Newsletter Updates for the Week of February 15th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Tuesday, February 23rd—100th Day of School

-Thursday, February 25th—Dental Visit

READING FOLDERS: 

We are off and reading!!! Thank you for taking the time to read with your child at home! This is a new routine for us, but the students are doing a fantastic job!  I will try to send reading folders home 2-3 times a week.  Several of the students have been telling me they have been reading on Raz Kids at home, which is wonderful! To ensure that students are reading and comprehending, we have a ‘5 finger rule’ for reading books on Raz Kids—Listen, Listen, Read, Read, Quiz (for those on levels with quizzes). They may also use their stars at home to upgrade their rockets:)

READING: 

This week our class will be focusing on the four seasons and how they are different.  Children will also be reading stories and poems about the weather in each season.

· Vocabulary—weather & seasons—discuss the four seasons and describe how the weather is similar or different. Then invite your child to draw a picture of each season.

· Letter of the Week—Bb & Ll—Invite your child to search for objects that begin with the letter b and the letter l. Write the names of the objects on sticky notes. Have your child stick the labels on each item

· Sightwords—is & little

· Category Words—seasons—Display some of the clothing that your child wears in each of the four seasons. Ask your child to identify the season during which the clothing is worn.

· Beanie Baby Strategies—We will introduce Skippy the Frog for Accuracy.  Skippy helps us when we come to a word that we just cannot figure out; he reminds us that we can ‘skip’ the word, read on, try to use the context clues to figure it out, and then go back and reread the sentence.

WRITING: 

This week we will wrap up our pattern books that follow a question and answer structure, conference with a peer, edit and revise, and then create our Wow covers.  We will also draw a pencil sketch of our 16th President—Abraham Lincoln—and complete an informational writing about some facts we’ve learned about his life.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

In observation of Presidents Day, this week we will be learning about Presidents past and present.  We will read several informational texts about Abraham Lincoln & George Washington and discuss some of the American Values that we continue to embrace today—Common Good, Equality, Justice, & Truth.  We will learn a little about the history of Presidents Day, as well as what it takes to become the President of the United States.

MATH: 

This week we will learn about the equal sign and the addition symbol and practice adding numbers within 10. 

 Please be sure to return your Library book on or before Thursday!