Week of October 10

I hope this post finds all of you well. These storms have really put a damper on the school year, but I'm not going to let it get to our class. :) If you need more time to complete your Family Project- take it! No rush!! We missed a few days of planned lessons, so I am sending some items home. Be on the lookout for the Hurricane Matthew packet tomorrow. Also, our Book Fair date was cancelled due to school being cancelled. However, if your child brings money in, they can still go down to the Book Fair and shop during "Open Time" from 2:00-2:30. 

Our Resources this week are: Tuesday~ART, Wednesday~COMPUTER LAB and Friday~MUSIC. On Tuesday we are having laptops in the classroom. :) Wednesday is an EARLY RELEASE DAY. Friday we have the Fire Department stopping by to discuss Fire Safety and... it's Stuffed Animal Day. :) Please make sure your child's stuffed animal is in their backpack. If it doesn't fit inside their backpack, please choose another stuffed animal. Also, Sophia is bringing in Fun Friday Snacks for the class.

MATH

Our Math this week consists of number patterns. The students will be practicing number patterns using staircases and bracelets. We will discuss how each step up shows one more than the group before. After we make staircases we will play the "Take Away" game by taking out stairs in the staircase and figuring out what is missing. In this game the students will say the number that is missing, for example "6." Then their partner will tell them that, "6 is 5 and 1 more."

**Students that master this concept, will be introduced to the concept of one less and may begin making their staircase go down. **

SCIENCE

I have rescheduled last week's lesson on the Hand Lens. :) The students will get to use hand lenses to see close up details on items around the room. Then (Fingers Crossed!!) we will get to play the matching game of mini pinky nail pictures, to the real size photo.

For now, here is a fun Science Video to enjoy!

READING

In this Module we are focusing on listening to stories and retelling them using pictures or drawings. I your child has trouble telling you about the stories we read in class. PLEASE reread them the story and then together practice telling the events in the other they happen. Make sure to use the transition words; First, Next, Then and Last. Also, make sure your child knows that first means beginning, last means end and that next & then refer to the events in the middle of the story.

The stories we are listening to this week are: The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids and The Story of Jumping Mouse Part 1 & Part 2. (Click on the titles to see the full stories). We will also have a mini comprehension check for characters and settings of the stories read thus far.

Vocabulary:

The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids: bleated, disguise, kids, miller terrified

The Story of Jumping Mouse=

Part 1: brush, journey, perilous, swayed

Part 2: compassion, enormous, fragrances, misused

I am still testing Sight Words. So we will not have any new words introduced this week.

Also, Saxon is getting ready for another Oral Assessment. Make sure your child is practicing blending words. The words we are working on have a short vowel sound in the middle. It may be the short o sound or short a sound. Below are two videos from Hooked on Phonics. In the past I have used them more for word families, but I thought they would be good for right now too. Please keep in mind the words are not coded... Also, your child should know the sounds that the following letters make, if they do not please focus on these letters!! The letters are: G, P, H, L, A, O.

Writing

We will have a Grammar lesson this week on Nouns. The students will learn that a noun is a person, place or thing. Then we will discuss how we can make a singular noun plural by adding an s. We will still be stretching words and writing only the sounds the students hear. Plus we will be looking at pictures and thinking of a sentence to write that matches the picture.

Look at the pictures below with your child and ask them what sentences they could write to match each picture. (This activity lets students see that there can be multiple sentences written that match a picture. Their sentence might not match yours, but both of you can have a sentence that matches the picture.)