Above and below: Quotes from your children about the things good readers do. Amazing!
Above: Paris by night. Wouldn't it be nice?
Hello,
First off, thanks to the children and families of Room 108 for the fantastic job on homework completion. This is the first year in all my years teaching that we've had 100% completion, and I've had amazing kids and families in the past, but this is just awesome! Bravo for the active involvement. Grade 1 parents, please keep bolstering your child on his or her printing. We're on our way from humungous sloppy printing to legible strokes of the pencil.
Secondly, I'd like to acknowledge Rachel for winning our first Character Education award for Respect. She is not the only student who is respectful in our class, but she consistently goes over and above expectations and is a constant model of patience and grace. She's a good listener and always shows respect to her classmates by offering constructive feedback. Bravo!
Lastly, cheers to our students who've been caught reading. These students are: Rishi, Zen, Jasmine, Cadence, Brett, Kyra, and Rachel. They've all had the chance to win prizes in our library as part of our "Get Caught Reading" contest run by our wonderful French afternoon librarian, M. Paré.
Here's what we're working on this week:
Reading: We continue to work on visualizing and fiction/non-fiction in our shared, guided, and independent reading. Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to have our Retelling unit wrapped up. When reading with your child at home, ask them to retell the story (even if it's a non-fiction text). Prompts include: How did the story begin? What happened next? Tell me about... How does the story end?
Media: We ran out of time on Friday to share our loved and loathed TV commercials. We will pick this up this week.
Writing: We will continue with Recount writing in our shared writing activities. Students will begin moving towards writing their own recount of a simple experience e.g. visiting a friend, going to a birthday party, etc.
Students will also continue writing their version of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Grade 1s will be relying more heavily on their pictures, but are encouraged to write some of their own words. Grade 2s will be expected to do more of their own writing.
We are starting our spelling this week. Please read my letter home explaining how it will work. Look for a pink sheet in your child's homework bag for their spelling words that consist of word family words, one high frequency word, a word I want them to master, and a word they'd like to master.
Math: We continue to learn about problem solving strategies. We got off to a slightly bumpy start last week with this. Problem solving is a fairly complex skill and one that takes time and deep thinking. I am working closely with the class to learn how to unpack problems and explain our thinking. We'll get there! We will also continue looking at fives and tens and how they help us take shortcuts in our adding and subtracting.
Science: Life cycles of plants vs. life cycles of animals.
Homework:
Grade 1s:
1. Reading 10 + minutes a day. Don't forget your Reading Log.
2. Math sheet.
3. Printing sheet - letters I and J
4. Spelling words with attention to the -an family of words. Please help your child memorize these words by Friday. Eight words in total.
Grade 2s:
1. Reading 15 + minutes a day. Don't forget your Reading Log.
2. Math Sheet - adding using a number line.
3. Fiction vs. Non-fiction questions.
4. Spelling words with attention to the -ack family of words. Please help your child memorize these words.
Have a lovely week!
Erin Hawkins
