Newsletter Updates for the Week on January 19th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, January 23rd—Report Cards Home

-Wednesday, January 21st—LIBRARY

-Friday, January 30th—Smokey the Bear Visits

SLEDDING PARTY:  

We had an awesome day for sledding!  Special thanks to Mrs. Bronkema & Grandpa Dave for  joining us outside and also to Mrs. Southwick, & Grandma Shelly for preparing our delicious hot chocolate!  I will be posting some pictures on my blog this week.

IT TAKES A COMMUNITY: 

We are blessed to have access to wonderful and caring staff at McBain; we have many who come in throughout the day to provide services and support to our students.  While many of them come in to focus on specific students, they interact with all of the children.  I wanted to take a minute and introduce them to you, as you might hear your children mention them:

-Mrs. Rodenbaugh (Title 1 Teacher)

-Mrs. Klunder (Special Education Teacher)

-Mrs. Sluiter (Special Education Teacher)

-Mrs. Hubbard (Speech Therapist)

-Mrs. Mickelson (Occupational Therapist)

-Christina (ISD Consultant)

-Mrs. Bronkema (Title 1/Kindergarten Parapro)

-Mrs. Goodrich (Title 1/Kindergarten Parapro)

-Mrs. Roby (Special Education Parapro)

-Mrs. Heuker (Special Education Parapro)

**This week Miss Trager will be starting in our classroom.  She is a High School Senior who is dual-enrolled and receiving college credit.  She will be working in our classroom 3 afternoons a week, as she prepares for a career working with children.

READING: 

We will wrap up the Letter D on Tuesday and then spend a few days reviewing the letters and sightwords that we’ve learned so far.

Running Records—This week I will meet with each of the students individually and listen to them read different leveled books, in order to determine their independent and instructional reading levels.  Once these are complete, next week students will begin ‘shopping’ for their own ‘good-fit’ books, so that they can begin bringing books home to read—so exciting!

Beanie Babies—This week we will introduce a new Comprehension Strategy—Digger Dog who reminds us to dig for the ‘big idea,’ most important details, and  the author’s purpose in the texts that we read.

WRITING:  

This week we will take some time to write about something in the world that we would like to change (I have a dream), and begin writing a new pattern book about the things that we can do in the Winter time in Michigan.  We will look at some mentor texts that have a surprise ending and then create surprise endings in our own books.

MATH:  

We will work on creating patterns using pattern blocks and play several patterning games.  We will practice counting on from any given number, work on beginning addition skills, and learn how to use a calculator.  The students will also be reassessed on AIMSWEB to monitor their progress in math.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:  

We will continue our study of Winter this week—as we learn about the different things animals do during the Winter months.  We will also take some time to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to promote equality, fairness, & justice—values we embrace today!

Please be sure to return your child’s library book

on or before Wednesday!