Week 11

Our Halloween Party will be Friday morning from 9:00-10:00.  If you would like to send a treat for your child to share, feel free to do so.  The children may wear costumes but no masks.  Please try to keep them from being too scary.  

Our story this week is called "Try Your Best".  The genre is realistic fiction.  There are lots of new vocabulary words.  They are:

be

good

Mr.

need

our

right

saw

time

try

Since spelling is individualized, use your book or the link on the blog to find the list your child is on.  

Math is getting pretty difficult.  We are going to take a break this week and do lots of work in small groups on money, time, frames-and-arrows, combinations of 10, and skip counting.  Any time you can spend on these things at home will be a real benefit to your child.  Money is really a difficult thing to teach.  If your child can use money at home it would be great.  So far we have used pennies, nickels, and dimes.  

Thank you so much for coming to conferences.  It was good to meet with each of you to discuss the progress of your child.  

We are off to Spook Alley this morning.  I hope it is a good day for our trip.  Have a great week.

Week 10

Last Friday was Pizza Day in Room 136.  We read pizza stories, our favorite being "The Royal Dinner".   I bought pizzas from the cafeteria that we had for an afternoon snack.  It made for a fun day for everyone.

This week's story is called "Where Do Frogs Come From?"  It is a non fiction story about the life cycle of frogs.  The kids really seem to like non fiction stories.  The new vocabulary words are:

eat

from

gone

grows

or

two

Spelling will change this week.  We will start individual spelling.  I expect each child to pass at least one test per week.  Everyone will take Test 1 today.  If they miss only 1 they can move on to the next list.  Each child has a book of lists in their desks to practice from.  Each parent will receive a book of spelling and vocabulary words when he/she comes for conference.  Please keep this book for your reference.  

We got a bit behind in math last week so we will be doing domino math and assessment this week.  It works well since we are having two early release days this week.  We will start a new unit next week.

We also have a new offer for you.  If you have a computer at home, you can subscribe to Education City, a site we use at school, for $4.  This subscription will last until next August.  The regular parent subscription is $75.  I will put games in the homework folder that your child can do at home.  There is more information about this on the attached letter.  We will visit more about this at conferences.

I am also forming a computer club.  This will allow me to make better use of the tax credit money I collect.  Your child can join for $1.00.  You do not need to have a home computer to do this.

I have scheduled a conference time for each of you.  Please call if you have forgotten.

Friday Fun

On Friday we read the book, "Rosie's Walk".  The kids worked on a listening project on the floor.  It was fun to scoot the desks back and have room to spread out.  We made "Chicken Feed" for an afternoon snack.  The recipe is:

2 cups cheerios

1 cup peanuts

1/2 cup craisins

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup M&M's

Week 9

Our story this week is "Space Pup".  He is a super hero type guy.  The sound we will be working on is short u, as in pup.  There are several vocabulary words this week.  They are:

gives

he

night

out

people

says

when

your

Spelling words are:

us

bus

bug

rug

mug

must

with

then

she

use

said

was

In math we will continue working with coins.  We will be counting a combination of dimes, nickels, and pennies.  We will do line plots and domino addition.  We will test the concepts we have covered in this unit.  

Checking In

Be sure to scroll down a bit after Week 8 to see the field trip and the pictures.  It took my daughter a bit to get them all in.  I hope to learn how to do this soon so she doesn't have to do it from Ohio.  I'm not too cute but the kids are darling.  

Week 8

This week our story is "Boots for Beth".  It is about a little pig who outgrows her boots and how her friends try to help her solve her problem.  The sound this week is the voiced and unvoiced /th/.  Vocabulary words are:

could

friends

new

put

she

use

Spelling words are:

then

them

this

that

path

with

men

set

was

said

very

of

In math we will be doing time to the half hour, counting up and back in the frames and arrows format, and trading pennies and nickels for dimes.  

Your child should be able to count by 5's and 10's to 100 and by 2's to at least 20. You might want to do a little check at home. We will be doing vocabulary checks on the words from the book "Guess Who."  I will be sending home a list marked with the words your child does not know.

I will be scheduling conferences for the week of Oct. 20.  Please keep an eye out for that note.  If the time doesn't work for you, please call and we can reschedule. 

Have a great week!

Field Trip

Last Wednesday we headed to Greer to the Butler Canyon Nature Trail.  It is about a mile loop through the forest.  The trail has numbered markers with a pamphlet that discusses each stop.  We saw squirrel middens (squirrel grocery stores), cat faces, witches brooms, and and mistletoe.  The children had a list of things to look for such as:

a needle

a cone

signs that humans had been there

signs that animals had been there

signs that the seasons are changing

a seed

an insect

About half way through the walk we stopped for a snack and some exploration time. After we finished the walk we went to Squirrel Springs for a picnic lunch.  We had a beautiful fall day. . .much better than last spring when we did the walk in the snow. We were so lucky. 

As you look at the pictures you might have your child tell you about the things they are seeing, i.e. witches brooms, mistletoe, etc.  I think they did learn a lot and we had a great day in the outdoors.

Thanks to the parents who went to chaperone!!!  We always need volunteers. You are such a great help.