September Newsletter
Mrs. Halderman’s Class
News
It’s going to be a fantastic year!
I am having such a great time getting
to know your child, and I am so
excited to have your child in my
classroom this year! I will be
emailing our monthly class newsletter to
you each month. It will also be
available for you on our class
website.
Investigating Soils
We are going to begin our science unit of study on soils! Key
points for students to understand:
 Observe and describe physical and chemical properties of
earth materials i.e., rocks, soils, water, gases of the
atmosphere.
Soil may contain animals, plants, and their remains.
Over time, dead plants become part of soil.
 Sand, clay, and humus are three of the basic components in
soil.
 Every soil component has unique properties that can be
identified using simple tests.
Skills developed by students:
 Observing, recording, and organizing test results. Developing
enthusiasm for investigating soil.
Marvelous Math
The children have been excited about
Everyday Math and using the Smart Board!
We will be working on telling time, counting
money (coins and bills), number sequencing,
and addition/subtraction timed math tests.
Flash cards are a great way to help your child memorize their math facts.
Thanks for your help!
Tribes Community of Learners
The strategies and concepts of TRIBES will be employed in our
classroom and school. The mission of TRIBES is “to assure the
healthy development of every child so that each has the knowledge,
skills, and resiliency to be successful in a rapidly changing world”.
The goal for a TRIBES school is “to engage all teachers,
administrators, students, and families in working together as a
learning community that is dedicated to caring and support, active
participation, and positive expectations for all.”
We know that children’s learning and development are influenced
by the key systems of their lives- family, school, friends, and
community. It will be one of my goals to bring you, the parents,
along with us in this process.
The power of being included and valued by peers motivates students to active participation in
their own learning. –Tribes
Writer’s Workshop
The students are busy writing stories every day as they are learning
to use the writing process and develop their creative writing skills.
One of the writing pieces will be, what makes a good friend. We
have been reading books that talk about best friends and being a
good friend.
Reading, Phonics, Comprehension, & Language
Arts
We have been learning and practicing our procedures for Reader’s Workshop
(The Daily 4). Students are building their “stamina” and becoming
independent readers-reading silently for increased periods of time. They are
also practicing fluency during partner reading time. We will continue these skills
and introduce the remaining rotations- word work, independent writing, and
guided reading. I will be using this time to work with small reading groups-helping
them improve their reading/thinking skills. I will be also giving them suggestions
on how to improve their accuracy, pace, smoothness, and phrasing in their
reading.
The students are learning/reviewing their vowel sounds, consonant clusters,
digraphs, and blends. Using these phonetic abilities, decoding and sounding
out words when reading, will improve your child’s independent reading abilities.
The students will be using a dictionary to determine the meaning and
pronunciation of unknown words.
They are being exposed to a variety of text and literature to expand their
vocabulary in language and writing.
We will continue working on writing complete sentences, and using capitalization
and end punctuation correctly. Using commas was recently introduced and we
will continue working on using them correctly in sentences.
Social Studies
We will be learning about communities in Social Studies. Some of our vocabulary
words include: law, government, community, and citizenship.
The students are learning about geography using map skills, reading map keys and
learning the 7 continents, oceans, North America, United States, and a compass
(north, south, east, west).
Technology
We will be visiting the computer lab once a
week. The students will be working on
assessments, educational games, writing class
stories, practicing keyboard functions.
Reminders
Remember to use our class website to find information on student of the week, differentiated
homework, FAQs, announcements, etc. (jenksps.org) Thanks! 
Janet Halderman