Thank you for getting those parent/teacher conferences forms back to me. You will receive a notice early this week letting you know exactly when I have schedule your child's conference. Please keep in mind that Tuesday, March 12th and Thursday, March 14th are 12:45pm dismissal days (in order to allow teachers to meet with parents for conferences in the afternoons).
Here's what we've been working on in the classroom:
Reading : We continued on in our Nonfiction Unit last week and learned all about how labels, captions, photographs, and comparisons are used to display information in nonfiction texts. We'll learn about other nonfiction conventions this week.
Please note that your child may be bringing home nonfiction books to read that are not at his/her reading level. If you find that your child has brought a book home that is far about his/her reading level, please read it to him/her. However, hold him/her accountable from extracting information/facts from the text you have read and the nonfiction conventions (pictures, labels, comparisons) that you come across.
Read Alouds : Last week we read a few 'Tacky' books by Helen Lester. The students LOVED these books about a penguin that doesn't do things quite like other penguins. It's a great series, and we didn't read them all in school, so it's a great opportunity to pick up the ones we haven't read and read them to your child at home. If you're wondering, in school we read Tacky the Penguin, Tacky and the Emperor, Tackylocks and the Three Bears, and Three Cheers for Tacky. This week we'll read Tacky in Trouble before we move on to something else.
Writing : The students have been doing a great job making their writing 'easy-to-read' during our current writing unit. They have been writing a lot and have developed a lot of writing stamina, meaning that they can write for extended periods of time. They have also become a lot more conscious that they are writing for others to read, which is a big step in the development of a writer.
Please continue holding your child accountable for neat handwriting when he/she is doing his/her homework. Also, when writing sentences, please make sure that he/she includes capital letters and ending punctuation.
Math : We did a lot last week in math! We started off by learning how to use an addition facts table. Then, we learned about name collection boxes and fact families. We'll continue learning about fact families this week. Playing math games are a great way to develop your child's math fact power.
Phonics : We reviewed long vowel spelling patterns last week. The students' encoding and decoding skills have developed steadily since learning these patterns.
Science : We started a new science unit last week - Balance and Motion. We learned about two kinds of force last week, push and pull. We also investigated balance with Mrs. Crawford in the Discovery Lab.
Here are some pictures of 1-Bu in the Discovery Lab last week: