Weekly News & Homework: March 20th-24th

This is our last week of school before spring break. We have NO SCHOOL for the next two weeks. Spring break is a perfect time to work on your Community Service Projects! I hope you have a wonderful two weeks off with your families!

Upcoming Events:
March 27-April 7: SPRING BREAK!!!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words:  There will be no new sight words introduced until after Spring Break.  Please take this time to review ALL of our words introduced so far.  Remember, sight words are words that your child should recognize instantly.  These are not words your child should be sounding out!  Please continue to work on these words. 

Letter Team: There will be no new letter teams introduced until after Spring Break.  Please take this time to review ALL of our letter teams introduced so far. Many children know most of the letter teams, but have a hard time applying them into decoding words. A great idea would be to write words (or make flashcards) with letter teams inside them and have your child decode the word for you, applying the letter team. 

Reading: This week, we will read books about spring and animals. As always, we will also continue to read fluency passages at their levels and their self-selected good-fit books from the library.

Writing: We will write all about spring and animals!

Math: We will continue to work hard on decomposing and composing numbers within ten, as well as addition and subtraction problems, and identifying the place value (tens and ones) of two-digit numbers. 

Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: March 20-24

Flashcards: Since we have no new sight words, this is a great opportunity to review ALL sight words and letter teams introduced so far.

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. In addition to Smarty Ants, we ask that you read your Book Bag every night. This includes: fluency passage, paper books, and library books. 

Writing: Practice writing EVERY day.  You can practice writing a 5 sentence Step up to Writing paragraph in your at-home journal.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss ways to make 5 (and ways to make 10!), numbers in base ten (in the number 16, how many tens and how many ones?), addition and subtraction number problems and word problems, 2D and 3D shapes, and the Doubles Song. Count the money in your bank.

SPECIAL Turn-In Homework:  This week your child will have a special homework assignment! On Monday in class, each child will be selecting an animal that they want to learn more about. We will discuss what we could learn about our animal- what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, fun facts, etc. BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR A PAPER COMING HOME WITH THEM WHERE THEY WROTE ABOUT WHAT ANIMAL THEY HAVE SELECTED AND WHAT THEY WANT TO LEARN. Then, their homework is to "research" their animal (using the Internet, books at home or from the library, background knowledge, etc.) to learn at least three things about their animal. Their three things about their animal is due by Friday! After our Spring Break, we will be turning these animal facts into a class book "All About Animals!" that will be published! :)

Weekly News & Homework: March 13th-17th

We will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day this Friday by wearing green, sharing our Leprechaun Traps and having fun St. Patrick's Day centers. Don't forget to turn in your leprechaun traps by Thursday at the latest! We will have a special leprechaun museum on this day and set them up to try to catch them on Friday!  

Parent Conferences for this trimester will be on a NEED ONLY basis and will be taking place the week before Spring break, March 20-24. Please check your messages on Parent Square!

Continue to work on your community service projects. These will be due early May - They will need to be turned in before May 10th to qualify for the Leadership Banquet. 

Upcoming Events:
Friday, March 17: ST. PATRICK'S WEAR GREEN DAY AND CENTERS
March 27-April 7: SPRING BREAK!
   

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN. 

Letter Team: EIGH (sounding like "a" like in EIGHT and NEIGHBOR).

Reading: We will read books about leprechauns and spring. We will continue to explore non-fiction texts as we discuss the main idea and key details from the text. Students will continue to read fluency passages at their levels and their self-selected good-fit books from the library. 

Writing: This week, we will write a procedural writing on "How to Catch a Leprechaun". Students will use their very own leprechaun traps to think of and write the steps of how they plan on catching the leprechaun. 

Math: We will continue to work hard on decomposing and composing numbers within ten. 

Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: March 13-17

Flashcards: Don't forget to make new flashcards for each sight word and letter team. New words for this week are: SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN and the new letter team is: EIGH (sounding like "a" like in EIGHT and NEIGHBOR).

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. In addition to Smarty Ants, we ask that you read your Book Bag every night. This includes: fluency passage, paper books, and library books. 

Writing: Practice writing EVERY day.  You can practice writing a 5 sentence Step up to Writing paragraph in your at-home journal.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss ways to make 5 (and ways to make 10!), numbers in base ten (in the number 16, how many tens and how many ones?), addition and subtraction number problems and word problems, 2D and 3D shapes, and the Doubles Song. Count the money in your wallet.

SPECIAL Turn-In Homework:  Your homework is to build a leprechaun trap!!! We are going to be talking and writing about how we might catch a leprechaun. You will have two weeks to build your leprechaun trap with your family - be as creative as you can! These traps will be due in class no later than Thursday, March 16th. We are going to have a leprechaun trap museum and do a special project with them! Have fun! 

Weekly News & Homework: March 6th-10th

We had so much fun dressing up and celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday. Thank you for all of your help, time, donations, and to all of our guest readers! 

Parent Conferences for this trimester will be on a NEED ONLY basis and will be taking place the week before Spring break, March 20-24. 

Continue to work on your community service projects. These will be due early May - They will need to be turned in before May 10th to qualify for the Leadership Banquet. 

Upcoming Events:
Friday, March 17: ST. PATRICK'S WEAR GREEN DAY AND CENTERS
March 27-April 7: SPRING BREAK!!!
   

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: OVER, UNDER, LEFT, RIGHT, PUT.
Letter Team:  DGE (sounding like "j" like in BADGE, LEDGE, and FRIDGE).

Reading: We have been learning all about re-telling fiction stories using the story elements, such as characters, setting, problem, solution, as well as the beginning, middle, and end to re-tell. We have also been learning about re-telling non-fiction text using main idea and key details. We will continue to explore re-telling. 

Writing: This week, we will continue learning how to write our opinions. Remember that writing an opinion is telling "What and Why". 

Math: We will focus hard on decomposing and composing numbers within ten. You can help at home by asking your children problems like, "If I need 10 cupcakes and I only have 4, how many more would I need?" I am finding that students do a great job referring to the tens frame and answering "ways to make 10" questions, but struggle with ways to make other numbers, so let's make sure we are also asking, "If we need 7 apples and we have four, how many more would we need?" We will be discussing different strategies for this in class. 

Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: March 6-10

Flashcards: Make new flashcards for each sight word and letter team.  New words for this week are: OVER, UNDER, LEFT, RIGHT, PUT and the new letter team is: DGE - (sounding like "j" like in BADGE, LEDGE, and FRIDGE).

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. 

Writing: Practice writing EVERY day.  You can practice writing a 5 sentence Step up to Writing paragraph in your at-home journal.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss ways to make 5 (and ways to make 10!), numbers in base ten (in the number 16, how many tens and how many ones?), addition and subtraction number problems and word problems, 2D and 3D shapes, and the Doubles Song. Count the money in your wallet.

SPECIAL Turn-In Homework:  For the next two weeks, your homework will be to build a leprechaun trap!!! We are going to be talking and writing about how we might catch a leprechaun. You will have two weeks to build your leprechaun trap with your family - be as creative as you can! These traps will be due in class no later than Thursday, March 16th. We are going to have a leprechaun trap museum and do a special project with them! Have fun!