October News

•  October  9, 2023 Columbus Day (No School)

• Parent Conferences - Nov. 1, 8,15, 22nd by appointment (upcoming- Sign-up Genius)

• November 7,  2023 - Election Day (No School for students)

• November 22, 2023 Early Dismissal for Thanksgiving

• November 23 and 24, 2023  Thanksgiving Recess (No School)

Practice counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s to 120. Practice when you are in the car...or right before bed.

Games You Can Play to Support Math at Home

I Spy

Directions:

• The first player looks for something they can see that is a 2-D shape. This can be any object, such as a building, toy, or article of clothing.

• Begin the game by saying, "I spy with my little eye, something that _____". The blank can be any clue about the object, such as "starts with the letter C", "is yellow", or "is round".

• The other players ask questions about the object. Questions can be asked about the color, placement (where it is), size, etc.

• The first player can only answer “yes” or “no.”  

• The other players keep guessing until they guess what the object is.

Addition Challenge

Materials: 

Playing cards 1-10 (the Ace is 1) or cards with 1-10 written on them. 

Directions:

Players take two cards each. They add the numbers together.

The person with the highest number gets to keep the cards.

The player with the most cards at the end wins.

Be on the lookout for Family Letters about each new math chapter.  

Read, Read, Read!  Please find below some fun ways to read with your child:

• Read recipes

• Read the grocery list

• Read road signs

Help your child use these decoding strategies when they are having trouble reading a tricky word.

• Check the picture for clues

• Look at the word

• Start the word

• Say the sound of the beginning letter or letters (stop)

• Move through the whole word (c-a-t)

• Notice the ends of words (looked)

• Look for chunks in words (ring)

• Ask questions like:  Does it look right?  Does it sound right?  Does it make sense?

Reading and Writing

This month we will continue to review the routines and procedures of Reading Workshop.  Students will learn about building good reading habits as well as important decoding strategies to help themselves read tricky words.  See how you can help too, in the School-to-Home section above.

This month we will also continue to review the routines and procedures of Writing Workshop.  Students will learn how to write a story about their own lives (a small moment story) and about the things they like to do.  Students will learn how to record the sounds they hear in words to write multiple sentences.  We will also focus on capital letters at the beginning of a sentence, spaces in between words and punctuation marks at the end of a sentence.  Although some of the students' writing will come home, most of it will be kept at school and shared with you at conferences. 

Math

This month we will begin a unit on Shapes and their characteristics.  Your child will explore the characteristics of shapes through sorting shape pictures and talking about the shapes characteristics.  They will also build pictures with shapes as well as break apart shapes into other shapes.  Your child will spend time cutting and folding shapes into halves and fourths as well as begin to explore telling time to the hour and half hour.

Phonics

The children are so engaged in Phonics and love our class mascot: a lion named Rasheed.  Sometimes we write letters to him and sometimes he leaves messages for us.  So far he has left us some "Snap Words".  The children have been busy noticing and studying words to see how they are similar to some words they know and how they may be different from other words they know.  They have learned the steps to study a word and are applying their skills they learned in Kindergarten while learning some new "Snap Words" and studying the names of their new classmates.

Social Studies

Your child is learning about getting along in school and how we are alike and different.  They had a chance to interview a classmate and learn about the importance of listening to one another.  This month they will explore classroom and school rules and why they are important.  Your child will also be thinking, drawing and talking about the different groups they belong to: family, school and community.

Science

We will begin our first unit called "Blast Off to Space".  Throughout the unit the class will work to answer the following questions:

How does the movement of the earth create the pattern we observe of night and day?

How does the movement of the moon and earth create the appearance of moon phases?

What is the connection between the time of sunrise and sunset and the changing seasons?

The children are excited to be scientists!