Well, it was pajama day and school store all in one day! What a combination! We still managed to get some work done!

We continued to work on retelling a story today. We are making a retelling bag for the story Peaches the Pig. Today we added the important words from the story. See if your child can tell you what they are.

In writing we began our final drafts for our book that will be published. Please look for a note coming home next Monday telling you more about that.

We completed our short vowel flip books this week as a review of all our short vowel word families. When we return from Thanksgiving break we will begin looking at digraphs (ch, sh, wh, th).

Monday will be day 4. Please return library books on Tuesday. There will be no homework either Monday or Tuesday night next week.

Have a great weekend!

We had a busy day today!  We continued drafting the special writing project for the class book I told you about in my last posting.  Tomorrow we will revise and edit our work. 

We completed a sequencing activity that we started with book buddies yesterday.  We have these awesome flip books that help us to retell the story entitled One Terrific Thanksgiving.  They will be hanging in the hallway for a while.   You will be so proud of your kiddos when you see them!

We had fun interacting with the white board today as we learned about what life was like for Pilgrim and Native American children long ago. 

We took part of our unit 3 test today.  We will finish it up tomorrow.  Everyone is doing well.  I think the counting dimes, nickels and pennies is the trickiest task for most of us right now.  Practicing counting by 10′s, 5′s and 1′s is a great way to help your child with this skill.

I wanted to remind everyone that this Friday is Pajama Day!  The whole school will be comfy that day!!  It is also school store.  I’ll send a reminder home with your child tomorrow. 

Have an awesome evening!

This week we are learning how to retell a story. It should include these main parts:
beginning, middle, end
characters’ names
important words from the story

We are getting ready to retell a story to Miss Sior’s class next week. Each day we are adding something else to our retelling to make it really good! You know your child is comprehending what he/she is reading if they can retell the story as I have listed above.

We are making a book that will actually be published by a publishing group! Look for a paper coming home that gives you the opportunity to buy the book! All papers should be returned whether you are buying the book or not please! More to come later…

We are reviewing our short vowel sound word families this week by making a vowel flip book. Ask your child what words are in his/her book!

We are learning about how life was for Pilgrim and Native American children long ago. Tomorrow we will interact with a white board presentation from Plimoth Plantation!

Tonight’s math requires dominoes. If you don’t have them, it is ok! Just have your child complete the bottom of the page with odd numbers.

Thanks and have a great evening!

Thank you all for attending conferences. It was wonderful to meet with you and talk about your children! If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Today we continued talking about how the order of events helps us. So far we have learned that it helps us understand the story. Today we learned that it helps us make predictions. Ask your child about the story Maddie Loves to March. By the end of the story, we all figured out that Maddie would see a band. Tomorrow we will use the sequence of events to help us retell the story.

We are working with dimes this week in math. Now that we have added dimes, your child will need to count between 10′s, 5′s, and 1′s. We play a fun game called “Start and Stop Counting” that you might like to try at home. Start counting by 10′s and then randomly say stop. Have your child then count on by 5′s or 1′s. You can make it more fun by taking turns counting off with them.

We are officially done with our insect unit. We met with Miss Sior’s class yesterday to compare and contrast the life cycles of beetles and butterflies. Ask your child how they are the same and different.

Here is an update on some Northside happenings:
Next Friday, the 20th is Pajama Day! It will also be school store. Children may bring in a dollar or two to buy fun school supplies.

Monday’s cycle day is day 5. Homework will be as usual next week other than no math homework on Wednesday and Thursday. Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday! It is such a beautiful day and should be a nice weekend too. I hope everyone gets to enjoy it!

We were saddened today when two of our butterflies died after coming out of their pupa stage. It was a tough lesson on life and death. I thought the kiddos handled it well. We will release the butterflies next week.

We have been writing stories in our writing workshop. The children are making awesome stories and really seem to understand the steps of the writing process.

We worked on listening for signal words in a story to help us sequence the events. Ask your child who came last to the soccer game in the story we read today!

I’ve decided to stop writing a weekly newsletter since I seem to be repeating the information in my blog. I’ll make sure I give a cycle day update in the blog to keep you on track. Let me know if you miss the newsletter-I can keep doing it if enough of you feel I should.

Monday will be day 6. We have book buddies and music on that day. On Wednesday we will be walking to the public library. Homework will be the normal routine for each night next week as well.

Take Care!

Happy Wednesday! Big news in 1-B! One of our pupas finally became a butterfly! It was really neat to watch it pumping its wings and flying around the cage today!

We were also very excited to start something called “Writing Workshop” today. Now that we know all of the steps of the writing process, students will be able to work on more stories at their own pace! I am very excited to watch them blossom as writers through the workshop experience! Ask your child what new story he/she is working on now.

Today we worked on revising our predictions. We learned that good readers change their predictions as they read based on new information, or when their prediction no longer makes sense.

We also learned time to the half hour today. Tonight’s homework is two-sided-so plenty of practice!

Have a great evening! Don’t forget to have your child write three separate sentences for word work tonight!