What We’re Learning This Week: Week of December 11th

Reading:  We will be reading the fiction story, “Ruby in her Own Time” from our reading anthology book.  We will focus on the characters, setting, and a major event in the story.  We will also discuss how the main character changed throughout the book.  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.”  **For our end of the quarter assessments and report cards, I will be administering several individual assessments with the students.  As a result, I may not be able to follow my normal guided reading schedule every day. Therefore, your child may not receive as many guided reading books in the next few weeks.  Please continue to practice reading the book in bag with your child when they do bring it home.  If they do not bring a new book home that day, they can read another book or work on raz-kids.  

Writing: We will continue our 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 be working on revising and editing one opinion piece from this quarter and celebrating our writing.  I will continue to conference with students and reinforce the application of what we are learning.

Word Study/Spelling:

-Letter Name- Beginning Sounds k, wh, qu, tw

-Fry Words- review 2^nd column from Read and Write word list

-Grammar- use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future 

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 15 addition facts in one minute and 15 subtraction facts in one minute.  Our core lessons will include hands-on math activities and games that support the common core.   We will be introducing picture graphs based on survey data this week.  We will be conducting class surveys and organizing the data.  

2nd grading period Science and Social Studies:
Science: Basic needs of living things
Social Studies: Economics – we will learn about needs and wants.

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

Extras:

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

- Holiday Shop- December 11^th 

^{-Spirit Week- December 18th-20th (Monday: team spirit day, Tuesday: Fashion disaster day, Wednesday: PJ and stuffed animal day)- $1 optional donation to Cleveland Clinic Children's Rehabilitation Center}

-Social Studies class store- December 19^th

- Winter/Holiday Celebration- December 20th

- End of 2^nd grading period- December 20^th

- Last student day before winter break- December 20^th

- Winter break for students: Dec. 21^st - Jan. 2^nd