March 5th-9th

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

New homework policy has started!  Please remember to send your child's homework back in the boomerang folder every Monday!  They will earn points every time they practice their goals.  Also, DOING your homework is not a choice, rather you get to choose HOW your practice at home.

Conferences are coming up soon!  Be on the lookout for a sign-up sheet in the totes this Thursday!  Conferences will be on March 20th, 21st, and 22nd.  

This week in...

Phonics:  We are working with the variant vowel <o> (short o) sound with the letter pairs "au" and "aw".  The words we are working with are:  pause, draw, launch, law, fault, jaw, fawn, hawk, raw, and crawl.  We have sorted the words and we will practice building and blending more words later this week.

Vocabulary:  Our new vocabulary words are:  noble, promised, gleamed, wiggled, beloved, and glanced.  We will learn what these words mean, how to use them in a sentence, and also build connections to the words so that we are more likely to remember and use them.  Vocabulary days are always fun because we get to work with our elbow buddies and share our ideas with our teammates!  We'll listen to the words in a story called My Home in Alaska.

Comprehension:  Our strategy of the week is adjusting our reading rate.  This means that sometimes, we need to slow down while we read so that we can better understand what we are reading.  By slowing down, students can identify and figure out difficult words or sections in the story.  We will also be practicing the skill of making inferences.  Inferences are when you make decisions about the story based on clues that the author gives you or things you already know.  We'll be reading a story called Nutik, the Wolf Pup  by Jean Craighead George to help us practice.

Grammar:  This week we will be focusing on contractions such as isn't, aren't, can't, doesn't, don't, and didn't.  We will talk about how a contraction is a short form of two words and how we use an apostrophe to take the place of the letters that are left out of the contraction.  We will be doing some practice sentences together and then students will have some time to practice on their own.

Writing:  We have begun a very fun writing project called Sideways Stories from Room 10 by Team Blowey.  Each student will get to be the star of the chapter that they are writing.  We already have ideas about silly things that could be in the story such as students turning  into pickles, talking feet, and falling asleep and then falling out of a window!  The students have brainstormed their ideas and now they are beginning to sketch out the ideas that they have while at the same time making quick notes.  These will be used for the students to create their rough drafts.

Math:  Today, we unpacked our new standard:  I can solve word problems with numbers within 100 using tools.  Basically this means that students will be practicing adding and subtracting numbers using a number line, hundreds chart, and drawings.  In order to move on to the next standard, students must show me that they can solve a word problem using all three strategies.  Throughout the week, we will be doing practice problems together and then we will have time for students to use their menus to help them reach their individual goal. 

Social Science:  March is Disability Awareness month.  In your totes, you received some information about the upcoming hop-a-thon.  In order to coordinate with this event, we will be doing some physical challenge awareness lessons throughout the month.  For example, students might be challenged to color a picture using the opposite hand that he/she writes with.  This can help students become aware that some children might have little or no control over their muscles in their arms, hands, and fingers.