Monday, September 18, 2015
What’s Happening in
Room 164?
Dear Parents,We have been together now for 23 days! I am really getting to know your child now. What their interests are, what their strengths are, and what they would like to do better at. Thank you for being patient while we established a safe, caring, and engaging classroom environment. I feel as though there have been many notes, newsletters, reminders, etc. thrown at you this first month. I hope you don’t mind that I am only sending out a bi-weekly newsletter. In the near future, I would like to just send a link to our webpage to serve as a newsletter. Please let me know if you would rather me send a hard copy home. As a mom with three children in school myself, I appreciate the “less is more” approach!
READING:
We have each made our own personal reading goals that we will be focusing on. This week, we will begin our reading groups. Look for 2 books to come home with your child. One will be a familiar book that we worked on in reading group, another will be a “just-right” book of their choice. Please have your child read these. They can even reread them to work on their fluency. This reading counts towards their 20 minutes of nightly reading. They should always return these to the plastic insert (if they fit) in their green folder. Thank you! Happy reading!
WORD STUDY:
We have begun our word study program. If you ever have questions about what your child’s words are, please look at my webpage. I will try and update these every Monday. Throughout the week, we work on these patterns. Please refer to the Word Study homework sheet on the agenda pocket.
Check out the link on my webpage for spelling city! Look for Mrs. Gross’ class. This is a great way to get extra practice in spelling.
WRITING:
Students are working on writing a personal narrative about a small moment in their life. We are going through the writing process. We are also reading rich literature to learn how some of our favorite authors use descriptive details to “show-not-tell”. My goal is to have these in their final stages to share at parent/teacher conferences.
MATH:
This week, we began to have some choice in what we work on in math. Throughout the week, your child will have the opportunity to engage in on-line math games, read about math, write about math, and play games that reinforce or review math concepts. As we gain more independence in this workshop, I have begun pulling small groups to work on more specific concepts that they need to continue to grow!
Please try to get on xtra math at home. Fact fluency is always a skill students need to be successful in math. This is a fun, quick way to reinforce this.
SOCIAL STUDIES: We are discussing communities and what it means to be a good citizen!
HOMEWORK: It is probably evident that I do not assign much (and not any yet) paper/pencil homework. I assure you that your child has worked very hard during the day doing this type of work. I want them to relax and have fun when extending their learning into the home. My hope is that each child reads for about 20 minutes each evening. I hope that word study (whether with the word cards in a bag or spelling city) takes only 5-10 minutes. On occasion, I will send home a math page to review what was learned, or what needs more practice. As the year progresses we may get a bit more to prepare them for third grade. But, in the meantime, xtramath is a great place to start. Thanks! Mrs. Gross
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