Friday, January 27, 2017
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Newsletter 1/27/17
We began working with a new story problem in math this week. Ask your child about the grocer with boxes of five apples. We worked on coloring in boxes with red and green apples, being careful not to duplicate a box (1 red+4 green, 2 red+3 green, etc.). It was tricky work! We practiced the first day, and then so many friends returned from being sick, that we practiced again and got the opportunity to teach our friends who'd been sick. Lastly, we challenged ourselves to mix up a bigger box of ten apples! This was much more challenging. Besides finding various ways to make ten, and being careful not to duplicate boxes, we also had to take turns and help one another. Good stuff!
We began a new unit in Writing Workshop this week: How-Tos! This is a nonfiction/teaching piece that your young author will be writing, listing out the steps to accomplish something ("How to make a snowman", "How to brush your teeth", etc.). This week we were challenged to think of an appropriate topic, plan it across pages and draw pictures to match the steps. Ask your child about his/her How-To topic.
In our science lessons we learned about snow and "Snowflake Bentley" who was the first to study/photograph snowflakes.
On Friday we launched our Reading for Information unit in Reading Workshop. We learned that reading nonfiction isn't all that different from reading fiction. Nonfiction readers use all the same strategies that fiction readers do when they are getting ready to read. We can preview a text and wonder... more about this next week!
News & Notes:
We began a new unit in Writing Workshop this week: How-Tos! This is a nonfiction/teaching piece that your young author will be writing, listing out the steps to accomplish something ("How to make a snowman", "How to brush your teeth", etc.). This week we were challenged to think of an appropriate topic, plan it across pages and draw pictures to match the steps. Ask your child about his/her How-To topic.
In our science lessons we learned about snow and "Snowflake Bentley" who was the first to study/photograph snowflakes.
On Friday we launched our Reading for Information unit in Reading Workshop. We learned that reading nonfiction isn't all that different from reading fiction. Nonfiction readers use all the same strategies that fiction readers do when they are getting ready to read. We can preview a text and wonder... more about this next week!
News & Notes:
- have you returned your child's piece of narrative writing? It has a purple half-sheet stapled to the front. Please return it ASAP.
- Remember your 5 (or more) boxes of macaroni and cheese are due 2/6.
- Please send in a check for $17.70 made out to Ox Ridge Activity Account by 2/6. This is to cover the cost of buses for our last field trips this year.
- Please note the Math Parent Workshop posted below.
- Next week: Groundhog's Day predictions! Check out the groundhog's news with your child before school on the morning of 2/2! We'll discuss it in school that day.
- Also... Superbowl winner predictions! We've got a lot of football fans in our class!
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| Filling our boxes with different combinations of red and green apples to total five. |
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| Practicing sight words |
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| Writing with capitals to start a sentence |
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| "Tapping out" sounds we hear in words and sorting words by initial letter |
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| Reading books with new words to our friends |
Monday, January 23, 2017
Math Parent Workshop
Math Parent Workshop, Grades K-5
February 6th, 2017 10:00 am, Central Office 35 Leroy Avenue
Please join this interactive workshop to learn how students apply critical thinking and reasoning skills through problem solving tasks. Leave with an understanding of how problem solving skills progress from Kindergarten through 5th grade.
Linda Johnson
Program Director Elementary Mathematics and Science
Darien Public Schools
February 6th, 2017 10:00 am, Central Office 35 Leroy Avenue
Please join this interactive workshop to learn how students apply critical thinking and reasoning skills through problem solving tasks. Leave with an understanding of how problem solving skills progress from Kindergarten through 5th grade.
Linda Johnson
Program Director Elementary Mathematics and Science
Darien Public Schools
Friday, January 20, 2017
Newsletter 1/20/17
In Reading Workshop this week we learned how to look beyond the text, at the pictures, to make sure we get the whole story. We read our just right books, but then took time to study the pictures carefully, to learn even more. Just like in our Second Steps social skills lessons, we examined characters facial expressions to gain a further understanding of the story. Please do this with your child's books at home. Many students are able to read accurately, but get stuck when they need to reflect on what can be found in the pictures.
We strengthened our sound powers by learning to look at not only the first letter of a word, but also blends. We had rhyming fun with word families as well (cat, fat, bat, etc.). We moved letter cards around to create new words.
We published our narrative stories in writing workshop! We visited our neighbors across the hall to celebrate. We will be sending this writing home for you to see next week, but please send them back so we can display them in the hallway. I am collecting all of your child's final pieces and will give them to you at the end of the year.
We had a practice lock down drill on Thursday. We learned how to stay safe in the locked classroom if needed.
We also learned about the many jobs our new president will have.
In Math we read a story called The Sleepover about a girl who has 7 friends over to sleep on her new bunk beds. Some friends like to sleep on the top and others the bottom. We used a math rack (the official name is a Rekenrek) to find out all the ways the 8 girls could arrange themselves on the beds. We learned how to record our ideas and then shared our findings together. Did we find all the possible ways? How can we know for sure? This is one lesson we use towards understanding the many ways to make 10 (0+10, 1+9, 2+8, etc...). We will be working on this a lot in the next few weeks.
News & Notes:
We strengthened our sound powers by learning to look at not only the first letter of a word, but also blends. We had rhyming fun with word families as well (cat, fat, bat, etc.). We moved letter cards around to create new words.
We published our narrative stories in writing workshop! We visited our neighbors across the hall to celebrate. We will be sending this writing home for you to see next week, but please send them back so we can display them in the hallway. I am collecting all of your child's final pieces and will give them to you at the end of the year.
We had a practice lock down drill on Thursday. We learned how to stay safe in the locked classroom if needed.
We also learned about the many jobs our new president will have.
In Math we read a story called The Sleepover about a girl who has 7 friends over to sleep on her new bunk beds. Some friends like to sleep on the top and others the bottom. We used a math rack (the official name is a Rekenrek) to find out all the ways the 8 girls could arrange themselves on the beds. We learned how to record our ideas and then shared our findings together. Did we find all the possible ways? How can we know for sure? This is one lesson we use towards understanding the many ways to make 10 (0+10, 1+9, 2+8, etc...). We will be working on this a lot in the next few weeks.
News & Notes:
- book sleeves and library books due on Monday
- please make sure to read the YELLOW note that was sent home today. We're hoping to collect 100 boxes of macaroni and cheese by the 100th day of school to donate the the local food bank. If you can send more than 5, please do so!
Working with our math racks
Mastering descending letter 'g"
Our narrative writing anchor chart
Finding all the ways to make 8
A writing celebration with Mrs. Egan's authors! 
Sharing our hard work with new friends! 
Learning to be a respectful listener.
Giving one another compliments.
We are amazing authors!!!
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Newsletter 1/13
We continued our "Bigger Reading Powers" unit this week. We learned how to play "Guess What's Next!" with our partners while reading books that have patterns. We also began a new anchor chart to help us check our understanding of what we've read. We learned to think to ourselves "Does it make sense?" and "Does it sound right?" before moving on the the next page. If we really understand a story, then we can retell it. We continued to practice retelling our books to our partners to check for full comprehension. We are also studying how ABC books can help us become better readers- they are a fun way to remind us about letter/sound relationships. We can also play the "Guess What's Next!" game with ABC books, predicting what words and pictures will be on the next page for the next letter of the alphabet. See our anchor chart with other ideas in the photo below.
We are enjoying more books by Ezra Jack Keats. This week we studied "Whistle for Willie". We are tracking the character Peter to see how he grows and feels from story to story.
We focused on tidying up our narrative story writing this week. We checked to see that our stories had clear beginnings, middles and ends. We also worked on including how we felt in the stories, because emotions make the story more interesting. Lastly, we tried to write with more spaces, punctuation and lower case letters.
We did a lot of practice with a ten frame this week. We used mini-marshmellows to depict numerals on a ten frame. We also used ten frames to solve story problems adding numbers up to five. We added numbers when we played a game called "Double Compare". Students played in pairs. Each pulled 2 number cards from a deck, used various adding strategies to find the sum, and the player who had the higher sum won all the cards. Lastly, we are doing a lot of work with pairs so we made some marvelous mittens that match!
We had a science unit on matter this week, studying different properties of various objects. We sorted items that are natural vs. man-made. We examined objects made of metal, wood and plastic and sorted them accordingly. The next day we tested which of those items would repel or attract a magnet. Lastly, we measured objects on a scale to see which were heavier than others.
In Second Steps, we learned that one can tell how another is feeling by looking at their friend's body language, but also by being aware of the situation that friend is in. We continued our social studies lessons by learning a bit about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and what his dream was for our country.
Enjoy your day off on Monday!
News and Notes:
We are enjoying more books by Ezra Jack Keats. This week we studied "Whistle for Willie". We are tracking the character Peter to see how he grows and feels from story to story.
We focused on tidying up our narrative story writing this week. We checked to see that our stories had clear beginnings, middles and ends. We also worked on including how we felt in the stories, because emotions make the story more interesting. Lastly, we tried to write with more spaces, punctuation and lower case letters.
We did a lot of practice with a ten frame this week. We used mini-marshmellows to depict numerals on a ten frame. We also used ten frames to solve story problems adding numbers up to five. We added numbers when we played a game called "Double Compare". Students played in pairs. Each pulled 2 number cards from a deck, used various adding strategies to find the sum, and the player who had the higher sum won all the cards. Lastly, we are doing a lot of work with pairs so we made some marvelous mittens that match!
We had a science unit on matter this week, studying different properties of various objects. We sorted items that are natural vs. man-made. We examined objects made of metal, wood and plastic and sorted them accordingly. The next day we tested which of those items would repel or attract a magnet. Lastly, we measured objects on a scale to see which were heavier than others.
In Second Steps, we learned that one can tell how another is feeling by looking at their friend's body language, but also by being aware of the situation that friend is in. We continued our social studies lessons by learning a bit about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and what his dream was for our country.
Enjoy your day off on Monday!
News and Notes:
- THANK YOU to Mrs. Eising, Mrs. FitzPatrick, Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Sedlock for playing games with us on Thursday!
- Scholastic orders are due by next Tuesday. Please note that if you place an order outside of our ordering window, it will not automatically be placed, but will sit in the cart until next month's order is placed.
- Book bags due on TUESDAY
A new anchor chart for Reading Workshop fun
What is heaver?
What is attracted to a magnet?
Double Compare- she's got the higher sum!
Marvelous Mitten Pairs
A scientific table
Writing about Peter
Mini Marshmellow math!
Friday, January 6, 2017
Our Resolutions
We all made classroom-based resolutions today! Then we "toasted" the new year! Check out your child's "toast" and resolution on our hallway bulletin board.
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Nature Center Fun!
Happy New Year!
We had a wonderful visit from the Darien Nature Center today. We learned about what local animals do in the winter time. Check out the photos below.
There will be no newsletter tomorrow.
News and Notes:
We had a wonderful visit from the Darien Nature Center today. We learned about what local animals do in the winter time. Check out the photos below.
There will be no newsletter tomorrow.
News and Notes:
- Your child can't wait to do Dreambox at home! Make sure to check out the email/attachments I sent.
- Book Sleeves are due on MONDAY.
- Many students in our class expressed an interest in going to the Sound Tigers hockey game. The more the merrier!
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| Dr. Forshaw visits to touch an owl! |
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