This Thursday is Visitation Day. (This is a day where adult family members are invited to observe a small portion of our 'regular' school day.) I will be sending out an email on Monday evening with more specific information in regards to 1-Bu's schedule that day.
Reading : This week, we will spend more time going over ways that readers 'get their minds ready' for a book. We ended up spending a couple of days last week fixing up some small reading workshop management issues (like who gets to sit in the comfy chairs during independent reading time), but now we're back on track.
Phonics : In phonics last week, we began exploring syllables (or parts of words). The students loved clapping syllables in words. Try it at home. Give your child a word, and tell him/her to clap the parts/syllables. This week, we'll learn our first sight words and add them to our word wall.
Writing : Well, we didn't get to publish last Friday like I had hoped, but that's okay, because we'll be doing it on Monday! The students have worked very hard on their published pieces and are very proud of them. Our next writing unit is about 'small moments.' The students will learn how to focus their writing to be about small moments in time. (I'll get into it more next week, once we've got the unit up and running.)
At some point this week, the students will clear out their writing folders in order to get ready for our new writing unit. These old writing pieces will be coming home. Please be aware that they will be completely unedited, unrevised, and may be half-completed.
Math : Telling time has gone very well so far. In future math lessons, we'll build upon the students' knowledge of time. This week, our main focus will be the penny and the nickel.
Please practice skip counting with your child at home. Being able to effortlessly count by 2s, 5s, and 10s will be a tremendous help throughout the school year.
Science : The students LOVED our mini-spider unit. They were very interested in finding out the various animals that different kinds of spiders ate. Did you know that some spiders eat small fish and birds? On Monday, we'll wrap up our spider unit and move our focus over to social studies for a little bit. (We tend to cycle between science and social studies units.)
Social Studies : We'll start our first social studies unit this week. First, we'll become familiar with the 'atlas' that we'll be using this year, and then we'll learn a little bit about maps and how to identify different places. (We'll be looking at town maps for now, not quite city and country maps just yet!)
Misc. Notes : Please keep your child's snack limited to one item. We only have about five minutes for the students to eat their snack, so large snacks tend to go to waste. Thank you!
Have a great week, and I hope I see you on Thursday!