Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 27th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Thursday, October 28th—Family Night 5:30-7:00

-Monday, November 3rd—No School

-Thurs., Nov. 6th—Parent Teacher Conferences

-Tues., Nov. 4th—Report Cards Home

HALLOWEEN PARTY: 

*Please send your child’s costume to school in a bag (labeled with their name). Students will change into their costumes after lunch.

**Please DO NOT send any make-up or toy weapons (guns, swords, knives, etc.) to school.

***Parent volunteers—please plan to arrive by 12:15 to help students get into their costumes.

SCHEDULE:

12:15-12:45—Change into Costumes

12:45-1:00—Photos

1:00-1:40—Parade Downtown (K-4)

*K will NOT be visiting the 4th grade wax museum.

1:40-2:00—Halloween Activities & Change

2:00-2:20—Halloween Snack

2:25—Recess

READING:

This week our class will be focusing on the shapes they see in nature and in our neighborhood. Children will also be reading about the shapes they see around them.

Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing.

Word Workout

· Vocabulary: materials, nature Invite your child to hunt for shapes found in nature or on materials. Then invite your child to draw pictures of each item.

· My Words to Know

High-Frequency Word: like Write the word like on paper and have your child trace it. Then say sentences and have your child write like each time you say the word.

Category Words: shapes Say simple riddles that include different shape words. Have your child guess each object.

Phonics: t Invite your child to play a game of “I Spy.” Say sentences and have your child find objects whose names begin or end with the letter t, such as I spy a table. I spy a pot.

Comprehension: key details

Invite your child to point out details in the park scene, such as a square sign. Then use different colored crayons to color each shape.

At literacy stations, student will continue to work on rhyming, retelling, syllables, sightwords, letters, & sounds.  Students will also begin using Successmaker on the computer this week.  Last week they enjoyed reenacting The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything; we will practice retelling the story a few more times, so that they students will have a chance to play all of the roles.  We will introduce 2 new Beanie Baby Strategies this week: Stretchy Snake helps us to stretch out unknown words by saying all of the sounds and then blending them together to make the word; Picturing Penguin helps us with comprehension as we practice visualizing (making a picture in our heads) while we read.

MATH:  

This week we will incorporate several Halloween activities into our math stations as we focus on sequencing by size, number ID, & counting.  We will work on identifying Tricky Teen numbers and play several games related to the teens.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:   

This week we will read several stories related to Halloween and Pumpkins. Today we carved our jack-o-lantern. With elections just around the corner, we exercised our ‘democratic right to vote,’ as we voted on what kind of mouth to give our jack-o-lantern.

WRITING:  This week we will finish up our October Journals with entries about what we will be for Halloween and the shapes that we see around us.  I will save their October Journals to share with you at conferences.