August 31, 2012
Dear Parents,
I enjoyed seeing many of you at last Night’s Curriculum Night. I f you
were unable to attend, papers from that evening will be coming home in your
child’s envelope. I will review my policies in upcoming newsletters, as well. If
you have not selected a fall conference date and time, I will be contacting
you by phone.
This week in reading, the children listened to different versions of
Cinderella. The class now knows that fairy tales are fiction stories that
include magic and characters with kind or cruel qualities. We had fun
reviewing the elements of fiction stories while comparing the stories
characters, settings and plots. We practiced building our independent
reading stamina. The class can read independently for fifteen minutes. You
can reinforce this independence at home by expecting your child to find a
quiet spot and “good fit” books that they can read without interruption. Your
child will complete a benchmark test on their rate of reading next week.
This information will help to determine students who may need additional
reading assistance. Next week we will also begin reading in our basal series.
Our first story is The Mixed-Up Chameleon. The children will apply the
comprehension strategies of retelling and summarizing, as well as find the
main idea and details in the story. We will review the id/ide pattern as we
work on decoding words.
Our first spelling lesson will begin next week and the pattern is –id and ide. The weekly lessons are related to our reading series. The children will
take a pretest on Mondays (Tuesday next week). This test will determine if
your child will practice the weekly list, a modified list, or a challenge list. A
final spelling test will then be given on Friday.
This week in writing we wrapped up paragraphs about ourselves. Next
week, the children will work with nouns and verbs. We will go on a noun hunt
and play action verb charades. We will then use our knowledge of nouns and
verbs to talk about subjects and predicates as we work on writing longer,
complex sentences before returning to paragraph writing.
We continue to talk about our feelings in health. The children reviewed
how to manage our feelings, especially stress. We know that as we become
older, we are responsible for our actions and how they affect ourselves and
others.
This week in math, the class continued working with the 0-10 addition and
facts. We talked about the strategies that help us solve the facts as we
work toward memorizing the facts. We learned two math games to help us
practice our facts (Addition War and Make Ten) and had fun singing the
“Doubles” song. The children completed an addition timed test on the facts
0-10. The 0-10 facts should have been memorized in first grade. Please help
your child practice their facts nightly if they have not met their goal. Next
week we will begin our small math groups. These groups will meet M-W-F
from 3:05-3:25.
Finally, your child is welcome to bring a closable water bottle to school as
well as a daily snack. Please talk with your child about the type and amount
of snack you are sending. I have a limited amount of snacks in the classroom
for students who are unable to bring snacks from home. Also, a light sweater
or sweatshirt may be advisable as our classroom can get chilly. If you have
not yet sent in $8.00 dollars for the classroom supplies I purchased for your
child, please do so at your convenience. Enjoy a long, safe Labor Day
weekend. I will see the students on Tuesday, September 4th.
Sincerely,
Ms. Mielke
P.S. I hope to be posting my newsletters electronically next Friday.