Dear Parents,
This week in language arts we will be reading about Christopher Columbus and making a project to accompany our story. Our reading strategy this week is “monitor and clarify”. If we have difficulty understanding the story as we read, we stop and go back to reread the sections that were confusing. We also use key words or the pictures to help the story become clear to us. Our comprehension skill this week focuses on fantasy and realism. Understanding the story and knowing if what is happening in the story is something that can really happen or something that is pretend can help us better understand the story. Our phonics focus this week is the short sound of /e/ and the consonants y, k, and v. Our spelling words this week will focus on the short sound of /e/. The short sounds of /e/ and /i/ can be confusing to children. Please focus on the difference between these sounds in your nightly reading. Our grammar focus is naming words (nouns). Math finds us practicing subtraction concepts and working with our math toolboxes. Our toolboxes are kits with manipulatives to help us practice math concepts. We made our own mini number lines last week and we will “walk the number line” with some math songs this week as we learn number sense. In religion, we will be discussing saints in preparation for the Saints Parade and learning about the virtue of helping. We continue our study of families in social studies, and plant parts in science.
Please remind your child to bring their library book to school tomorrow so that they may check out a new one.
Water bottle sales continue on Tuesday and Thursday. Thank you for your support!
I have heard from some of you about the website I mentioned last week. I am so glad that you are taking advantage of such a great resource! The children continue to visit the site during our computer time and they LOVE the games. Please encourage your child to take a test (which can be found on the site) Wednesday night before our spelling test on Thursday. This week’s words are from unit 8.
The Saints Parade is November 5th. The kindergarteners, first graders and second graders dress up as their favorite saint and process into mass at 8:30. We each say a sentence about our saint after mass and then parade around our field. It is a wonderful way to celebrate “our communion of saints”. Please mark the date on your calendars and start thinking about your favorite saint!
It is “All About…Naomi Ortega” this week. Congratulations!
If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. Have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Manning
