November

Upcoming Dates:

• November 1: No School (Professional Development)

• November 22-26: Thanksgiving Break

Curriculum Update:

READING:

Students are growing knowledge as they read non-fiction text. The following are skills that students are learning and practicing in this unit of study:

• Paying attention to details

• Putting the parts of one text together

• Asking questions

• Thinking of what a section and a book are teaching

• Reading several books on a topic to grow knowledge

• Noticing parts of the texts that go together

• Spotting differences between texts on the same topic

• Retelling topics

• Looking out for keywords and using the whole page to figure out what they mean

• Looking for and using text features to support understanding

• Rereading like an expert

WRITING:

We are currently in our Informational Writing Unit. Students have planned and wrote their own chapter books on topics they are experts on. Some of our teaching points have included:

• Planning with a Table of Contents

• Drafting and Revising With Feedback

• Studying Mentor Texts

• Using Comparison

• Addressing an Audience with Strong Introductions and Conclusions

• Editing with a Checklist

MATH:

In Topic 5, students will learn various strategies to subtract within 100. We will build upon previously taught addition strategies to fluently subtract within 100.

During this unit students will be focusing on the following:

• Using place value (tens and ones) to subtract

• Using an open number line to subtract tens and ones within 100.

• Subtracting 2 digit numbers using models

• Subtracting and breaking apart numbers using mental math and compensation

• Modeling one and two step problems

• Selecting the most efficient strategy to solve a math problem

WORD WORK/SPELLING:

In Fundations Unit 3 students continue to review:

• Closed syllables

• Digraphs/ Blends

• Glued sounds

• Sound-tapping strategy to help segment and blend sounds in words for both reading and spelling

In Unit 3 students will learn:

• Closed syllable exceptions: these follow a similar pattern to closed syllables, but they have a long vowel sound instead of a short vowel sound. We teach these as glued/welded sounds. The closed syllable exceptions are:

  • ild-as in child and wild

  • ind-as in find and wind

  • old-as in cold and bold

  • olt-as in colt and bolt

  • ost-as in cost and lost

• Vowel teams: vowel teams are two vowels together that make just one sound. The vowel teams we will study in this unit are:

  • ai as in bait and wait

  • ay as in play and way

  • ey as in key

  • ee as in jeep and weep

  • ea as in eat and beat

  • oi as in coin and boil

  • oy as in boy and toy

SCIENCE:

Students are learning how to classify objects as we learn about Matter. Some properties we use to classify objects are: size, texture, mass, color and shape. We are conducting some experiments and building our background knowledge about matter.

Students are learning the steps of the scientific method:

• Question

• Hypothesize

• Experiment (writing procedures and steps to test the hypothesis)

• Collect data

• Make conclusions

Upcoming Dates:

• October 1 - Digger Dash (9:45 - 10:05)

• October 5 & 7 – Parent Teacher Conferences

• October 11 - 15 - No School (Fall Break)

• October 29 - Halloween Parade & Party

Curriculum Update:

READING:

We wrapped up our first Lucy Calkins Reading Unit, Growth Spurt, and are currently in a small Mini Unit Called: Readers Get to Know the Characters. We are studying characters and story elements closely.

During Reader’s Workshop students will be working on the following:

• Studying characters actions, thoughts, feelings and personality traits

• Identifying story elements - setting, problem & solution, theme

• We continue to build our stamina to be able to independently read for longer periods of time.

• Choosing Just Right Books- Books that we can read most of the words without difficulty or can use strategies to figure out the hard words

• Recording our thinking while reading

• Scooping our words together to read fluently

During our Mini Unit focusing on getting to know characters, students will pretend they are characters to become character experts. Students will perform readers theater and work on bringing the Fox characters and story to life for their peers. We look forward to presenting our Fox Readers Theater and sharing with you on Seesaw!

WRITING:

We are continuing Narrative Writing. During this unit students have written several short stories based on true events from their lives.

Students are continuing to:

• Discover small moments that matter-generating ideas

• Tiny Topics- using a notebook to remember topics for writing

• Stretching out small moments- learning to plan a story by touching each page and saying what they will write

• Writing a good beginning, middle and end

• Writing with detail: Magnifying a small moment

• Bringing characters to life by using talk, feel or actions

• Setting goals and making plans for writing time

• Using checklist to self assess and plan for next parts

• Close Reading: Looking closely at how mentor authors write and trying it

• Collaborate a partner to help make a story better (revise by listening)

• Word choice

• Revising and editing rough drafts

• Conventions are a big emphasis:

  • Capital at the beginning of each sentence, for the word ‘I’, and proper nouns

  • Punctuation at the end of each sentence

  • Quotation marks when using dialogue

MATH:

In Topic 3, students are learning various strategies to add within 100.

These strategies include:

• Add tens and ones on a hundreds chart

• Add tens and ones on an Open number line

• Break apart numbers to add

• Add using compensation

• Practice adding using strategies

In Topic 4 , students will build upon previously taught addition strategies to fluently add within 100.

During Topic 4 students will focus on the following:

· Using place value (tens and ones) to add and subtract

· Using an open number line to add tens and ones within 100.

· Adding 2 digit numbers using models

· Adding and breaking apart numbers using mental math and partial sums

· Modeling one and two step problems

o Selecting the most efficient strategy to solve a math problem

HELPING YOUR CHILD WITH MATH

• Complete & review the independent practice pages with your student

• Practice fact fluency using the flash cards that were sent home

WORD WORK/SPELLING:

In Fundations Unit 2 students continue to review:

• Closed syllables

• Digraphs/ Blends

• Sound-tapping strategy to help segment and blend sounds in words for both reading and spelling

In Unit 2 students will learn:

· Glued sounds:

o am, an, ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, unk

· Bonus letters:

o After a short vowel, the letters f, l and s get a bonus, or extra letter (ff, ll, ss). This happens in one-syllable words like brass, puff and spill.

· R Controlled Vowels

o Ar says /ar/ as in car

o Er says /er/ as in her

o Ir says /ir/ as in bird

o Or says /or/ as in horn

o Ur says /ur/ as in burn

· Trick words: words students should memorize because most of them cannot be sounded out.

• Pull, shall, full, walk, both, talk

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, September 6 - No School (Labor Day)

• Friday, September 24 - No School (Professional Development)

• Friday, October 1 - Digger Dash

Curriculum Update:

READING:

During Reader’s Workshop students are working on the following:

• Learning the routines and rituals that will make Reader’s Workshop successful

• Choosing Just Right Books- Books that we can read most of the words without difficulty or can use strategies to figure out the hard words

• Building our stamina to be able to independently read for longer periods of time

• Recording our thinking while reading

• Stopping, thinking, and retelling a story to check for comprehension

• Reading more and more to continue growing

• Strategies to use when words are tricky

WRITING:

We are in our Narrative Writing. During this unit students will write short stories based on true events from their lives. By the end of the unit students will be able to:

• Discover small moments that matter-generating ideas

• Tiny Topics- using a notebook to remember topics for writing

• Stretching out small moments- learning to plan a story by touching each page and saying what they will write

• Writing a good beginning, middle and end

• Writing with detail: Magnifying a small moment

• Bringing characters to life by using talk, feel or actions

• Setting goals and making plans for writing time

• Using checklist to self assess and plan for next parts

• Close Reading: Looking closely at how mentor authors write and trying it

• Collaborate a partner to help make a story better (revise by listening)

• Word choice

• Revising and editing rough drafts

Conventions are a big emphasis:

• Capital at the beginning of each sentence, for the word ‘I’, and proper nouns

• Punctuation at the end of each sentence

• Quotation marks when using dialogue

MATH:

We are wrapping up Topic 1: Fluently Add and Subtract Within 20

During this unit students focused on the following:

• Math Tools and classroom routines-using manipulatives, number lines, and tens frames

• Understand if order matters when adding two or more numbers together (commutative property)

• Adding and subtracting within 20 using a variety of strategies

  • Making 10

  • Doubles or near doubles facts

  • Fact families

  • Counting on

  • Using a number line to count on or count back

  • Bar diagrams

• Beginning to develop fact fluency within 20

• Understanding the connection between addition and subtraction

• Solving addition and subtraction story problems, sharing strategies for solving, and ways to record

During Topic 2: Work With Equal Groups, students will focus on:

• Even and odd numbers

• Using arrays to find totals

• Making arrays to solve addition problems

• Modeling problems with equations, drawings, and arrays

WORD WORK/SPELLING:

In Fundations Unit 1 students focused on:

• Closed syllables

  • A closed syllable is a word or part of a word that has one short vowel closed in or followed by one or more consonants. The vowel does not need to have a consonant in front of it, but it needs to have at least one consonant after it. Examples of closed syllables include at, mat, math, mast and clash. The short sound of the vowel is marked by the breve sign.

• Digraphs/ Blends

  • Digraph: two letters that make one sound as in ship (sh).

  • Blend: 2- and 3-letter consonants, as in trip (tr) and strip (str).

  • The digraph blend, as in the word lun ch (nch).

• Spelling options of k, c, and ck

  • Students learned to use c most often at the beginning of words unless it is followed by e, i or y. They learned to use ck at the end after a short vowel and k after a consonant.

• Sound-tapping strategy to help segment and blend sounds in words for both reading and spelling.