School Family Update 1.26

Happy January to everyone! We have been very busy since our return from break.

Reading
In reading, students have reviewed the letter sounds of b and w. We have reviewed word families, rhyming words, and middle sounds. We also focused on identifying a missing word in a sentence that makes sense.

This week students will be reading two leveled books in our reading groups. One of the books has a w theme. Students are visiting centers this week. At ABC center, students are identifying syllables. At game center, they are sounding out cvc words (consonant, vowel, consonant) and determining if it is a real word or a nonsense word.

Writing
Students have been working on our book publishing project with PTA. Students are completing an 8 page book about their favorite things. Students just completed their 8th page today. We will give it to our parent volunteers who will scan the pages onto stickers and put them in books! Then, students will illustrate their books. To celebrate their hard work, there will be an Author's Party. The date will be announced when it is confirmed with PTA. **Last week an Author's Profile went home. Please fill it out with your child and return it by this Friday. It will be the About the Author section in their books. You may also turn in a wallet size photo to be included.**

On Tuesday, students will begin our third writing genre, persuasive. Students learn that persuasive writing shares an opinion and gives reasons to support it. This week the class will be working on the same topics. For example, what is the best restaurant or which is better dogs/cats will be topics.

Social Studies
Students spent 2 weeks learning about Martin Luther King Jr. We read many books and watched a short video. Students learned he was a leader who wanted equal, fair laws for everyone. We listened to a snippet of his "I have a Dream" speech, and students created their own dreams for a better world. You can hear your child's dream on their padlet! (Students recorded each other with the ipads! Our class was mentioned on the school twitter account.) Students finished the unit by creating their own peace prize for MLK and sharing about why he deserved the prize.

Science
Students are learning about rocks and soils. Last week, we focused on the 4 things the Earth is made up of: 1) Rocks 2) Soil 3) Water 4) Air. We made a chant with hand motions together. Students will be expected to name all 4 items by the end of the week. We also looked at rocks and discussed attributes you can sort by. Some attributes are color, size, texture, and weight. It aligns nicely with our measurement unit in math.

Math
Students have been learning about measurement. There are 2 standards we focus on this unit. One is measuring and item and the other is comparing items. When measuring items, students go from end to end. We usually mostly nonstandard units (popsicle sticks, paperclips, cubes), but the students have been introduced to the ruler. They will do more ruler practice next week.  There is also a lot of vocabulary in this unit. Students have learned they can meausure an objects weight, lenght, and height. We have compared 3-4 items and used the words taller, tallest, short, shorter, shortest, long, longer, longest, heavy, light, etc. We also spent a day on capacity. Which container holds the most? the least? These are excellent words to review at home. We have this week to review these items and next week we will be assessing.

Other
Continue to practice tying shoes at home and following directions. Give students a direction, have them repeat it to check for understanding, and then they should be able to complete the task. Some examples are cleaning up toys or putting away or putting out a plate/napkin/fork for dinner.