In phonics lessons we're learning new sight words: I, see, a and an. We wrote these words using correct spelling in all of our writing this week. We also read them in books. We've been introduced to letters b, c, f, i, m, n, o, t and u in our phonics lessons so far. Students are working on memorizing each letter's "story", that states the letter name, keyword and sound. Ask your child for the "story" of these letters (i.e."b, bat, /b/"). Eventually, your child will know a "story" for every letter in the alphabet.
We're using our knowledge of letter sounds to "stretch out" words in Writing Workshop. Ask your child to tell you how to use an imaginary rubber band to hear sounds within words. When we write, our sight words are always spelled correctly and sometimes we can use environmental print to find correct spelling, but otherwise, we have to "stretch out" words. We'll be working on this all year.
In our reading lessons we learned that readers look, think, read and learn! Right now we're reading two types of books: storybooks and "learn-about-the-world" books (nonfiction). We spent time reading nonfiction books this week and then sharing what we learned with a partner.
We did our first Exemplar problem in math this week. We tried it alone and then spent time discussing how to do it as a group. We learned that mathematicians can solve problems using organized diagrams.
We finished up our Johnny Appleseed lessons and moved on to Christopher Columbus! The students were so interested in learning about his adventure. He made a mistake, but we still honor him for his bravery!
We began recording our weather observations in a Science Journal this week. We are so lucky to have an apple tree right outside our window! Twice a month, we'll record our observations of how the apple tree changes over the course of the school year.
News and Notes:
- No School next Wednesday, 10/12
- Fire Safety Homework (your family's safe meeting place) is due on MONDAY.
- Scholastic orders are due 10/13
- Please let me know if you have a veteran in your family who will be attending our school Veteran's Day celebration
