Thank you to all of you who attended Open House on Thursday, September 19th. Your students were so excited to show you around our classroom and our school. We are settling into routines and have established our classroom community quite nicely. Here are a few things that we have been up to lately:
MATH:
We are working on multi digit addition and subtraction. I have given your students a variety of strategies to use for both of these operations. Practice, practice, practice will make it much easier and more natural for all of them to be comfortable. I will give them some at school but they will need to also practice at home. My website, flashcards and Reflex math are good ways to practice. Also this Wednesday,(AND EVERY WEDNESDAY FROM THEN ON) Oct 1st I will be starting MATH MORNINGS from 8-8:30 for any student who wants some additional practice or help. I may be pre-teaching some math concepts that we will learn that day. No obligation and you don't have to come every week but I will be there! Please walk your student in to the office and the Mrs. Norton or Mrs. Kofman will direct them to my room. Friday, October 4th we will be having our first math assessment on Unit 1. I will be sending home a review that we will be doing in class on Thursday evening so that they can study.
WRITING: We have decorated our special writing notebooks and are have been brainstorming ideas for our realistic fiction stories. We currently are working on creating a main character who will be in our story. We are thinking of internal and external characteristics for this character and having the actions fit their personality. We will be moving on to the arc of the story or story mountain next. I can't wait to read some of their very creative writing.
READING: In reading we have been establishing routines, how to find good fit books and how to fill out a reading log and establishing good reading habits. Your student should be reading a minimum of 20 minutes a night each night and filling out a reading log and asking you to sign it to confirm they have read what they say they have. They are setting their own reading goals of minutes read each week. I'm hoping we will move away from the reading log and have alternatives to showing what they know about their books in the near future.
SPELLING: On Monday, September 24th we took a pretest in spelling and students brought home words to study. We will have our first spelling test on Friday, Oct 4th. We will also be practicing Current Event this next week in preparation for their first current event which is DUE: Friday October 18th(more to come on this!)
DATES TO REMEMBER:Friday October 11th-No school-Teacher Inservice Day Monday October 14th-No School-Indigenous People Day
If you are interested in being a classroom volunteer, please return the yellow volunteer sheets you picked up at Open House and I will create a calendar and send it home with your student.
As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I am truly enjoying getting to know each and every one of your kiddos! We're off to a great start!
Thanks and enjoy this beautiful weather!
Tracy