Week of Jan. 20th

You may be asked to donate a few supplies for our ice cream sundae party on Valentine's Day.  A class list will go home today for your child to begin his/her Valentines.  Please make sure he/she makes one for every student in our class.  Please send them in on Feb. 13th.

Also, going home this week is a sash to decorate for the 100th Day of School.  The 100th Day is on Wednesday, Feb. 5th.  Please return the sash to school by Tuesday, Feb. 4th.  Your child should put exactly 100 items on the sash and be as creative as possible.  You may want to brainstorm things that you could easily collect and decide how to arrange them creatively on the sash.

In computer lab this week, the children visited the Starfall site.  This can be accessed from the SMS home page.  This is a great site to practice their reading and phonetic skills.

We will be having a Valentine store to decorate our Valentine boxes at school.  We will be opening a store during the second week in February.  I am asking all students to bring in $1.00 in change.  (Please use a variety of coins-Pennies,Nickels, and Dimes are best.)  The money is due by February 7th and should arrive in a sandwich bag with the student’s name written on the outside.  They will purchase various items to decorate their Valentine boxes.  The money collected will be donated to the SPCA and will be a fun way to reinforce coin recognition and value.  Thank you!

Tomorrow is an Early Release.  The students will be dismissed at 12:50.

Mr. Forrest will volunteer on Jan. 31st for our Math Workshop and Mrs. Gomes and Mrs. Houghton will volunteer on Feb. 3rd for centers.

Some questions to ask about the week:
What do you do during indoor recess?
Can you name five words with blends?
What is the answer to an addition sentence called? (sum)
What is the answer to a subtraction sentence called?  (difference)
Ask your child how to play subtraction Top-It. (All you need is a deck of cards.)

    Last week's Super Readers are below!

We will review 'final silent e' (Magic E) again this week.  It is often difficult for the students to transfer from short vowels to long vowels.  Please continue to review the short vowel sounds with your child during reading and spelling.  The homework paper tonight should help with this skill.

Some questions to ask your child:
Who are you going to persuade through letter writing this week and why?
Who is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?
How do you draw a shape in half and label the equal parts?
Can you tell me an addition or subtraction number story?
Can you name six different shapes for me?

I am able to keep track of the IXL use on each student.  Many have impressed me.  The average time spent is from ten to fifteen minutes.  Students have logged in an average of fifteen times.  That's amazing math practice.  Keep up the great work!


Last week was our first Super Reader week!  There will be more readers to showcase soon!  The students are doing an amazing job keeping their audience captivated.

Week of January 6, 2014

Some questions to ask about the week:

• How do you make a 'magic c' letter?
• What was your classroom job this week?
• Can you name a shape and tell me how many sides and vertices is has?
• Find some items in our house and tell me which shapes they are.
• Tell me a fact you learned about penguins.
• How are fiction and nonfiction books similar and different?

Ask your child about the science experiment below and what they learned.

Classroom reading books are now going home on Fridays.  Please return them each Thursday so that your child has multiple days to read and reread the stories.  It is very important for your child to reread familiar stories so that your child's reading voice is fluent and it gives him/her an opportunity to practice expression.  New books will go home next Friday.  

Remember to follow the Super Reader schedule to help prepare your child for his/her special day.

We are in need of more foaming hand soap.  Unscented is best.  Thank you!

Our Math Workshop volunteer is Mrs. Jusseaume from 9:00-10:00 this Tuesday, Jan. 14th.

Our center volunteers are Mrs. Hawkins and Mrs. Mella on Wednesday, Jan. 16th at 1:30.

Some IXL math skills to practice this week and next are:

(You should be able to click directly on the skill below.)

K.1 Identify 2-dimensional shapes

K.5Count sides and vertices

K.7Compare sides and vertices

F.7Addition and subtraction sentences: true or false?

S.1Days of the week

S.2Reading clocks

M.2Interpret data in tally charts, picture graphs, tables

M.3Interpret bar graphs

Please continue to practice other IXL Math skills that have been covered as well.  You can view older posts on the blog to see the listed skills if you go to the actual blog site.  Your child can also explore other concepts at his/her own level.