Newletter Updates for the Week of January 3rd

Happy New Year!!!

WELCOME BACK:
I hope everyone had an enjoyable and restful break with family and friends. Before break, I had students bring home their pillows and blankets so they could be washed over break. Please feel free to send these items back to school. As our year progresses, we will spend less time resting and more time reading during our ‘rest time,’ but many students still enjoy the comfort from home during this quiet time of our day.


PIZZA PARTY:
We did it! Our class took first place for the most box tops/labels collected! We are looking forward to celebrating with a pizza party, compliments of the PTO. Thanks to all who contributed and sent in labels & box tops. Keep sending them in, as a second drawing will take place at the end of the school year.

STUDENT OF THE WEEK:
Our student of the week is Kasey Shank! Kasey enjoys being outside and playing soccer and baseball. His favorite place to go is camping with his family. When he grows up, Kasey wants to continue to play soccer and baseball and he aspires to become a pilot. Congratulations to Kasey on being Student of the Week!

DATES TO REMEMBER:
-Monday, January 9th—Delayed Start
-Friday, January 13th—Library
-Thursday, January 19th—1/2 Day of School
-Friday, January 20th—1/2 Day of School
-Friday, January 27th-Report Cards Sent Home

BOOK IT:
Please remember to return your child’s December Book-It Calendar so that I can award pizza certificates. I am attaching a January
calendar if you’d like to participate in Book-It for January.

ASSESSMENTS: The end of the marking period is fast approaching; we will be assessing many skills and concepts during the next few weeks. Students will also be reassessed on DIBELS (letters & sounds) and AIMSWEB (math concepts) to monitor their progress. Please be sure that your child is well rested and remind them to ‘always’ do their best at school. Report cards will be sent home Friday, January 27th.

READING:
This week we will be working on the letter Aa as well as the sightwords in & it. We will be reading the book Bunny Cakes as we work on predicting, comprehension, and vocabulary. This week we will also practice identifying ‘cause and effect’ relationships. Since Aa is a vowel, we will introduce Stretchy Snake & Chunky Monkey and use these two Accuracy Strategies to blend individual sounds into words and identify word chunks(at, an, & am) in words.

WRITING:
This week we will begin our January Journals as we write about a goal for the New Year, practice drawing detailed snowmen, and write about what we’d like to do on a ‘snow day.’ To help students become more confident writers, I am encouraging them to use the sightwords they know and to practice sounding out words; writing all the sounds that they hear (Stretchy Snake). We are really working on developing a positive
attitude for writing—I can do it!

MATH:
This week we will be working on writing our numbers 1-10 and ordering numbers 1-30. We will also be practicing our patterning, sorting, and
sequencing skills in preparation for Report Cards. We will be reviewing the 4 basic shapes and practice our oral counting skills (goal = 1-50).

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:
In Science this month, we will be learning about the Season of Winter: dressing for the weather, snow, snowmen, and animals in the winter. In Social Studies, we will introduce maps & globes and learn about ‘where we live’ using maps and globes. We will also be learning about ways to keep our bodies healthy and the importance of making healthy choices.