

In math, we took the Unit 4 test and began unit 5.  Unit 5 will focus on geometry.  We started looking at attribute blocks and how they were similar or different.  We also talked about polygons. 

* Ask your child to name 2 out of the 4 attributes of the blocks we were working with.

In science, we've been finishing up our unit on Earth, Sun, and Moon.  We viewed a power point of the moon, and we imagined taking off, walking on the moon, and returning to Earth.  We used students to model the Earth, Sun, and Moon to understand how rotation and revolving plays into our solar system.  Next week, we will begin working on our Mexico unit.  On Monday, we will "fly" to Mexico and begin our study!  

* Ask your child what rotates and what revolves around what.