A Peek at the Week of January 31-February 4

It's February!  There are lots of fun classroom celebrations coming up:  Groundhog's Day, Day 100, Chinese New Year, and Valentine's Day.  Celebrating these days gives us things to look forward to duing the cold winter months. 

This week we will also be having a presentation by a scientist from High Tech-High Touch.  This program is on shadows and light.  We will have the chance to do some hands-on experiments.  This program is funded by the Enrichment Fund.


Homework
Monday 1/31
1.  Read for at least 15 minutes
2.  Winter Word Work
Tuesday 2/1

1.  Read for at least 15 minutes
2.  Table of Contents

 Wednesday 2/2
1.  Read for at least 15 mintues
2.  Math:  A Panda Grows

Thursday 2/3
1.  Read for at least 15 minutes
2.  Study for tomorrow's spelling test

Have a great week!

Highlights of the Week January 28

• AS was a good captain.  (JF)
• Yesterday was HB's birthday.  (EW)
• We will have board game day today.  (KK)
• In gym we played Super 4-Square volleyball. (LMD)
• We had a snow day on Thursday.  (KL)
• For Writing Workshop we watched cool How To movies made by some kids in the class.  The movies were awesome and gave us some really good ideas for writing projects.  (MM and AGS)
• In Reading Workshop we used post-its to mark pages that were interesting or pages that we had a question about.  This makes it easier to talk about your book.  (CH and HB)
• On Monday it was Day 90 of school.  So that means that Monday was the halfway mark for the year.  That means we are halfway to being second graders!  (Miss D.)
• We are going to take our weekly spelling tests after we finish these Highlights. We will also have a Mystery Reader. (MM)
• Mrs. E. organized our book order so we could take them home today.  (KE)

Darien Summer School

Darien Summer School registration has begun!  There are many classes beign offered this summer. 

For more information, please go to http://www.dariensummerschool.com/

Peek at the Week 24-28

It's the final week of January.  We have had a busy month with all the snowdays and catching up on things.

Thank you for the "How To" videos that were emailed to me.  The class LOVES seeing their friends as 'moviestars' on our big Smartboard screen.

Miss Ward has been doing a great job teaching math and will also be doing some Word Work lessons this week. 

With all of the cancellations and having MLK day off, I am a bit behind, so this week's 'Peek' is short.


Homework
Monday 1/24
1.  Read for at least 15 minutes
2.  Winter Word Work

Tuesday 1/25
1.  Read for at least 15 minutes
2.  Writing:  Snowman Story

Wednedsay 1/26
1.  Read for at least 15 mintues
2.  Math:  Sizing Up Bears

Thursday 1/27
1.  Read for at least 15 mintues
2.  Study for tomorrow's spelling assessment

Have a great week!

Peek at the Week of January 17-21

This has been quite the snowy winter.  The kids have been enjoying the mountains of snow on our playgrounds. 

Book Orders are due on Tuesday, January 18th.

Miss Ward, our Student-Teacher, will start teaching math this week. 

This Friday we will have a our Winter Game Day.  I will be emailing the 6 parent volunteers a reminder this week.

On Tuesday some volunteers from the Darien Environmental Group (DEG) will be coming to do a presentation to our class on pre-cycling and re-cycling.  We will also be attending an assembly called "Going Green".  Both programs are great as we are studying non-fiction in our Reading and Writing Workshops.


Homework
Monday 1/17
MLK Day-No School

Tuesday 1/18
1.  Read for at least 15 mintues
2.  Winter Word Work

Wednesday 1/19
1.  Read for at least 15 minutes
2.  Poem:  A Chubby Little Snowman

Thursday 1/20
1.  Read for at least 15 mintues
2.  Review your words for tomorrow's test

Have a great week!

• SM was a great captain this week.  (DG)
• KS will be the next captain.  (CH)
• We read a biography about Rosa Parks.  (AS)  She was a brave woman who sat in her seat when others wanted her to move.  She was trying to change the rules because they were ridiculous.  (KS & CH)
• In Writing Workshop we made How To posters and booklets.  (KE)
• Ioa from the Darien Nature Center brought a rabbit, tortoise, dove and a snake.  We learned how animals move.  She taught us a cool poem:  Eyes on the side hide.  Eyes in front hunt.  (LMD, Miss D.)
• On Wednesday there was a blizzard.  There was no school.  There was a delay on Thursday. (LJD and CH)
• In math we talked about subtraction.  (SM)
• This week in Reading Workshop we talked about parts of non-fiction books like the Table of Contents, headings, captions and labels.  (HB, KE, LJD)
• We celebrated AH's bday.  Her mom gave our class a great book and stuffed caterpillar.  (Miss D.)  Her real bday was on New Year's Eve.  (CH)

Peek at the Week January 10-14

We are getting into our non-fiction unit in Reading Workshop.  Last week we explored the non-fiction books in our library and learned about different categories such as biographies, animals, travel and space.  Each student picked a non-fiction book (or 2) to keep in their book baskets.  This week we will learn about text features (table of content, glossary, index, captions, etc.) of non-fiction books.

In Writing Workshop we started a unit we are calling "How To".  Last week we brainstormed possible topics.  Some of the topics we came up with were:  How to Make a Snowman, How to Feed a Dog, How to Wrap a Present and many, many more.  We found a few websites that feature How To's:  http://www.ehow.com/ and http://www.howdini.com/.  It might be fun to check out these websites with your child.  This week we will begin working on our own How To topics. 

We will learn about Dr. Martin Luther King during Social Studies this week.  This is a nice tie-in to our Reading Workshop. 

The Darien Nature Center is coming to our class this week to teach us about Animal Movements.  Live animals will be brought in for us to take a closer look at their bodies and how certain physical features help an animal to move.  This is a part of our Science unit and coordinates well with last month's trip to the Maritime Center. 

There is no school next Monday, January 17th.

Scholastic/Lucky Book Orders are due on Tuesday, January 18th.

Homework
Monday 1/10
1.  Read for at least 15 minutes
2. Winter Word Work

Tuesday 1/11
1.  Read for at least 15 minutes
2.  Writing:  How To Play __________

Wednesday 1/12
1.  Read for at least 15 mintues
2.  Math

Thursday 1/13
1.  Read for at least 15 minutes
2.  Review words for tomorrow's spelling test

Have a great long weekend!

Peek at the Week of January 3-7

Welcome Back to a brand new year!  I hope everyone enjoyed the break.  It was nice to be spend time with friends and family.   

Miss Lindsey Ward, one of our interns, will be completing her Student-Teaching in our class.  She starts this week and will be with our class for 10-12 weeks.  I am excited to have another teacher in the room and I know the kids are happy as well. 

January is  a great time to get back to basics.  We will be doing so with an emphasis on handwriting (making sure tall letters are tall, spaces between words, etc.) and basic sentence grammar (beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period). 

Reading Workshop:  We will begin a unit of study on non-fiction. During this unit we will learn about the non-fiction genre.  We will also focus on  reading strategies when reading a non-fiction book.

Writing Workshop: We will begin a unit of study on non-fiction.  This month the focus will be on "How To" books. 

Assessments:  The new year is a good time to reassess the class.  All children will be given the DRA (reading fluency and comprehension) and the Primary Spelling Inventory (this is the assessment that goes along with the Words Their Way program).  Your child may be talking about their new book shopping list or their new spelling groups. 
Some children will also be reassessed on their Sight Words.  New lists will be sent home if needed.

Homework
Monday 1/3
1.  Read for at least 20 minutes
2.  Winter Word Work

Tuesday 1/4
1.  Read for at least 20 minutes
2.  Winter Acrostic Poem

Wednesday 1/5
1.  Read for at least 20 minutes
2.  Math

Thursday 1/6
1.  Read for at least 20 minutes
2.  Study for tomorrow's spelling test

Have a great week!