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September 9-13

Week TWO is here! I will plan to send the blog post by Monday night each week.  I will include classroom community news and grade specific updates.  This week might be a bit a longer but otherwise I will try to make it short and sweet! If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me.

Classroom News

Star of the Week: We will be doing Star of the Week starting this week.  The Friday before your child's assigned day, I will send home an information paper to be filled out and a small brown paper bag for your child to place 4 objects in that help to describe them. No need to worry about it until you see the bag come home!
Library Books: We had library checkout for the first time last Thursday. They will need to be back by Friday to choose a new book.
Quiet Time: Each day after lunch and recess we have 10-15 of quiet time.  During this time students have a choice of a quiet activity.  Last week the choices were play-doh and coloring.  This week we will be adding books and geoboards. This time of the day allows us to take a break from the social, mental, and academic demands of the school day.
Word Study: This week we will focus on the letters b, f, t, m, n.  We will be working on handwriting and sounds.
Researcher's Workshop: This year we will be calling Science and Social Studies time Researcher's Workshop.  We are beginning with building our classroom community and creating classroom rules together.  This week we will publish our hopes and dreams for the school year and then we will discuss and decide what rules we need in our classroom so that we can accomplish our hopes and dreams.

What's new this week in Kindergarten? 

Math: This week we will be exploring math tools to show numbers.  We will notice that we can show numbers 1-5 many different ways.
Writing: We are writing stories about a time when we have done something.  We will focus on planning our stories across three pages and adding pictures to tell our story.  At home you can help your child come up with ideas to write stories about!
Reading: We Are Readers!  We can look. We can think. We can read. We can learn.  We are reading books all about the world.  This week we will read books from front cover to back cover, we will reread books to see if there is anything that we are missing and to see if our thinking is changing.  When reading they are pointing to the pictures and listing all that they are noticing.  We also spend time at the beginning of reading each day reading old favorites and storytelling.

What's new this week in First Grade? 

Math: The focus on our first unit is partners of numbers of 1-10.  Students will learn to see the partners, build them, and write equations to match them. (For example: 2+2=4, 3+1=4, 4+0=4)
Writing: We are writing small moment stories. Students will learn how to pick a small moment idea, touch and tell their story across the pages of their book, and then how to sketch and write.
Reading: This week we will continue to focus on building good habits, as readers. We will learn that readers reread to see more in their books. We will also learn how to set goals for our reading time: making a plan for what books to read and how many books we would like to accomplish reading. We will use reading mats to help keep our reading organized.  Book bags will begin coming home on Tuesday this week. Each night your child will bring home two books except for Friday nights.  The goal is for the books to be just-right books for your child to read.  I am getting to know your child as a reader and am beginning to coach them on choosing just right books, so you may notice that some might be challenging or too easy as we work on this. Reading time at home is meant to build a joy for reading is not meant to be a time for your child to struggle or be taught.  It is always ok to read with your child or see-saw read!

Upcoming Events: 

September 9: Send back writing folder if you haven't already!
September 16-20: School Safety Week  We will practice drills
September 24: Family Night 5:30 p.m.

"It is a happy talent to know how to play." Ralph Waldo Emerson





I promise these posts will be shorter in the weeks to come!  
Have a great week!
-Samantha 

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