Weekly News & Homework: January 4th-6th

Happy New Year and welcome back to school! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and fun two weeks off with family and friends!

This is a short week, but we will still have new sight words, letter teams, and Friday tests! 

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST AS THERE IS A LOT OF NEW INFORMATION FOR THE NEW YEAR!!

There is no school this Tuesday, January 3rd due to a Teacher Inservice day. There is also no school on Monday, January 16th due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Beginning after the holiday break, we will now have each student write his/her first and LAST NAME on all papers, homework, etc.  If your child does not know how to write his/her last name, please practice this at home. We will be practicing at school as well. 

You should have received your child's NEW take-home BAG on the last day before our break! This will replace your child's take-home FOLDER and will need to come back to school EVERYDAY! This bag will be for all take-home classwork, book bags, notes to parents, and homework. Don't forget to send your child to school with it starting this Wednesday!

Also beginning after the holiday break each child will have a “wallet” inside of his or her take home bag. The “wallet” is a ziploc baggie. Each day your child will have the opportunity to earn money throughout our day. Students will have the opportunity to receive pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters in the classroom as rewards for behavior and hard work throughout the day. Instead of Treasure Box on Fridays, now they will visit the CLASS STORE! Each student will count money, trade money at the bank (example: five pennies for one nickel) and have the opportunity to spend their money on the items that are now “on sale” at the class store. Of course, bigger treasures will cost more money, which I hope will reinforce self-control and teach students about saving. Each child will be responsible for keeping track of their own bank and for counting the money in it. (This will be great math homework practice). Please encourage your child to take care of and keep track of his/her wallet, as lost money WILL NOT BE REPLACED!  Also, if students forget wallets at home, they will not receive money for that day. The wallet is designed to teach responsibility and accountability as well as reinforce math skills. This is a great life skill your child will benefit from in the future! Thank you for your continued support. 

Success Academy begins January 4th (still on Wednesdays and Thursdays) and second trimester electives will begin the week of January 16th. 

Upcoming Events:  
Tuesday, January 3: NO SCHOOL
Monday, January 16: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 27: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION (more info coming soon)

If you are at the store and happen to think of us, we'd love.... 

***Any sort of small {or big} prizes for our class store!!!***
Gluesticks  
Black Expo Markers 

Valentines Day stickers and trinkets

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WORK, ALL, AWAY, JUST, US.

Letter Team:  WOR (the OR sounds like Mr. ER, like in work and word) and TION (sounds like SHUN like in vacation, invention, connection). 

Reading: This week, we will read many books about winter and snowmen. We will not be taking book bags home due to the short week. 

Writing:  We will continue working on writing three sentences on the same topic and begin thinking of good topic sentences to begin our writing and conclusion sentences to end our writing.

Math: We will begin discussing Number Bonds, along with addition and subtraction and next week, we will begin taking Fluency Math tests. We will continue to learn our Doubles Song. We will also begin our math unit on measurement. We are learning different ways things can be measured, including length, height, width, weight, and capacity. You can help by discussing measurement at home.

Leadership: As always, we will continue to ROAR. Students displaying excellent leadership traits will be rewarded with money to spent at our class store. 

Homework: January 4-6

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (WORK, ALL, AWAY, JUST, US), and letter teams (WOR and TION). Study flashcards every day.

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Foundational Skills areas where they may still need support.

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. Read on RAZ-Kids. Read books from your at-home book box! Read to your child every day and have your child read to you every day. Find sight words and letter teams in books, in the car as you are driving - just READ, READ, READ! 

Writing: Practice writing every day! Our expectation at this point of the year is for students to write three sentences every day! Please make sure your three sentences are on the same topic with details, focusing on neatness, punctuation, and capitalization. 

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to practice counting, identify numbers out of order (make number flashcards!), practice number writing, practice drawing shapes, identifying shapes, or even creating shapes out of play-dough and sticks.  

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

Turn-In Homework: Please write THREE SENTENCES about a winter activity that you enjoy. Draw a picture to go with your sentences. Here is a link to our Sharing Paper.