Valentine's Day

I just shared a sign-up genius with all families that I created for sending in items for our Valentine's Day Party on February 14th.  Please check your email for this invite.  Thanks for your help with this!

Also, a big thanks to all the families who have already been able to send in a shoe box or kleenex box for us to use to collect our valentines!  We'll decorate these on February 11th.  If you have any extras, please send those in as well.  We will use these for students who didn't have a box to bring in to decorate.  Thanks!!

A New Book!

The class and I would like to thank the family of Wynter Woolever for the book each student got to take home today!  We were interested to read the back blurb and look at a few of the pictures.  Some students couldn't wait and started reading it today during our Reading time.  They said it's a very funny story so far! 

Writing Activities

We had fun writing about what we like to do in the snow, and decorated snow people.  We will each put our picture into these later!

After talking about Martin Luther King, we also wrote our own thoughts about if "I Have a Dream"...

This Week's Learning

Coming Up for the Rest of This Week:  (January 22):

• We are finishing up our work in Math, Unit 2 this week.  We will spend Friday and next Monday doing the Unit Review together, in order to help us practice for the test.  I will send this review home with all students Monday.  Please take some time to practice this review this coming Monday evening, in order to help us get ready to take our Math test next Tuesday, January 29.  (I will also send an email to all about this on Monday.)

Word Work:  Words Having a Vowel Team With Long A Or Long O. (Mail, tray, toast, and toe are some examples.)

Reading:  Unit:  Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power
Lessons:  Giving Feedback to Group Members, Holding Onto Stories When Books Are Long, Staying on Track When Books Get Tricky

Writing:  Unit:  Writing About Reading - Persuasive Writing
Lessons:  Editing with - Readers Giving Signposts and Rest Stops, Writing Introductions and Conclusions to Captivate, Using a Checklist to Set Writerly Goals

Math:  Practicing Adding Several 2-Digit Numbers, Unit Test Review

Social Sciences:  Maps and Globes

Maps

We've been practicing the names of the continents and oceans.  Here we are placing "homes" and a "school" on a map we made, finding the correct place for each.  ("East of the river", and "South of School Road" are some examples.)

This Week's Learning

Coming Up for This Week:  (January 14):

• iReady Testing:  Math - Jan. 15 (Tomorrow) / Reading - Jan. 18 (Friday)

Word Work:  Words Ending With Consonant Blends (Act, went, think, and ask are some examples.)

Reading:  Unit:  Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power
Lessons:  Recognizing Literary Language ("sea of grass), Understanding Comparisons, Noticing When Authors Play With Words

Writing:  Unit:  Persuasive Writing - Writing About Reading
Lessons:  Writing About More Than One Part of a Book, Reading Closely to Generate More Writing, Gathering More Evidence to Support Each of Our Opinions

Math:  Regrouping to Subtract, Practicing Subtracting 3-Digit Numbers, Learning About Adding Several 2-Digit Numbers

Social Sciences:  Hemispheres (northern and southern), Equator, 7 Continents, 5 Oceans

PTO Family Movie Night

Here is the link to family movie night:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409044CA8AA22A3F94-family



Today our class got to vote for which movie they would like to watch at the PTO Family Movie Night.  We got to vote between Ferdinand, Sing, or Zootopia.  The majority of our class voted to watch Zootopia, if they attend.  I wonder which movie will win the most votes for the whole building?☺

Upcoming Dates

• Tuesday, Jan. 15 - iReady Reading Testing

• Friday, Jan. 18 - iReady Math Testing

• Monday, Jan. 21 - NO School, Martin Luther King Jr. Day

• Wednesday, Jan. 23 - Early Dismissal, 10:55, Professional Development

• Friday, Jan. 25, 5-8:00 - PTO Movie Night

• Thursday, Feb. 14 - Valentine's Party - More Info to Come On This Soon

Life Skills

Today, Ms. Erickson came to visit our classroom to teach a lesson.  (She will do this again for the next 2 weeks too.)  She read aloud a book called Weird, and then we did an activity.  It was about positive thoughts vs. negative thoughts and what to do with negative comments from others.  We had to think of several positive thoughts about ourselves and write them down.

This Week's Learning

Coming Up for This Week:  (January 7):

Word Work:  Words Ending With -ck (Check, clock, and black are some examples.)

Reading:  Unit:  Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power
Lessons:  Noticing Dialogue and Using Meaning To Help Our Fluency, Reading at a Just-Right Pace, Recognizing Literary Language

Writing:  Unit:  Persuasive Writing - Writing About Reading
Lessons:  Developing New Opinions by Looking At Pictures, Writers Make Their Letters Even Better by Retelling Important Parts, Keeping the Audience In Mind

Math:  Adding 3-Digit Numbers, Learn about Adding Hundreds, Tens, and Ones, Subtracting 3-Digit Numbers, Learning About Regrouping to Subtract

Social Sciences:  Maps and Globes - Continent, Country, State, Map Key/Legend, Compass Rose

Writing About Reading

We started our work in our next unit in Writer's Workshop, Writing About Reading (persuasive writing).  In this unit, we will practice forming opinions about books or characters, and then use those books to give evidence for our opinions.  Today, we used a book we had read and enjoyed earlier this year Mercy Watson to the Rescue.  We talked about what made the book funny, why the character of Mercy was so funny, and then we wrote a classroom letter to try to convince other readers that they would enjoy the book too.

A New Book

Your child brought home a new book the week before break.  Hopefully they have been enjoying and having fun with their new book!  The class and I would like to thank the Parker Tegtmeier family for the Black Lagoon book!