Dear Parents, February 25, 2013
I hope all had an enjoyable weekend! Get ready for a long full week with some very exciting activities!
We are starting theme 7 in language arts – We Can Work It Out! Our reading strategy is summarizing and our comprehension skill that helps us with this is problem solving. In order to summarize a story, it is helpful to recognize the problem and the solution in the story. Paying attention to the characters, the setting, the problem the characters experience and the way they solve the problem will help you summarize. Practice this skill in reading with your child. After reading a story have your child identify the character(s), the setting, and the problem. Discuss how the characters solved the problem. Also enrich your discussion by coming up with additional solutions and discuss which solution is best. Our grammar focus this week is on Proper Nouns for people and animals. Our phonics focus this week is the long sound of /o/ spelled with the vowel pairs oa (boat) and ow (snow). Our spelling words this week are from unit 32. As an added activity to do this week please go online to Spelling City. Under the tab “Find a List” search by teacher (Katie Manning) and click on Unit 32. Under this list you can play the games, practice and finally take a practice test.
In math this week, we continue Chapter 6 beginning with sums to 12 and beginning lessons on three addends and missing addends!
In religion this week we find ourselves learning how “Jesus Teaches us to Love Others”.
In social studies we are continuing our lessons on community life. This week we will be focusing on directions and how a community changes.
In science we are continuing our unit on animal habitats. For our school fair on March 7th we will be showcasing our work on animal habitats. We have been very busy in class working on coast and stream habitats. This week we focus on mountain habitats. In order to complete our mountain habitat, we need a few empty cereal boxes or snack boxes. If you find you have one at home, please send it in with your student. Thank you!
In other news, we finally have confirmation for our first field trip! Yay! We will be going to the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center at the Ventura Harbor as well as going to a Ventura Outreach Program at Marina Park. We will be going on March 5th for a half-day. A letter will be going home this week, which will provide details as well as a fee for the trip. Please check the red homework folder for this form.
Announcements for the week:
- Please remind your child to bring in their library book Tuesday.
- Friday is a full day, however the children will participate in school families in the afternoon.
- Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss! We will be celebrating March 1st!
- This week is All About… Alexander! Congratulations!
Have a wonderful week. If you have any questions or concerns please let me know.
Miss. Manning
