Welcome to November!

I can't believe it is November already!  October was full of fun and excitement and ended with great Halloween parade and party.  Thank you to the room parents and all the parents that helped make this such a success for the kids.  It was so great to see them in their costumes!  Aside from all the hype leading up to Halloween we were very busy in room 28.  

In writers workshop we have been working on our small moment stories.  We have chosen one of our favorite stories and are working to edit this and put it in our classroom library just like our favorite authors.  We have gone back to add more of the craft moves we have learned to bring our stories to life.  We shared them with our friends who help us to fancy up our stories too.  It amazes me how our writing has improved in such a short time!

We have been talking a lot about predicting when we are reading.  We were detectives and predicted what was in our mystery box.   We read stories together and predicted based on information we knew and then read to see if we were correct.  The best thing about a prediction is that it is ok if you did not guess correctly.  That is what predicting is about.

In math we have started to work on subtraction story problems.  We talked about the vocabulary in a subtraction problem that tells us we will subtract.  It usually means we will end up with less than we started with.  Words such as take or gave and how many were left.  We talked about strategies we use to solve these problems.  Students will draw the amount and cross out the number that we are taking away.  Other strategies we use are starting with the larger number and counting back or using a known equation and relating it to addition. We share all these strategies and children decide which one works best for them.




Upcoming Things to remember:

1.  Conferences are coming up this month.  Thank you for all signing up on my sign up genius.

2.  Please check my blog as I have added a sign up genius for volunteers to come into help in the classroom.

3.  When you visit the blog you can leave your email on the space provided.  This way you will receive an email notice every time I update my blog.  This is a great way to make sure you don't miss any information.


Things you can work on at home:

1.  Please practice high frequency words at home.  Playing games is a great way to practice and have fun.  Games like memory work well.

2. Students all have a Raz kids account and can use this to practice reading at home.  A letter was sent home with login information. The kids use this in the classroom so they are familiar with it.

3.  Practice math facts with flash cards.  Start with all facts that add up to 2,3,4 and 5.  These should be fluent.  If you have to count more than three seconds it is not fluent.  Once you know what is not fluent practice these.  We practice these with games in school and more practice at home is great.