Looking Ahead

Important Dates:

• January 29 - Pizza with Parents
• February 8 and 9 - NO SCHOOL for students
• February 12 - Valentine's Day Party (Wear Red/Pink) 

Reading:

We are now two weeks into the next next Scholastic Reading Counts session. Please encourage your child to read and take quizzes on all of their books. Your child and I sat down together to create a goal. They all chose goals that are doable, yet will challenge themselves a little. I will print off their current progress on Friday. You can then watch for them to come home every other week. 

Writing:

We finished up writing our information stories last week. This week the students will type their stories on the computer. They will bold words for a glossary and also add pictures in as well. Next week we will begin our realistic fiction unit. 

Grammar/Spelling:

We are continuing to roll along with grammar. I am beyond impressed at the knowledge the students have gained in this area. Each week for focus on a sentence. We notice things (similes, metephors etc.), label each word (noun, adjective, etc), revise the sentence to make it better and imitate the sentence as we write our own using the things we have learned. They amaze me every week.
Spelling list 14 is coming home today. Thank you for taking the time each week to help your child practice these words. 

Math:

Today we began Unit 4. This unit focuses on place values, rounding, multi-digit addition and subtraction, and story problems. Ask your child about the fun way we are teaching/learning math. They spend their time in three rotations: Teacher Time, Independent Work, and Math Centers. We started this last unit and it's going great. It's a perfect opportunity to differentiate instruction and for me to work with smaller groups of students at a time. We are all loving it.

Social Studies:

We continue right along learning about the History of Michigan. So far we have been introduced to the Early People, Hopewells, Three Fires and the French. This week we will talk about the British and Chief Pontiac. 

Other News:

• Watch for a book order to come home NEXT week.