March 7, 2010

It was wonderful meeting with you all during our conference week.  Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to meet again.  That was our last formal conference but I'm always available to meet again. 

Music:  National “Music In Our Schools Month” is March!  Our informance will be on Tuesday, March 22, 1:20-2:40.  I hope you can come and watch your child.  See you in the music room!

In Reading Workshop: 
Phonics Skill:

Long vowel pattern: ea example: mean

Inflected Endings: We will learn about base words that have a difference spelling chance before an ending is added.  This week’s base words will end in y.  Happy à happier, happiest

White Board work words: beast, meat, bead, neat, mean, sleepiest, worried, spied, muddier, cries

High Frequency Words: colors, draw, drew, great, over, show, sign

Amazing Words: create, doodle, imagination, carve, hobby, inspiration, masterpiece, sculptor

Fluency:  Read with expression.   Quotation marks show that someone is talking.  You should read the words within the quotation marks the way the character would say them.

Comprehension: 

Graphic Organizers:  After reading, children can fill in a story map.  This will help them remember what happens at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a story. 

Theme: Every story has one big idea.  Good readers use things that have happened to them in their own lives to help them understand the big idea of a story.

In Writing Workshop we will:

-    Look at our old writing from October.

-    We will make two piles.  One will be easy to read writing and the other will be hard to read writing.

-    Make a class chart on what makes writing easy to read.

-    Learn about revision tools such as; pens, paper, and tape.

-    Learn how to add words to our writing using carats and paper flaps.

-    Learn how to take away parts of a story.

In Math we will learn how to:

7.1

      -Identify and describe plane shapes.

      -Sort plane shapes by size, shape, and color.

7.2

      -Solve addition problems.

      -Create designs using plane shapes.

      -Identify and apply rules to extend patterns.

      -Identify rules by which plane shapes are sorted.

7.3

      -Count the sides and corners on plane shapes.

      -Identify and describe plane shapes.

      -Compare plane shapes.

7.4

      -Count the number of sides and corners on plane       shapes.

      -Model polygons.

      -Identify sides and corners on polygons.

      - Compare and contrast polygon models.

Things to work on at home:   
-Fact Triangles
-Reading every night 10-30 minutes
-Counting money (Q,D,N and P)  Cents notation and dollar notation
-Time (analog and digital)  I've seen some kids with new watches.  What a great way to have them practice time!


Science: For the next three weeks we will be studying matter.  This week kids will investigate the properties of a solid. Next week we will study liquids.  We have made a wonderful word bank including the words flexible and rigid.