Room 404 Stars
October 23, 2015
Curriculum Updates
Reading: We are so excited with the
progress the students are making in
reading! The guided reading groups are
going wonderfully and the students are
being given rich reading experiences in
their small groups. Please be aware, that
many aspects of reading are covered in
our guided reading groups. We work on
decoding as well as phonics, encoding
(writing), comprehension skills, fluency,
self-monitoring, vocabulary and more.
We do not introduce a new book every
day as there is much more to do with a
story than what can be accomplished in one
day! Rereading familiar books is a great
way to practice fluency, so encourage your
child to read with expression, attend to
punctuation, as well as the rate and flow of
their reading when they have a book they
already know. These things are important
too!
The reading incentive for October will end
on October 30th. Keep those tickets
coming! The November incentive will begin
on November 1 and will be shorter due to
Thanksgiving. Students will need to be
extra diligent to get their 20 tickets in
before we go home for the Thanksgiving
holiday.
Language Arts: We continue to practice
the proper application of punctuation in
telling sentences, exclamatory sentences,
and with questions. The students have
begun to write a Halloween story. We are
introducing the process of writing. These
include: Prewrite, Write, Revise, Edit, and
Publish.
Math:
We have been working on our unit in
measurement with non-standard tools.
We discussed the importance of leaving
no gaps when measuring. We will be
starting Module 11 on Monday. In this unit
we will be involved in data collection and
graphing our results. Please continue to
practice addition and subtraction skills at
home.
Science: We are continuing our study of
Matter. Students are really enjoying being
scientists and observing and inferring their
surroundings. We will be discussing and
exploring the properties of liquids, solids,
and gases next. Please review the
vocabulary words associated with this unit:
solids, liquids, gas, matter, and properties.
Social Hour
The past several weeks the class has been
focusing on expected behaviors in the
classroom and being responsible! More
specifically, we took some time to really
understand what it means to listen with your
whole body! How do you listen with your
whole body?? Listening Larry taught us
you need to listen with your:
Eyes: Look at the person who is talking to
you.
Room 404 Stars
October 23, 2015
Ears: Both ears ready to hear.
Mouth: Quiet, no talking, humming or
making sounds-Voice Level 0!
Hands: Quiet in lap, at side or on your
desk.
Feet: Quiet and still on the floor.
Body: Still and upright, facing the speaker.
Brain: Thinking about what is being said.
Heart: Caring about what the other person
is saying.
Practice whole body listening at home while
you are eating dinner together or sharing
about your day with your child. The more
they practice these skills and hear the
language in all the places they interact,
they will become internalized and just part
of who they are!
General Information
Reading tickets for October are due on
Friday, October 31st. Please remember
the district requirement for outside reading
is 400 minutes per month. We only know
how much they read by your participation
in returning the reading tickets.
Thank you so much for the Scholastic book
orders and for supporting our school book
fair! If you want to submit an order,
please go to this website:
www.scholastic.com/readingclub. Our
classroom activation code is HRY3K. We
earn free books for our classroom with
every order.
We look forward to meeting with you to
discuss your child’s progress in the next few
weeks. We will be sending home notes the
first week in November with your
conference time reminder.
Please send your child’s Halloween costume
to school in a bag next Friday. They will
have plenty of time to change before the
parade and party begins. Please no
weapons or gory masks. Halloween parade
is at 1:15 on the 30st.
Reminders
* October 30 ~ Halloween Party
* November 6th ~ Institute Day
* November 11th ~ Veterans Day
* November 19th ~ Conferences
3:30-7 p.m.
* November 23th ~ Early Release
Conferences 2-7 p.m.
* November 25-27th ~ Thanksgiving
Break
Thank you!
Mrs. Sheri Brizzee
Mrs. Ellen Finer