Nov. 28-Dec 2

Dear families,

December already! I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. The students came back eager to share all the fun they had celebrating with family and friends.

This week we read the book On Down the Road.  After reading the story students made text to self connections with the main character. We discussed and wrote about a new character trait: cautious. We learned new a vocabulary word: Dillydally.  The book had a strong beginning, middle and end. We will focus more on re-tellings as we get closer to the middle of the school year because in January, I will be re-assessing all students for reading. Along with determining reading levels, I will be assessing comprehension. To help at home, ask this questions after reading:
Who were the characters?
What was the setting or where the story mostly took place?
What was the problem?
What are the main events (in order)?
How was the problem solved?
What connections can you make to the story?

The reading books that are coming home are familiar and it is best to practice retelling with a familiar story.

In writing, we are working on making our writing readable. We wrote for partners this week. Sharing our writing is important, students loved hearing compliments and one suggestion about their work as they read each others stories. We also re-read our stories to see if anything in our story did not fit. We crossed out parts that were not on topic. We also circled popcorn words in our writing and fixed them up. I gave the students another tool to use for writing, a blends chart.

In math, we have completed unit 3. We have begun a unit 4.  Unit 4 is mostly about measurement. Students will learn to measure using non-standard ways (like a paper clip or pencil). I will also introduce tools for measuring. A family letter for unit 4 will come home Monday.
We had a math assessment for unit 3. I will be sending it home next week. Please go over anything your child needs extra practice on. The most difficult parts for many students was explaining the way they solved problems.

In Social Studies we have been sharing the wonderful family trees! If your child still has not completed this project, please turn it in next week. We will read the book The Goodness Gorillas and The Kindness Quilt. We will talk about ways to be kind  and write on lightbulbs how to "light up the world with kindness."

In Science we are imagining we are engineers. We will build towers with different objects. We will compare our towers and tell how we built them. This is always a fun experiment!

I am beginning to plan for the Holiday party on Dec. 22nd. We will have a pancake breakfast. The party will be at 10:30-12:00.  We hope to have volunteers to make pancakes and help with a craft. We will watch a Holiday movie in the afternoon. Look for more information coming soon. If you are wishing to join us or help out, please eamil me and let meknow. I have parents who are already volunteering, but we can always use more hands!

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Scheck