February 19 Newsletter

Hello Families!

I hope you are all enjoying your 4-day weekend. We are getting to see both of best worlds with sunny and warm and then the cold and snowy. Over this great weekend, I have been checking on my new home being built up in Stapleton. The process is so fast! Also, we are deciding on a honeymoon location. Finding the perfect house was easier than a honeymoon selection! Wasn't expecting that!

Let’s talk about our wonderful class! We have a few announcements and updates to share.

Reading: In Reading, we have started to fully immerse ourselves in chapter books. Students are having the opportunity to pick 3 chapter books and focus on those three for a few days at a time. Throughout this process, students are focusing on re-reading for understanding, reading a just-right pace, imagining the character’s voice and emotion, reading like the author wants us to and identifying dialogue tags. I model this for students everyday with mentor texts. I have students who are usually timid and quiet as a mouse raising their hands to share their examples of “yelled” “shouted” “pleaded” and “giggled.” The students are getting into it! I hope you see this at home and can always ask your kids to show you all of the important strategies we have been practicing. If you ever forget what these are, go onto our ClassDojo app and watch Bristol and Joe teach you about them!

Writing: We are in the thick of things with Opinion Writing. When you come in for parent teacher conferences, you are going to receive your child’s graded Informational Writing final product – the expert book. Students have been learning what is a fact versus what is an opinion. What words do we hear and use when we express an opinion. If we express our opinion, how do we provide evidence so others believe or are persuaded by our opinion? We are going to be reading five fun books that ask the students if they had any animal nose, teeth, feet, hair, ears – which would they want and why? Should be a good time!

Math: In Math, we are starting to focus on currency, story problems with money and three digit addition and subtraction. Everyone’s favorite algorithm for subtracting is making its appearance finally!! By the end of this unit, students will have a better understanding of three-digit place value, three-digit addition and subtraction, currency, and multi-step story problems. Please expect math homework to be 2 – 3 times a week for the next few weeks.

Science: Students have started their study of Weather. Every week we are going to be studying a different weather pattern. This past week was clouds. This week we are going to be wrapping up our study of clouds and actually create our own cloud using soap and a microwave!

ClassDojo: Class Dojo is still an important app to keep track of daily. Students will still be coming home with their daily points. Please make sure you check this and sign off on their calendar. I have moved the Monster Marketplace to every other week because I did not seem to be able to have time for it every Friday. This upcoming Friday will have an exciting Monster Marketplace for the kids.