Week of January 18, 2016
______________‘s
Reading Log & Newsletter
Today I read with…
Comments…
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
Please remember that I dismiss the kids from the back of our classroom instead of
with the other walkers. You can park behind the school and walk across the playground.
Our door is the blue one! Now that the winter weather is here, the kids will be
watching for you and one of them will open the door as you approach.
Thank you for passing this information on to anyone who is picking your child up.
IMPORTANT DATES and REMINDERS:
Reading at home (for even
just a few minutes a day)
can increase a child’s
success in school.
Thank you for getting the
kids’ How To books back to
school! Sharing with Mrs.
Hunt’s class was a big
success!
Please help your child
remember their snow gear
each day.
Newsletters are uploaded
to my website for your
reference.
Wednesday, January 27th
will be an EARLY RELEASE
day.
Week of January 18, 2016
What did we learn last week?
Math: Our focus last week was on subtraction to 20. Students learned to notice both the tens and the ones
when subtracting larger numbers. We used manipulatives, played games and did some practice pages to
increase our understanding of this concept. We also had our AIMSWEB testing this week, which is our district’s
standardized testing for first graders, so if your child mentioned going with a Math teacher, that is why!
Word Study: Our Word Study focused on reinforcing “magic e” and looking at “ea” and “ee” spelling patterns.
The kids quickly saw that all three spelling patterns create a long e sound. We found these spelling patterns in
our Morning Messages, watched a fun youtube video about the concept and began applying our new
knowledge to our reading and writing. Each student got their new personal sort which we will continue to
work with into this week.
Reader’s Workshop: AIMSWEB has a reading component as well, so the kids each worked briefly with a
reading teacher this week. We wrapped up our nonfiction reading unit last week. Our focus was on becoming
“experts at reading aloud”. Students learned that the things we read can evoke emotions which we can express
with our voices and that looking at how a book is organized helps you decide how to use your voice and actions
to communicate the information to your listener. We learned that not only do we need to notice key words, but
we should be able to explain them as well. This is big work, but it is the beginning of using reading as a catalyst
to learning instead of just learning how to read. The kids each choose their favorite nonfiction book and
practiced using all these new skills over the course of the week. On Friday, we drew names to get a mystery
partner and showed off our expert reading skills!
Writer’s Workshop: Monday we veered away from our usual writing to practice responding to reading. I read
aloud Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and we talked about what we thought snowmen would do at
night. The kids then wrote their own thoughts and created a torn paper snowman. Tuesday we dove back into
informational writing with an introduction to “All About” writing. We learned to choose topics that we know a
lot about and to plan our writing before we begin. Students also learned that thinking about the questions our
reader may have can help us find places to add more into our work.
Social Studies/Science: We continued reading the Chickadee Award books to prepare for our vote today in
Library class. Firefighter Josh came for a Fire Safety lesson and brought Red E. Fox along to teach us about
calling 911 in an emergency. We also read three books about Martin Luther King, Jr. and watched a BrainPopJr
video to help us begin to understand who he was and why we have a day off in his honor. The kids had a lot of
insightful questions about this big topic, so you may consider following up with them at home.
We loved having Red E. Fox visit our classroom!