October 31 - November 4th Newsletter

 

This week in literacy, we will...

• Blend sounds to produce words with l-blends.
• Read irregularly spelled words (many, you, some, come).
• Identify the elements of a sentence.
• Identify and understand the use of possessives.
• Read a poem titled "The Big Black Bug" and locate words with the bl blend.
• Read a nonfiction book titled Old to New, by Jena Croxford. While reading, we will recognize simple plurals and locate words with l-blends. We will also infer the author's purpose and use nonfiction text features (headings, labels, photographs, charts and captions) to gain more information. 
• Participate in Heggerty Phonemic Awareness lessons.

This week in writing, we will...

• Write letters to Veterans. We will give our letters to the Veterans at the parade next week.

• Continue our opinion writing unit.

• Learn about how to hook our reading with a great introduction.

• Learn different ways to end our opinion pieces.

This week in math, we will...

• Begin Unit 3 which will focus on adding, subtracting, counting and comparing. 

• Learn 2 new workplaces called “Drop the Beans” and “Make the Sum” which facilitates use of fact families and doubles relationships.

• Begin November Number Corner workouts which delve into fractions of whole, halves, and fourths, and also telling time utilizing fractions of whole and half hours on digital and analog clocks. 

This week in science, we will...

• Finish our Land and Water unit.

• Learn about more fast and slow land changes.

• Describe what happens when fast and slow land changes occur.

Questions to ask your child:

• Who was our Pawsitive Jaguar of the Week? (Louie)
• What was your favorite decorated pumpkin at the Pumpkin Days display? Why?
• What was your favorite costume in the parade?
• What did you do during your class Halloween party? (Played Halloween Bingo, ate a cookie and had juice. We also danced to spooky songs).

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

• Nov. 2- Picture Retake Day
• Nov. 3- End of First Quarter
• Nov. 4- No School (Records Day)
• Nov. 17- Parent-Teacher Conferences
• Nov. 21- Parent-Teacher Conferences
• Nov. 23-25- No School (Thanksgiving Break)

October 24-28 Newsletter

 

 This week in literacy, we will...

• Blend sounds to produce words with digraphs ng and nk
• Spell words with the digraphs ng and nk
• Read irregularly spelled words (was, know, made)
• Read In a Dark, Dark Wood. While reading, we will use known high frequency words to read fluently. We will also notice repeated text patterns and use simple punctuation to guide phrasing. 
• Read a poem titled, Pumpkin Orange. We will highlight high frequency words we know in the poem. We will also add variety and suspense by inserting different children's names into the poem.
• Participate in Heggerty Phonemic Awareness lessons.

This week in writing, we will...

• Continue our opinion writing unit.

• Write about our favorite and least favorite items in our collection.

• Edit our writing - thinking about spaces between words, spelling, using the word wall and ending our sentences with punctuation.

This week in math, we will...

• Count by 5s and 10s to make a quilt block pattern, working with shapes and fractional pieces. 

• Play 2 games using nickels, dimes and pennies; compare 2-digit numbers counting collections of coins.

• Continue to focus on sequencing numbers from 11 to 40, observing the 3rd and 4th decade.

• Continue to find part-whole relationships in the calendar grid and use a number tree model to represent the set of fall objects on each day’s marker as a total and two parts.  

• Total our 3 week collection of pattern blocks making comparisons of each group.

• Take a Unit 2 Math Assessment on Monday.  We extended one of our math lessons last week so we’ll take the test this week.

This week in science, we will...

• Continue our Land and Water unit.

• Learn about different types of bodies of water and the importance of water.

• Compare and contrast animals that live in the water and on land. 

• Begin learning about fast and slow land changes.

Questions to ask your child:

• Who was our Pawsitive Jaguar of the week? (Jack)
• When we get a class bingo, what will our reward be?  (PJ day)

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

• Oct. 28- Halloween celebration/Early Release Day (1:45 pm)
• Nov. 2- Picture Retake Day
• Nov. 3- End of First Quarter
• Nov. 4- No School (Records Day)

October 17-21

 

 This week in literacy, we will...

• Blend sounds to produce words with digraphs ch, tch, and wh
• Spell words with the digraphs ch, tch, and wh
• Recognize and use the ending -ing when forming the present participle of a verb
• Read irregularly spelled words (who, what, should, would, could)
• Read Jumping Into the Leaves by Winnie Tucker. While reading, we will notice periods, commas, question marks and exclamation marks to use proper pausing, word stress and intonation. We will identify the setting, characters, problem and solution in the story. Additionally, we will discuss how the characters change throughout the story.
• Write a response to our reading.
• Highlight words ending in -ing while reading a poem titled, "Five Little Leaves". 
• Participate in Heggerty Phonemic Awareness lessons.

This week in writing, we will...

• Begin our new opinion writing unit.

• Write about a collection we have and write our opinion about our collection.

• Explain our opinions in convincing ways.

This week in math, we will...

• Continue to develop addition and subtraction strategies, particularly doubling, counting on, and counting back to solve combinations within 12. 

• Continue to work with dominos and number racks to add and subtract.

• Learn 3 new Workplaces called “Double It”, “Spin & Add”, and “Spin & Subtract”. 

• Continue our weekly collection and amount comparison of hexagons, trapezoids, triangles and rhombuses in Number Corner.  

• Continue to find part-whole relationships in the calendar grid and use a number tree model to represent the set of fall objects on each day’s marker as a total and two parts.  

• Observe patterns in the sequence of markers and write equations to represent the objects shown.  

• Take a Unit 2 Math Assessment

This week in science, we will...

• Continue our Land and Water unit

• Learn more about the following landforms: mountains, plateaus, plains, and islands

• Learn about minerals and how we use them

• Learn about how we use Earth’s water

Questions to ask your child...

• Who was our Pawsitive Jaguar of the week? (Alexi)
• Who celebrated a birthday this week? (Charlotte)
• What did we do in the gym on Friday morning? (Jaguar Jumpstart)
• What are we collecting for our Calendar Collection? (hexagons, trapezoids, rhombuses and triangles)

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

• Oct. 28- Halloween Celebration/Early Release Day (1:45 pm)
• Nov. 2- Picture Retake Day
• Nov. 3- End of First Quarter
• Nov. 4- No School (Records Day)

October Book Order

     

Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub
One-Time Class Activation Code: JBVLX

Dear Families,

I will be placing our first book order this Friday, October 14th!

You can shop and submit your order online or return the order form with payment directly to me. No matter how you order, every purchase you make earns FREE Books and educational supplies for our classroom.

The arrival of the book box is always a highlight - thanks for making it happen!

Happy reading,

Mrs. Majinski

Ordering online is fast and easy:

• REGISTER at scholastic.com/readingclub
• ENTER the Class Activation Code at the top of this letter
• CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks
• SUBMIT the order to me by the due date at the top of this letter
• EARN FREE Books for our classroom too!

October 10-14 Newsletter

  

Oct. 10-14, 2022

This week in literacy, we will…

•  Blend sounds to produce words with the digraphs sh and th.

• Spell words with the digraphs sh and th. 

• Read and write words with the inflectional ending -ed.

• Identify that the inflectional ending -ed shows past tense.

• Participate in Heggerty Phonemic Awareness lessons.

• Read a poem titled "Dingle Dangle" Scarecrow. We will read words with initial and final consonant digraphs in the poem.

• Read Little Bear and the Three Campers by Candace Dean. While reading, we will recognize simple plurals. We will also use specific vocabulary to discuss the text (author, illustrator, characters, setting, problem and solution).

• Write a response to reading, focusing on story elements.

This week in writing, we will…

• Finish working on our small moment stories as we will be starting a new writing unit next week

• Edit and revise our small moment stories

• Share our small moment stories in small groups

This week in math, we will….

• Use and make double-flap cards to discover the relationship between addition and subtraction, to explore the commutative property, and to learn to solve for an unknown in any position.

• Generate equation fact families and story problems

• Learn a new Workplace with dominoes called “Sort the Sum”. 

• Continue our weekly collection and amount comparison of hexagons, trapezoids, triangles and rhombuses in Number Corner.  

• Identify part-whole relationships in the calendar grid, use a number tree model to represent the set of fall objects on each day’s marker as a total and two parts.  

• Search for patterns in the sequence of markers and write equations to represent the objects shown.  

This week in science, we will…

• Begin a new unit on Land and Water

• Learn about different types of landforms and bodies of water

• Explore rocks and make observations about how they feel, look, and even smell

• Learn about soil and why it’s important

Questions to ask your child:

• Who was our Pawsitive Jaguar of the week? (Beckett)

• What are we collecting in Number Corner this month? (Shapes)

• Who's birthday was it this week? (Poppy)

Important Dates to Remember!

• Oct. 28- Early Release Day (1:45 pm)

• Nov. 2- Picture Retake Day

• Nov. 3- End of 1st Quarter

• Nov. 4- No School (Records Day)

October 3-6

 

 This week in literacy, we will...

• Distinguish the short /e/ vowel sound.
• Blend sounds to produce words.
• Read irregularly spelled words.
• Know the sound-spelling for short /e/.
• Read and form plural nouns.
• Read The Elephant by Cordelia S. Finn. We will recognize and understand labels in photographs. We will also locate high-frequency words in text (big, has, the) and locate words with in the body of the text by predicting the first letter and its sound.
• Read a poem titled, The Elephant Who Jumped the Fence. We will discuss what the poem is about and highlight short /e/ words.
• Participate in Heggerty Phonemic Awareness lessons.

This week in writing, we will...

• Continue working on our small moment stories

• Look at mentor texts to see how real authors make their stories special

• Add exact actions that our characters do to make our writing come to life

• Include pop out words in our writing

This week in math, we will...

• Learn a game with dominoes in which we will add and compare totals using <, >, =

• Create an addition strategies chart

• Learn a number puzzle called “Magic Square”

• Learn two new Workplaces working with dominoes to add and compare totals

• Begin the 10th month, October, in Number Corner. Students will compose and decompose the number 10, practice on ten-frames and learn about leaps of 10 on the number line. We will collect and count pattern block shapes and organize data.

This week in social studies, we will...

• Identify and discuss different groups and what makes them special and unique.
• Learn about families and communities.

Questions to ask your child:

• Who was our Pawsitive Jaguar of the week? (Clara)
• What did you measure with this week? (Cubes)
• Who's birthday was it on Friday? (Molly)

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

• Oct. 5- Library Day Tuesday - please return your books!
• Oct. 7- No School (Professional Development Day)
• **Math homework is due on Monday (Oct. 10) due to the short week of school
• Math homework will be sent home Mondays, and usually will be due on Fridays (unless there is a short week of school)
• Word lists can be returned once your child confidently reads and writes the words. Take as much time as you need with each list. 
• Books sent home in book bags should be comfortable for your child, not too hard or too easy. Take as long as you need with the books. A new book will be sent home when the book bag is returned. 
• Oct. 28- Early Release Day (1:45 pm)
• Nov. 2- Picture Retake Day
• Nov. 3- End of First Quarter
• Nov. 4- No School (Records Day)

September 26-30 Newsletter

  This week in literacy, we will...

• Distinguish the short /u/ vowel sound.
• Blend sounds to produce words.
• Know the sound-spelling for short /u/
• Read irregularly spelled words (the, to, want, of, do).
• Read a book titled, Animal Surprises, by Nicole Walker. While reading we will use repeating patterns to anticipate text. We will also use context to understand new words.
• Write about what we learned from the book, Animal Surprises.
• Participate in Heggerty Phonemic Awareness lessons.

This week in writing, we will...

• Continue working on our small moment stories

• Bring our stories to life by thinking about how our characters look and feel and add it into our writing

• Work on our spelling by thinking about familiar words to spell new words

This week in math, we will...

• Warm up with skip counting by 5’s and 10’s forward and backward

• Learn a new workplace–”Measuring with Unifix Cubes”

• Measure various lengths of objects and distances using nonstandard units (popsicle sticks, unifix cubes, heel-to-toe steps)

• Use the number rack to solve missing addend and subtraction problems

• Continue working on Unit 1 Workplaces

• Finish up the calendar collections for September in Number Corner

This week in social studies, we will...

• Learn about how we can be good helpers at school.
• Learn about being respectful and responsible. 
• Practice cooperation by working together.
• Create a skit to demonstrate leading by example. 
• Describe what being a leader at school looks like and draw a picture to go along with it.

Questions to ask your child:

• Who was our Pawsitive Jaguar of the week? (Charlie)
• What read aloud book series did we read? (Bruce Books - Mother Bruce, Hotel Bruce and Bruce’s Big Move)
• What do you like to play during Sharp Start?
• What did we measure with? (Popsicle Sticks)

Reminders and Upcoming Events:

• Oct. 7- No School (Professional Development Day)
• Oct. 28- Early Release Day (1:45 pm)
• Nov. 2- Picture Retake Day
• Nov. 3- End of First Quarter
• Nov. 4- No School (Records Day)