Ms. France's Friendly Forest Friends

                          WELCOME TO THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR 2025-2026!!!!

  Our first days of school went GREAT! Thank you so much for bringing in supplies, learning all about our new school year, and showing how to use our classroom rules and procedures. Homework will start Monday, August 11th with ten minutes of a math spiral review and ten minutes of silent reading. We go to the library one day a week so please make sure you are reading those books daily! 

      We are going to continue the first nine weeks in ELA with poetry, focusing on rhyme scheme. We will continue to review character's perspective. (We will also continue to review theme: what is the central message/moral), always reviewing plot and story structure. Who are the characters, where is the setting, what is the problem, the solution, and main events? We will also have our weekly word application (spelling and vocabulary words to know across the curriculum) on Friday. Our UFLI Lesson Numbers can be found in your child's agenda or on the calendar below every Monday. After every cold read, we will Team Time on it in class and then it will go home in the following Monday Folder for you to review. Our fourth cold read will be in October.

SKILLS WE ARE WORKING ON: Comprehension: Retell a text. Review: character, setting, plot, compare and contrast and theme. Vocabulary Strategy: Context Clues.  Synonyms/Antonyms. Conventions: Plurals -y to -ies and Apostrophes to form contractions. We are also working on using a dictionary. Context/Connotation and Homonyms/Homophones.

 In writing we will continue to work on central ideas, strong introductions using either question, question, statement OR whether _____,  _____, and/or _______, _________ is _______ in two (ways, reasons, or qualities). And as always, we are continue to find evidence in the text that support the main idea that proves the controlling main idea. We are practicing elaboration starters: Imagine if, what if, this means, put another way. Finally, as we revise and edit our work we double check to make sure the transition words are there to connect sentences together. Some examples are: according to (cite the source), therefore, likewise, just like, and consider ___. We then wrap up with a conclusion that restates the controlling main idea.

In Math we are working on fact families, along with ten more, ten less, one hundred more, and one hundred less. As well as greater than and less than, and ordering and comparing numbers. Our next assessment will be in October. 

Please continue to review place value with hundreds, tens, and ones, ten more, ten less, hundred more, hundred less, and fact fluency. Regrouping is necessary in second grade and onward, so please continue to practice that skill all year. Practicing subtracting from a zero is an essential skill!

      We will still spiral review two digit numbers, place value with standard form, expanded form, and word form, as well as add ten more, subtract ten less, add one hundred more, subtract one hundred less. We are also practicing facts every day to become more fluent with our adding, subtracting with numbers 0-12. Math Homework is Monday-Thursday nights, evens on the front page and all of the back practice page. Fact Fluency assessments are every Friday. Please practice multiplication facts 0-12 every night! Flashcards are a great way to practice fact fluency! Our next math tests will take place over the course of the next few weeks, once we have mastered two-digit addition and subtraction.

We are going to learn all different topics in Science and Social Studies each nine weeks. We will start science with the nature of science: what is a scientist? What are tools scientists use? How can we be scientists and collect data? And end the first nine weeks with rocks, soil, and severe weather. 

In Social Studies we are learning all about what it means to be a good citizen and how we can show patriotism for our Country. What are some symbols of the United States? We will also learn a little bit about the Constitution, the Declaration of Rights, the Bill of Rights, and the Three Branches of Government during Freedom Week and Constitution Day in mid-September.

 As always any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out at colleen.france@tvcs.org.