A Peek at the Week of September 10-14

This week's calendar of Special Events:
Monday: Homework Begins & Class Coffee for Parents
Tuesday: Class Picture Day
Wednesday: World Language Assembly
Friday: Mystery Reader

Last week I met with our class Room Moms, Erin Schenck and Blair Martin. They will be sharing my volunteer set-ups at the Class Coffee on Monday, September 10th. I look forward to having parents visit our classroom throughout the year for Game Days, Mystery Readers and party helpers.

The first 2 weeks of school we worked on setting up routines and schedules and learning each other's names. We have a great class of 23 kids who are excited to work and play with each other.

Homework will begin this week! Your children should get into the habit (if they haven't already) of reading every day. There will be written homework Monday-Wednesday, usually a sheet of Word Study, Math, Reading or Writing.

Reading Workshop: We have enjoyed hearing about everyone's favorite books from home.
These books are being kept in our Book Baskets. This week we will begin "Book Shopping" for our 'Just Right' books. Our lessons this week will focus on how to pick out books based on reading and interest level. We will be working on increasing our Independent Reading time. Other lessons this week will be about how our classroom library is organized, how to find books and how to return books.

Word Study: We are getting more into our academics now in week 3. We have made our Word Study groups and have had a chance to work on some assignments with our group. This week each group will start on their own lists and do many activities with the words. The list of words will come home every Monday stapled to a homework choice sheet.

Writing Workshop: We have been doing some short writing pieces. We are getting used to stretching out our ideas when writing sentences. Using capital letters at the beginning of every sentence is a goal.

Math Workshop: We begin each lesson with a 'warm up' of quick drills to get our brains thinking about numbers. We use our white boards each day during warm ups.

Homework
Monday 9/10
1. Read for at least 10 minutes
2. Fall Word Work (choose 1 of the listed assignments from the sheet)

Tuesday 9/11
1. Read for at least 10 minutes
2. Math: Numbers All Around Us

Wednesday 9/12
1. Read for at least 10 minutes
2. Reading Survey

Thursday 9/13
1. Read for at least 10 minutes
2. Review your words for tomorrow's spelling test!

Have a great week!

Highlights of the Week

Be on the lookout for a blue-colored booklet. The first page has the directions. Your child wrote a letter to someone in his/her family. There is a page for you to write back.

Mystery Reader

We had our first mystery reader. It was Mrs. Goldstein, our Assistant Principal. She read a book called "Owl Babies". It was a cute story.

Highlights of the Week September 7

-We played Capture the Flag in gym.  (MD)
-I learned how to jump rope better in gym.  (LM)
-We went to the school garden. (AS)
-We learned that Miss Dineen's favorite book is Fancy Nancy.  (BO)
- I became a faster speed walker.  (BV)
- We learned to keep a beat in music.  (WB)
- I know how to make a sketch book.  (BT)
- In library we checked out fun books.  (WD)
- I learned some new songs in music.  (GG)
-There are new, cool books in the library.  (LS)
- We practiced sounding out words in our books.  (JB)
-We sorted words in our Rainbow Groups.  (DP)
-We learned a lot of songs in music.  (GP)
-We went on a Scavenger Hunt for books.  (ES)
-We looked for books that matched the colored dots on cards.  (SD)
-We read different books.  (MRS)
-We talked about finding a good spot to read.  (CN)
-A good reading spot is a place that is comfortable and quiet.  (AD)
-We used the computers in the lab.  (GM)
-We put the work that we don't finish in our red Catch Up folders.  (WC)
- I played with my friends at recess.  (RC)
- Miss Dineen gave us new math books.  (VS)
-Free Choice time is at the end of the day.  It is fun.   We get to play with fake money, play doh, blocks, and draw.  (RS)

Harvest Time!

We worked outside at the school garden this afternoon. Our class was in charge of picking the carrots. We lost count of how many we picked.

Computer Zone

Today we will play some games on a great website called ABCYA. 

Rainbow Word Work

Today we made our "Rainbow" groups. This is the group we work with to do some phonics activities and learning centers. Today each group did a word sorting activity.