The students had a great time celebrating Halloween in school on Thursday. They went to the Boo Bash in the morning and did lots of fun crafts and played fun games. Thank you so much to the parent volunteers who helped it go so smoothly. The parade was a hit for the students in the afternoon as well.
This week is a short week of school! Please remember that there is no school on Tuesday November 5th, Thursday November 7th, or Friday November 8th.
Here's what we've been working on in the classroom :
Reading : Now that we've got more reading stamina, and knowledge, under our belts, we went back to focusing on our partner reading last week. The students learned that if they should give book introductions to their partners if they are familiar with the book they are reading. They also spent a couple of days learning how to be great coaches when their partners get stuck on tricky words. Now that the students know some great decoding strategies, they have learned how to give reminders to their partners. They're doing great jobs!
Writing : The students are doing a great job with their Small Moment writing pieces. Last week, we went over the writing process to help students organize their ways successful writing pieces. We said that first, writers come up with an idea. Then, they stretch the story out across their fingers. After that, they get paper. Next, they sketch the pictures and write the words. Finally, they go back and re-read their pieces to make sure they make sense and are easy to read.
Phonics : We wrapped started unit 4 this week, which is all about bonus letters and glued sounds. Last week the students learned the three main bonus letters - f, l, and s. Ask your child about them! (If a word ends in f, l, or s and it's after a short vowel, you add a bonus letter. For example, cuff, fill, moss)
Math : We finished up the end of unit 2 by learning about using number models to represent number stories and how to solve for the unknown. The next unit, unit 3, is heavily focused on addition and subtraction.
Science : The students created their own constellations and wrote stories, like ancient cultures did, about how their constellations ended up in the sky.
Social Studies : We reviewed wants vs. needs. Needs are things that we must have in order to survive, whereas wants are things that we don't have to have in order to survive.
Here are some pictures from Halloween :