February 22, 2013 Update...

Hello Parents,

We've had a great week! I have been so impressed with the students' writing. We wrote a book recommendation on James and the Giant Peach. I am so proud of the incredible writers the children are becoming. I got some writing samples from the county, and every single student in my class far exceeded the samples that were sent to me! Way to go, room 216! These stories will be hanging up in our hallway if you are interested in reading them. Check out what else we've been doing this week...

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned our ten new words to help our reading and writing. We also worked on reviewing subject nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and articles. We diagrammed several sentences to show the parts of speech.

Reading: We completed the James and the Giant Peach book. We talked about our new book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, and read chapters one and two. This book is providing a great opportunity to discuss more important and deeper topics that we probably haven't been exposed to yet. Be prepared for some tough questions coming from your children as we work through this book. Our classroom discussions have been amazing. We also read several nonfiction and fiction short stories, worked on sequencing, as well as oral reading fluency with our book buddies.

Math: We spent much of the week in math on word problems. We looked carefully at our grade level rubric and what is expected to get a 3 or 3+. We no longer are only looking for the write answer and I think after looking at the rubric, the students really understand that now. We also looked more closing at using an open number line to add and subtract by multiples of ten. Some of the children found this to be quite a challenge. Please provide extra opportunities at home if your child needs it. Simply giving a three digit number and having them count by tens up or down will help. Remember not to start at a multiple of ten though! (289, 299, 309, 319, etc). We also shared our geometric shape creatures in class. What creativity!  Our creatures are on display in our media center if you'd like to see our work!

Writing: We looked closely at the components of a good book recommendation. I modeled using an organizer then writing a paragraph, using the book The Chocolate Touch. The children then independently wrote book recommendations on James and the Giant Peach.

Classroom News...

Moon Phase calendars are due next week!

Please return the re-enrollment forms ASAP. Follow the directions carefully.

Thank you to all the parents who donated books to the classroom! We have all the books we need now!

Movie Afternoon is Wednesday! I plan on going by the sheet that you returned, so if there needs to be a dismissal change, let me know in writing.

On that note, please remember to call the front office if there is a dismissal change. I have had several parents email me and I am not always able to get to my email before dismissal time. I would hate to send a child home the wrong way. Please call the front office with any changes.