October 15-18

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Time requests for Parent/Teacher/Student conferences went home last Thursday!  Please remember to send them back to school as soon as possible!  Conferences are set up on a first come, first serve basis!  If I do not get a time request from you, I will assign you a day and time.  

Homework packets are due this Thursday!  Please remind your child to put it back in their folder so they can get their Free Choice Friday!

On October 31st, we will be celebrating the harvest season in true Team Blowey style!  We will be celebrating with some fun fall-themed games!  We'll need your help to make this event happen so I will be sending home a sign-up sheet this week with the items we will need.  If you are willing and able to send in any of the items, just send the bottom part of the sheet back to school with your child indicating what it is that you would like to contribute.  

A reminder about spelling:

If you were able to come to the Parent Night last week, you heard me mention that students are not only asked to spell their words correctly, but also to be able to use them in a sentence correctly.  We have had lots of students get 100% on the spelling part of their test, but are unable to use their words correctly in a sentence.  My suggestion would be to help them put this into practice while they are practicing their spelling words at home.  I've been noticing a lot of trouble around words like an (many of us try to use it in a sentence where "and" really belongs), your, there, and their.   This can be quite a challenge but I know that if we work like a team (parent, student, and teacher)  Team Blowey will surely succeed!

Calling all mystery readers!  We have only had a few people sign up and we're looking for more!  Generally I ask mystery readers to come on Wednesdays from 11:50-12:15.  If you would like to come in and be a mystery reader but that day and time doesn't work for you, let me know!  I'll do my best to make some accommodations!

Practicing on IXL!  The second grade teachers did some more exploring on IXL and realized that the geometry activities under first grade actually meet our second grade geometry standard better!  So here are the areas students can practice on IXL that truly match our learning focus:

First Grade:  K.1-8
Second Grade:  T.1-3

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We are working with the long and short /o/ sound.  Here are our focus works:  rope, rose, poke, cone, hope, box, fox, dog, lock, pot.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  settled, wrinkled, practiced, cuddle, favorite, and patient.

Comprehension:  This week, we will be focusing on making and confirming predictions while we read.  When we make a prediction, we are making a reasonable guess as to what will happen next in the story.  We do this by looking at the pictures, thinking about what we already know, and thinking about the text from the story.  When we are confirming a prediction, we are reading on to find out whether our prediction was correct.  We'll practice this skill while we read My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits.

Grammar:  This week we'll be working on combining sentences.  So far we have learned about the subject of a sentence (who or what the sentence is about) and the predicate of a sentence (the part of the sentence that tells more about the subject).  If two sentences have the same subject, or they have the same predicate, we can combine them!  For example, if we had two sentences such as:  

Nina came from Mexico.  Marcos came from Mexico.

We could combine them using the word "and".  Our new sentence might say:

Nina and Marcos came from Mexico.

Writing:  Last week, I modeled how to take our brainstorming about our personal narrative and put it into a rough draft.  We made sure we used excellent word choice to not only paint a picture in our reader's mind but also to make them know what we were feeling!  This week, Team Blowey will be working to make their rough draft of their personal narrative story.  

Math:  We are still on our geometry adventure!  Last week, our whole group lessons focused mostly on identifying and naming shapes using their specific attributes (such as sides and angles).  We also did a lot of work to make sure we knew what a side (a line that makes up the shape) was and what an angle (where two lines come together) was.  This week, we will be delving more into the world of 3D shapes!  Students will be exposed to many different kinds of 3D shapes.  We'll be working on identifying vertices, faces, and edges as well as being able to draw 3D shapes.  This can be fun but it can also be quite a challenge!

Social Studies:  Since yesterday was Columbus Day, we talked about how Christopher Columbus was a famous explorer.  We made a connection with him in a writing prompt when we were asked to think like explorers!  Team Blowey wrote about where they would like to explore the most and why.  As a team, I think we wanted to explore the whole world!

Scholastic News:  Our Scholastic News issue will focus on Columbus as well.  we'll read about how he used to keep a diary and what he used to write about.  Then, we'll use a diagram of the Santa Maria to answer some key questions.  

Science:  I just found a new game that will help reinforce the needs of a plant!  We'll be playing that together this week.  Basically, Team Blowey will become plants.  Then, they will have to find the resources they will need to survive:  water, sunlight, air, and soil (little pieces of paper).  

Read Aloud:  We are almost finished with the wonderful story of Charlotte's Web!  Soon, we'll be diving in the book called Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith.  A perfect read aloud for the sugar-induced coma that tends to hit many of us around the month of October!