Hello Families,
The 100th day was a huge success; look at the bottom of the newsletter for pictures. We counted to 100 many times, I hid 100 candies throughout the room, and we found most of them, and we went to Ms. Spontelli’s class and Ms. Carter’s class for some exercise and 100-day building. In our class, we made gumball machines.
Valentines Day Party
It is from 1:30-2:20 on Tuesday. After the party, students will get ready to go home and then go to Music and PE (from 2:40-3:40). You may take your child home after the party; I will have a sign-out sheet in the classroom.
We did not get to pass out the Valentine’s on Friday; we ran out of time. So we are making the bags and passing them out on Monday. I make the Valentine’s due early because many families forget to send them in, and then by Valentine’s Day, students can bring them in and be included in the fun.
This week’s theme was 100th day and letter writing. We are learning to write letters, and next week we will walk to the mailbox to send our letters. We also learned about the post office and how they sort mail.
Most of our time this week was taken up by the iReady test; we are almost done. Once everyone finishes, I will send home the scores. After that, I will contact you if your child needs to be placed on a unique reading plan.
Tuesday Afternoon, the fifth graders from Ms. Granger’s class come in and help us with an academic skill. They helped us read our books this week, and they helped us with science last week.
Last week, we listened to an assembly about the 100 books of kindergarten!
Science:
This week your child brought home a toy car (a pen) that we used while studying ramps for push and pull.
Reading:
We have been learning about the reading superpowers, skills that help us read words. The superpowers we learned about are:
-pointer power
– fix it, power
-Reread power
– snap word power
– word part power
– partner power
We will learn more decoding skills next week.
Phonics
We have been working hard on finding word parts and learning the short vowels, and we began learning about digraphs and blends. Consonant digraphs are groups of two consonants that make a single sound. Examples of consonant digraphs are:
ch as in chat
sh as in ship
th as in thick
wh as in what
ph as in phone
ck as in sock
Math
This week we worked on adding numbers to 10 (and, of course, the number 100 for the 100th day of school). I like to make practicing these make ten strategies fun for students. That is why I have my students play math games. Knowing math facts of 10 helps students find the answer to more complicated math facts, and it helps them solve 2-digit and 3-digit subtraction. We also studied rulers and how tall we are.
Next week we will learn about subtraction and 3d shapes. There will not be a newsletter next week or homework over the break.
