The First Post of 2014!!!

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting our blog today.  I can't believe we are already half way through our school year! On that note, your child's report card is in his/her folder today. Please sign the white signature card and return it on Monday.  You can also fill in your address on the outside of the envelope and attach two stamps if you would like. This will have to be done before the end of the school year.   Check out below to find out what we've been doing this week...

Phonics/Grammar:  We reviewed the short and long e spelling patterns and the long vowel spelling patterns in small groups.  We played SPARKLE to practice our words and we created charts and brainstormed words that fit into our spelling pattern rules.

Reading: We read the story A Bad Case of Stripes and we discussed cause and effect relationships in the story.  We also retold the important events in this story.  We began our new chapter book read aloud, James and the Giant Peach.  We wrote about the three main characters, Aunt Sponge, Aunt Spiker, and James.  We also retold an important event in the story in our own words.  We worked in small groups on our chosen chapter books. We also practiced reading fluency in small groups.

Math: We worked on our geometry unit, learning the meaning of the words polygon, parallelogram, quadrilateral, triangle, pentagon, trapezoid and angle. We used our geoboards and rubber bands to create examples of these words.  We also began working on more challenging multi-step word problems that involve addition and subtraction or missing addends.

Writing: We began our unit on Opinion Writing.  We chose books that we've read in the past that contained interesting characters and we wrote letters to our classmates telling them why we think they should read the story.

Social Studies. We began our unit on Martin Luther King, Jr.  We watched a brainpop jr. video, we read a big book telling all about his contributions to the civil rights movement.  We started a flipbook telling about the nonviolent methods King used to change unfair laws.

Class News and Announcements...

Thank you to Mrs. Kale, our OSCARS parent who helped out this week!  We had lots of students earning stickers this week!  Make sure you are helping your child pick a topic each week and prepare for it. Your child has the ability to test on a topic EVERY THURSDAY!

Our OSCARS calendar has openings if you would like to volunteer to help out.  Use the sign-up genius website to do so.  

We've enjoyed getting to know our new student, Jack Lupo.

We have another holiday coming up. Please mark your calendars for No School on January 20, 2014 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr Day.

Please remember that your child's snack should be a HEALTHY snack!  We are seeing lots of very sugary, chocolatey treats.  These kinds of snacks are not allowed.  Good choices are fruit (the REAL kind), crackers, cheese, or popcorn.