Nov. 1- 12

Thank you, parents, for attending the Parent-Teacher Conferences these past two weeks!  I hope you found yours to be informative and helpful.  In response to our conversations, I have sent home a small packet of resources to help support your child at home.

Language Arts:
Last week we focused on the letter "t" and sight word "I."  We finished up the Jolly Phonics sounds, brought our orange books home to practice, but kept sound book 7 at school for extra practice.  We read some fun books centering around T and created books and art projects in response.  We read a fact book and then wrote about turtles.
This week we focused on the letter "c" and sight word "can."  Thanks to all of the students who sent in cans for our food drive!  We read come books that had a C theme and recognized that C has a hard and soft sound.   
We launched Writer's Workshop, a most anticipated part of the day.  We discussed why we write, who we know that are writers, what Writer's Workshop looks, sounds and feels like, and began "making" things on Friday!  Some of us brought home a sample but others wanted to keep work at school to complete.  We will keep a lot of what we make at school for sharing with classmates or conferencing with me.

Math:
We played a Tricky Teens games.  It is important for the students to see the teens as they count.  This visual support will help them recognize these numbers that don't follow a normal number pattern.  We drew pictures on slates representing simple number stories.  We continue to make number books and will be focusing on the correct way to form our numbers.  We created a symmetry picture and practiced patterns in our morning math boxes.

Social Studies:
We discussed the importance of showing respect for substitute teachers in the same way we show respect for our regular teachers.  We need to understand that substitute teachers may do some things differently than our classroom teacher.  We can be helpful to the substitute teacher if he or she asks for help.

Science:
Next week we will discuss nutrition and food groups.  Please look at the green note from you child's folder.  We will try our best to bring in snack items from each food group.  I understand that your child may not consistently participate if he/she has allergies, aversions or follows a religious regimen.

Notes:
How lucky we have been with the beautiful weather!  As cold weather draws near, please practice skills of independence:  zipping, buttoning, putting on snowpants and boots.  Please also label outerwear...they all can look similar and can be easily misplaced.  Remember that we have no school Wed., Nov. 24- Fri., Nov. 26.
A belated thank you to Mrs. Jagshi, Mrs.Yampati, and Mrs. Nosek for planning a wonderful fall party!