The week of Jan. 25-29

 Small Group Reading

This week your child will be bringing home a small reading group book that we will read in our group.  Please have him/her read it 2-3 times with someone and then ask them comprehension questions about it.  1.  Who the characters are. 2.  What happened at the beginning, middle, end.  See if they can retell about the story including those parts without specifically asking the questions.  If they can't demonstrate the retelling on their own, retell it for them so they understand how to do it.

Reading Skill sheet--You may need to read the sentences for your child to get them started.

Sight words--there, word

Spelling--Test Feb. 5!  It will be helpful to choose one or two sight words and one of the long a pattern word sets to work on a couple of nights before moving on to new words.

Spelling tips!

1.  Dry erase write

2.   I spy--write words on cards/paper, place around house, find word and spell it.

3.  write words on paper, cut up and put back together like a puzzle.

4.  Use the words in sentences to practice using it correctly and spelling it correctly when writing it.

Spelling City-- I added this week's spelling list to Spelling City for your child to have another way to practice at home.  Just go to Spelling City on the right side of my blog.  Go to "Homepage", find the "Long A" spelling list.  Choose any of the free games for your child to play.  I will show the kids how to play also!  Let me know if you have any questions!

Math this week:  Continue with Place Value working with tens and ones.

We counted dimes on Friday.  This week we will be counting nickels.  Ask your child how many 5's/nickels  they would need to make 25 cents, 50 cents, 75 cents, $1.00.

Another skill to review with your child is asking ten more and ten less of a number.  Ten more than 87 is 97, ten less than 63 is 53.  This can be done orally or written on paper.

Social Studies--Kansas Symbols

State Amphibian--Barred Tiger Salamandar

State Insect--Honey Bee

State Reptile--Ornate Box Turtle

State Fish--Catfish

Coming up!

Feb. 5.       Long a Spelling Test

Feb. 12.     Bring Valentines and decorated mailbox to drop valentines in (see note)

Feb. 15.      No School-President's Day

Feb. 19.      Long i spelling test

Feb. 24       1/2 day school--Parent/Teacher conferences 

Feb. 25.      No School--P/T Conferences

Feb. 26       No School

The class worked in groups to build 5 different Fairy Tale STEM Activities

The Three Billy Goats' Bridge

The Three Little Pigs' House

Goldilock and the Three Bears' chairs

Rapunzel's Tower

Little Red Riding Hood's apple basket

The week of Jan. 20-22.

 I hope your kids enjoyed their break!  

Grade cards are on Skyward for you to see.  They will not be printed, so you will go to your child's Skyward account to view it and print it at home if you choose.  If you have any questions on how to get to it, please call the office and Mrs. Ussery or Mrs. Fanning can help you.  

You will also find a packet of the testing sheets for your child in their folder.  The 2nd quarter skills sheet is attached to them.  If there are no highlighted skills, your child passed all of them for the quarter.  Please practice any highlighted skills at home.  Let me know if I can answer any questions about the skills or grade card!

Math timed tests--In the packet you will find an addition and subtraction timed test we took without manipulatives to see what facts your child knows quickly.  I took the class average and wrote it on the skills sheet so you can see how your child did compared to others.  Even though we aren't working on addition and subtraction in math, please keep practicing the facts with your child so they can memorize them.  

New spelling words:  The test will be in 2 1/2 weeks on Feb. 5.  We are beginning the long vowel groups.  You will find the long a combinations on this one.  Working on these words 5-10 min. a day will help your child learn them easier.  Pick the pattern words to do together so it doesn't get confusing for them. Here are the new words:

Sight words:  These are getting harder.

1. how

2. said

3. all

4. it

5.  there (I tell the kids that they find "here" inside of "there")

6.  word

Long a with silent e words:  Learn these together one day.

1. gate

2. same

Long a with "ai" in words.  Learn these together one day.

3. mail

4. rain

Long a with "ay" in words.  Learn these together one day.

5. play

6. stay

Math--Chapter 4 math test is coming home today.  We had to really take our time on this test.  It was pretty hard.  There are parts that I may have written "with help" on as it was difficult for them.  We went over the test.  If your child missed any, I had them cross out the incorrect answer and write the correct one beside it or circle the correct one.  Hopefully he/she didn't erase the missed one and write the correct one, as you wouldn't see what they missed.

We completed the first math book!  It will be coming home today.  You are welcome to have your child do any of the homework pages or worksheets that we didn't do in class. It would be great for them to review past skills especially the addition and subtraction. However, please don't send them back to school.  We have a new math book for chapters 5-10 we started today.  Chapter 5 is on Place Value.

Social Studies--

Our next unit in Social Studies is on the Kansas Symbols.  Kansas Day is Jan. 29.  We will be learning about the symbols the next two weeks beginning tomorrow!  If you think about it, ask your child each day what Kansas symbols we learned about that day.

"Kindness Act assignment" and "Where I Was Born" sheet.--Please return these asap.  We will be sharing both of these soon!  Thank you!

Valentine's Box--A note will be coming home on Friday about making a Valentine's Day box at home to bring in as a mailbox for valentines from our friends.

Coming up!

Feb. 5.       Long a Spelling Test

Feb. 12.     Bring Valentines and decorated mailbox to drop valentines in (see note)

Feb. 15.      No School-President's Day

Feb. 19.      Long i spelling test

Feb. 24       1/2 day school--Parent/Teacher conferences 

Feb. 25.      No School--P/T Conferences

Feb. 26       No School

The week of Jan. 11-15

 This week is our Fairy Tale Unit.  We are learning about the story elements of a Fairy Tale.

1.  Magical or Enchanted

2.  There is Royalty included in most- Prince and Princess

3.  Problems or events happen in threes!

4. Often begin with "Once Upon a Time"

5. The ending is often a happily ever after 

5.  The good wins over bad

6.  Enchanted castle, forest, or kingdom

7.  Fantasy/Make believe

Some of the fairy tales we are reading are:  The Princess and the Pea, The Elves and the Shoemaker, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  

We will be doing a project for our Engineering Design standard.  The kids will get to design a bed and build it with objects given to them after reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

We will be doing several retelling, compare/contrast, and other activities about fairy tales.

Also this week, we are focusing on nouns.  We will learn about common and proper nouns, look for nouns in our classroom, and take pictures of nouns on our iPads.  The kids have been learning that a noun is a person, place or thing.  I am also adding "animals" to the definition.  So, Person, Place, Thing, or Animal.  

It's a busy week with both Fairy Tales and Nouns!

Our sight words are:  an, how, have

Math this week is finishing up our Chapter Four over addition and subtraction to 20.  This is definitely a tough Chapter.  The kids are learning many strategies to help them learn how to solve the problems they haven't memorized.  

I will be testing 2nd quarter sight words tomorrow!  Please review if your child hasn't passed them yet.  

Friday is a half day with dismissal at 12:10.  

Coming up!

Jan. 15--1/2 day school--Dismiss at 12:10

Jan. 18--No School-MLK Holiday

Jan. 19--No School--Professional Development for teachers, grade cards in Skyward

Jan. 20--3rd quarter begins

The week of Jan. 5-8

 We had a great day back together!  Everyone had plenty to share about their vacation!  After the kids wrote about 4 fun things about their break, we wadded up our paper and had a good ole snowball fight!  It was so fun!!

Your kids are becoming great writers!  Check out their fun details on their wrinkled paper!

There is no spelling the next two weeks.  We will start spelling lists again on Jan. 20.  So, it's a great time to work on reviewing the first 50 sight words!  I attached the lists to this email for your reference!  Maybe you still have the checksheet I sent home that lets you know which words your child needs to work on.  If you haven't received 2nd quarter checksheet, your child needs to learn a few words on the 1st quarter list yet.  Please keep these lists handy and visible so they are not forgotten about.  Thank you for all of you do at home to help your child!  We are only a few weeks from 3rd quarter words 51-75!  I appreciate your help working on these at home too!  

Reading skills this week--We are reviewing the consonant digraphs this week--th (voiced-this, unvoiced-thin), sh, ch, wh.

No reading groups--I am back at Fastbridge testing for math now, so I will not be able to fit in our small reading groups and no books will be coming home.  However, if your child hasn't read the 5-6 books in the baggie I sent home before Christmas, please have them read those 2-3 times each until they are fluent reading them and can read them without help.  This is great practice on their level!  Those that sent back their bag, I will try to refill it this week with more books.  Please let me know if the books your child receives are too easy or too hard and I will make sure to give books that work better for them.

Math facts--Continue working on the doubles addition facts to 20 for the answer. (10 + 10).  I will work in testing the kids.  If your child knows all of the doubles, practice the rest of the facts up to 20, such as all of the 5 plus', 6 plus', etc.  When he/she knows them well, move on to learning subtraction facts to 20.  

Along with working more on subtraction in our math book, we have been focusing on place value with tens and one.  I feel like the class has a much better concept of place value now!

This week we are writing our New Year's Resolution for school or home.  Also, snow came at a great time for reading "The Mitten" and  "The Hat" books written and illustrated by Jan Brett.  We will learn about story elements such as the characters, setting, problem, solution and sequencing the stories.  Then, we will compare the two.

Tip of the week!

Please keep reading every evening with your child, even if it's only 10 min.  The hardest part about beginning readers is to be patient when they are sounding out words.  Always let them sound them out on their own using the body walk or arm walk if needed especially cvc words like "cat".  Making sure to let your child sound out the decodable words (not sight words that are hard to sound out), helps them know that you know that they can do it! The student will tend to give up on themselves if not given the opportunity to sound out words on their own. 

Coming up!

Jan. 15--1/2 day school--Dismiss at 12:10

Jan. 18--No School-MLK Holiday

Jan. 19--No School--Professional Development for teachers, grade cards in Skyward

Jan. 20--3rd quarter begins