The students had a great time celebrating Halloween in school last Tuesday. 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 7th, Thursday November 12th, or Friday November 13th.
Here's what we've been working on in the classroom :
Reading : We learned a couple new print strategies last week. These are strategies that help readers decode tricky words. We learned about 'Stretchy Snake,' who goes sound-by-sound through a tricky word to try and sound it out. This is the strategy most adults are familiar using. We also learned about 'Chunky Monkey,' who says that one way you can figure out a tricky word is by looking for smaller 'chunks' you might know inside the big word. Ask your child which animal strategy works best for him/her!
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.
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. This week, we'll start unit 3, which is heavily focused on addition and subtraction.
Computers : After focusing on trackpad skills for a few weeks, last week, we turned our focus to word processing. The students learned about how to highlight text and change its font, size, and color.
Science : Last week, we focused on the stars in the night sky. We talked about what stars are, the patterns that people make with them, and how they appear to move.
Here are some pictures of the students last week: