Sight Words

These words should be recognized on sight while your child is reading. It will make it so much easier if they don’t have to stop to figure out these words.

Dear Parents and Guardians, February 24. 2020

We are beginning a new unit in writing this week. We will be writing to express our opinion and we will even try to convince others to think the way we do! I sent home a note about sending in a collection of things for your child. This collection will serve as the basis for our writing for the first week. We already know the difference between a fact (something that is always true and can be proven so) and an opinion (what someone believes or feels about something).

Our class is behind in the lunch room behavior program! Each day our class has the potential to earn an acorn during lunch time. Unfortunately, our class has earned the fewest acorns of any class...in the whole school! We have our lunch room rules posted right next to our table. We know what we are supposed to do. Now we just need to do it! In the cafeteria the voice level is level 2, a normal talking voice. Lunch boxes need to be used only to carry lunches, not as toys. Let's earn those acorns!

We have been working with some difficult concepts in math right now. We are working with the concept of place value. The students need to be able to understand that 23 means 2 tens and 3 extra ones. Being able to break a number into tens and ones helps with the subtraction and addition that we are doing. There are multiple ways to solve the type of problems that we are working with: counting on, using a number line etc. Sometimes we will use those other strategies too, but we want to make sure they understand how to break numbers apart into tens and ones and then subtract. Eventually, they can use this same strategy on even bigger numbers. For addition, they are learning how to make a ten to add. I copied the parent information sheets for the topics that we are currently working on. We are getting into some complex thinking!

In reading, we have been working with story elements: character, setting, problem, and solutions. We are working hard with a partner to get ready to “perform” one of our books. We are trying to read it with emotion and gestures and facial expressions so it seems almost like a play!

Please have your child read every night! It would be great if you could also listen to them read so you can give them little tips like “Read that again smoothly” or “Can you read that with expression?” or when they are trying to figure out a word or are unsure if they are correct “Were you right?” Have them figure out if they were right or not!

Yours in Learning,

Mrs. Greene

Dear Parents and Guardians, January 26, 2020

We are beginning to work on place value and addition and subtraction to 20. This concept is sometimes difficult for the students to grasp. It will take a while! They need to know that in a 2 digit number, the first digit from the right represents the ones in a number, and the second digit from the right represents the tens in a number. They need to understand that 13 has one ten and three ones. They need to be able to represent that number in multiple ways: in a picture and in a ten frame as one ten and 3 ones , and as the number sentences 1 ten + 3 ones = 13, and 10 + 3 = 13.

As we move on, it will be helpful if your child is very fluent with the numbers that add up to 10. Play games to learn these and quiz them on partners to 10. Take 10 small objects. Put some in one hand and show them to your child. Have your child figure out how many are in the other hand. Have them say a number sentence that matches. The other game that helps is a game we play with the cards. The student (or you!) puts a card on their forehead. (Say they put up a 6) They ask, “What’s my partner to 10?” The other player answers with the correct number that would make a sum of 10. (4) The first player then figures out what number is on their forehead and says, “Then I must be a ____.” (6)

In reading we continue to work with nonfiction text. We are learning to read this sort of text slowly and carefully. We start learning by doing a sneak peek. We look at the title, the cover, and a few pages of the book. We think about what we might read/learn about. When we read, we look at the pictures to learn more. We stop and think about what we have read to learn more. We reread to learn more. We try to predict what might be on the next page. We try to find and think about keywords that help us learn even more about our topic. We are getting super smart about the topics we are reading about!

In Writer’s Workshop we are writing to teach our reader about our topics. We are getting better at uppercase letters and punctuation, but we still need practicing! When we write, we try to add lots of details. We will learn lots of ways to do that. We write twin sentences. (Two sentences about the same thing, each giving more details.) We anticipate questions our reader may have about our topic and then we include the answers in our writing. We are learning to organize our work so we write one thing about our topic (with lots of details) on one page. On the next page we write another thing about our topic with lots of details.

The reading responses are currently for a nonfiction text. The students should be reading fiction as well, but they will need to read at least one nonfiction book, or page, or article in order to do the reading response. You can access nonfiction text that is the appropriate level for your child on raz-kids. Teacher name is rgreenej. Boy’s password is the lizard icon. Girl's password is the airplane icon.

Yours in Learning,

Mrs. Greene