Fall Festival Celebration

We had so much fun at our Fall Festival Celebration!

For the week of 10/30/2017

What We’re Learning This Week:

Reading:  This week we will be reading a fiction story called “It’s Moving Day.”  We will focus on asking and answering questions about the key details in this text. We will also compare the book to “Animals Building Homes” and identify similarities and differences between two texts on the same topic.  

Your child will continue to come home with a guided reading book to read in their “book in a bag.”  Please remember to practice reading your child’s book-in-a-bag  with them.  Ask them comprehension questions, such as, “Who are the characters?” and “Tell me what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of this story.”  If we work on certain comprehension activities, you will find these activities in the folder that is in your child’s book in a bag.  **As a reminder, it depends on the schedule when I meet with guided reading groups each day.  I am not able to meet with every group every day.  If your child brings home the same book, he/she may reread that book, read a different book, or read on raz-kids. 

Writing: Students have begun a new opinion writing unit.  First, they will learn to review a collection and make choices about which item in that collection is the best, writing defenses for those judgments.  Second, the students will learn how to write a review about anything, such as toys, restaurants, video games, movies, etc.  Finally, the students will learn to write about book reviews.  They will summarize, evaluate, judge, and defend their judgments. This week we will continue writing opinions about topics, and we will continue to learn how to support our opinion by writing detailed reasons. I will continue to conference with students and reinforce the application of what we are learning.

 

Grammar: We will continue to review capitals and end marks as we continue editing lessons in writing workshop.  Remember your sentence checker (a sentence must include): capital letters, spaces, brave spelling, makes sense, and end marks!  We will also learn how to use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs.

Word Study/Spelling: 

Read and Write Words: your, can, said, there, use

Short vowel word families will be our focus for this quarter.  Word families share the same vowels/patterns and rhyme.

Feature/Pattern of the week:  Consonant Blends – sp, sk, sm     

Ex: spot, spin, skunk, sky, small, smell 

Math: Our math lessons each day will include computational fluency, fact fluency, and core math instruction focused on the first grade common core math standards. Computational fluency will help the students to use the most effective and efficient strategies.  Fact Fluency is working with both addition and subtraction facts within 10.  Our end-of-the-year goal is to have students complete 22 addition facts in one minute and 22 subtraction facts in one minute.  Our core lessons will include hands-on math activities and games that support the common core.   We will continue to work on fractions- halves and fourths.  We will also work on story problems and building numbers focusing on part-part-whole.

2nd grading period Science and Social Studies:
Science: Habitats
Social Studies: Economics – we will learn about needs and wants.

Homework: Continue working on homework log for the month. We will send home a new homework log for November next week. Thank you for your home support!

Extras:

-Please make sure you are sending your child with a peanut-free snack!

-Report cards were sent home on October 27^th .  Please keep the report card and return the signed envelope. 

- No school for students on Tuesday, November, 7.  It is professional development day for teachers.

For the week of 10/23/2017

What We’re Learning This Week:

Reading:  This week we will be reading a non-fiction story, “Animals Building Homes.”  We will focus on asking and answering questions about the key details in this text.  We will also be reviewing non-fiction text features (ex: heading, labels, captions, glossary, and index). 

Your child will continue to come home with a guided reading book to read in their “book in a bag.”  Please remember to practice reading your child’s book-in-a-bag with them.  Ask them comprehension questions, such as, “Who are the characters?” and “Tell me what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of this story.”  If we work on certain comprehension activities or strategies, you will find these activities in the folder that is in your child’s book in a bag.

Writing: Students will begin a new opinion writing unit.  First, they will learn to review a collection and make choices about which item in that collection is the best, writing defenses for those judgments.  Second, the students will learn how to write a review about anything, such as toys, restaurants, video games, movies, etc.  Finally, the students will learn to write about book reviews.  They will summarize, evaluate, judge, and defend their judgments.  I will continue to conference with students and reinforce the application of what we are learning.

 

Grammar: We will continue to review capitals and end marks as we continue editing lessons in writing workshop.  Remember your sentence checker (a sentence must include): capital letters, spaces, brave spelling, makes sense, and end marks!  We will also continue to work on common, proper, and possessive nouns.

Word Study/Spelling: 

Read and Write Words: Read and Write Words: what, all, were, we, when

Short vowel word families will be our focus for this quarter.  Word families share the same vowels/patterns and rhyme.

Feature/Pattern of the week:  Consonant Blends – s, -t, st       

Ex: saw, table, stand, star, stop 

Math: Our math lessons each day will include computational fluency, fact fluency, and core math instruction focused on the first grade common core math standards. Computational fluency will help the students to use the most effective and efficient strategies.  Fact Fluency is working with both addition and subtraction facts within 10.  Our end-of-the-year goal is to have students complete 22 addition facts in one minute and 22 subtraction facts in one minute.  Our core lessons will include hands-on math activities and games that support the common core.  We will focus on several activities to help us become more fluent with doubles and near doubles (3+3=6, 3+2=5, 3+4=7).    

1st grading period Science and Social Studies:
Science: Habitats
Social Studies: Seasons

Homework: Continue working on homework log for the month of October. Thank you for your home support!

Extras:

-Please make sure you are sending your child with a peanut-free snack!

-End of 1^st Grading Period: October 20^th

-Report cards sent home on October 27^th

-Fall Festival party on October 27^th

Math Group Tasks

This week we introduced our group tasks into our math curriculum.  The students were assigned roles for their group: facilitator, questioner, recorder/reporter, and resource monitor.  They enjoyed having these roles and working together to solve the challenging story problems!  

Fall Festival Reminders!

Some reminders from Mrs. Troman regarding our upcoming fall festivals: 

With our upcoming Fall Festivals Friday, October 27 (K-2) and the following Tuesday, October 31 (preschool), we wanted to send out a quick reminder of the procedures for the fall festival parties, costumes, and our annual parades.

Parties: Please remember that head room parents have already designated party helpers for this event. Although we would love to invite everyone in, our classroom and parking lot capacities would be overtaxed, so we ask that only those helping with our parties enter the buildings.

Food: We also want to remind you that we have many students with serious food and contact allergies, as well as dietary restrictions. Please refrain from sending in additional treats and food. If you want to contribute a treat; fancy pencils, classroom books, or other supplies are always a great choice!

Costumes: The kids really enjoy dressing up for our parade, and we enjoy seeing all of their creative ideas. Please remember that all costumes should be “rated G.” No weapons, blood, make-up, etc. should be included. The older students will need to be totally independent in putting costumes on. Some help will be available for younger students; however, it is a great idea to have them practice putting their costumes on (over their clothes) at home before the party.

Parades: Finally, at Craddock and for Miller Kindergarten, parents are asked to spread out along the outside of the fence lines to allow everyone a good view as the students parade around the perimeter of the playgrounds. The parade at Craddock begins at 2:15, the parades at Miller start at 10:30 *(am-K only) and 2:30 on Friday, October 27. Miller preschool parades are at 10:30 and 2:30 on Tuesday, October 31*.

* Parents may enter lobby to watch the preschool parades (on Tuesday) and the AM Kindergarten only (on Friday). 

For the week of 10/16/17

What We’re Learning This Week:

Reading:  “Places Plants and Animals Live” (Non-Fiction Text) Focus on the main idea and key details.  Students will be working on asking answering questions to help figure out the meaning of the words in a non-fiction text. We’ll be continuing guided reading and centers.  As always, we’ll be reading poetry weekly for fluency and expression practice.  Please continue to read and monitor the book-in-a bag coming home.

Writing: We are beginning a new writing unit on Opinion writing. Students will write an opinion piece in which they introduce the topic or name of a book, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion and provide since of closure. Well will continue to work on using upper and lower case letters in the correct manner as well as punctuation.

Word Study/Spelling:  Digraphs sh, ch, th, wh

Fry Words: had, by, words, but, not

Phonics- Mixed Diagraphs

Grammar: Common, proper and possessive nouns

Math: Our math lessons each day will include computational fluency, fact fluency, and core math instruction focused on the first grade common core math standards. Computational fluency will help the students to use the most effective and efficient strategies. Fact Fluency is working with both addition and subtraction facts within 10. At our goal is to have students complete 22 addition facts in one minute and 22 subtraction facts in one minute. Our core lessons will include hands-on math activities and games that support the common core.

1st grading period Science and Social Studies:
Science: The Sun
Social Studies: Maps

Extras:

-No school Oct. 13^th

-Oct. 18^th Fire safety assembly (1:00)

-Oct. 25^th Yankee Candle pick up Craddock Cafeteria

4-7pm

-End of the grading period Oct. 20^th

-Fall Festival Party Oct. 27th 

-Report cards go out Oct. 27^th