The New Year is off to a Great Start!

It  is great to get back into the swing of things after a nice break.  I hope everyone enjoyed the time with family and friends.   Thank you to everyone for the generous class gift!  I have already used the bags on my recent trip to Disney!

We have had our first snow of the season and the kids are excited!  Please remember to send snow clothes in.  If a student does not have boots they will be able to play on the hard top only.


Writing Workshop

We started a new unit in writing this week.  We are writing non fiction books.  Your children are now the experts on topics and are writing to share what they know on a topic.  These kiddos have lots they know about, animals, soccer, basketball, football,...and so much more!  They are shifting gears to using a different voice in their writing now.

Math

We continue to work with math problems of addition and subtraction but now we are comparing equations and deciding if equations are true or false.  Given an equation such at 5=11-6 students need to decide if this is a true or false equation.  We also talk about the equals sign meaning "the same as".  We used a balance to show the equations and this really helped for the kids to she that both sides of an equation need to be the same in order to be true.  We are moving on the having equations with missing parts and having to make the equation true.  For example the equation 2+5=6+___.  Students need to decide what number goes in the missing space to make this a true equation.  This really gets them thinking about numbers and working flexibly!  We learn these concepts and we get to play math games to practice them!

Fundations

In our phonics lessons we have introduced some glued sounds.  The students are working with the sounds -ung, -ong, -ing, -ang.  We are building words using these glues sounds and understanding that these sounds are one.  We also continue to add sight words to our word wall.  It is great to be practicing these words with your children at home.

Reading Workshop

We have been working on retelling our stories after we read.  As good readers we need to ask ourselves questions while we read so that we know the important parts of the story.  We read stories together and talk about the setting, characters, and main events that take place. Everyone has "just right" books in their book boxes that they read on their own.   It is so great to see the progress everyone is making by reading so much!