The week ahead....

Dear Families,

I hope you've all had a nice extended weekend with your little ones.   I want to thank you for your generous donations towards our Valentine's Day Party!  A big thank-you to the parents that donated their time and came to help with games, snacks and crafts!

We have a busy week coming up, so take a look at what we will be getting into: 

In Language Arts, we will: 

- Read a literary text and identify feelings of characters during different parts of the story.  

- Note how the author uses words/illustrations to express how a character is feeling.  Can we use these ideas in our own writing? 

- Identify the problem of literary texts and how the characters will solve the problem.  

- Make connections between the story and their own personal experiences. 

In Science, we will: 

- Watch videos to get excited about the science fair, and to gather ideas for our own projects.  

- Begin talking about our class science experiment for the Science Fair.  

- Choose a topic as a class and begin gathering research about it.  

***Please encourage your student to share ideas they may have!  I often hear about science experiments that they work on at home : ) ***

In Writing, we will: 

- Take what we have learned about expressing emotion and use these ideas in our own piece. 

- Identify resources within our classroom to help solve the problems we come up with when we're writing.  

In Math, we will: 

-Practice counting forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence (instead of having to begin at 1)

-Become familiar with teen numbers.

-Count to 100 by tens and by ones

***Throughout the year we continue to foster independence in the classroom.  As first grade approaches we will put more of an emphasis on students being held accountable for their learning.  Our morning reading rotations consist of one 15 minute guided reading group and 3 literacy rotations, where students either work independently or with a buddy.  My friends work very well during this independent time!  We have added logs to buddy reading, listening and library stations (students log the their name, date and the book they read/listen to....sometimes I ask students to share the book or tell us what they learned).  Students put these logs in a folder that is kept inside their book bin.  I check these logs weekly.  I am very impressed with their responsibility in logging their work.  

Starting this week each student will have a laminated rubric for a reading group grade inside their book baggie.  Please leave this rubric inside their baggie.  We want to ensure that all students are getting as much learning as they can out of their 15 minute small group instruction.  Once/twice a week I will pick your student to grade their reading group performance.  This is something that we will talk through together.  I will use permanent marker so you can see the work they are doing in group.  They will not know the day they will be chosen.  This is something that we will discuss privately.  Here are the expectations: 

I came to the reading table quickly

I had my reading baggie

I put my reading baggie on the ground

I began reading right away

I participated in word work

I used my reading strategies to read unknown words

I tried my best!

____/7

Students can earn a possible 7 points!  Please talk this over with your student.  We want to make sure that they know exactly what is expected of them and how this can help their brain grow!!  Thank you!***

Reminders:

Monday, February 16 - No School (Presidents' Day)
Tuesday, February 17 - Visit the center room 
Wednesday, February 18 - I am out all day

Thursday, February 19 - Visit the center room - CiCi's Pizza Night

Pictures to come this weekend!