Week of November 28 - December 2

Dear Parents,

Happy Thanksgiving from our farm to yours! We had a wonderful time last week creating some art work. I hope they brighten your home this holiday season...

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Boats That Float presentation last Wednesday. Each boat was so unique and ... floated! Very cool. Special thanks to Kinder and Jeff Butler for bringing hot chocolate and treats for the kids.  Truly appreciated!  Expect to see another family project after winter break. 

This week, we’re jumping back into our academics.  We finished reading Max and have started Sam and Al. I continue to be in awe with how the scholars are approaching their reading. Their enthusiasm to learn something new keeps my energy level as high as a 5-year old! 

Coupled with our reading, we will be doing a lot of rhyming activities and word decoding this week. Please continue to find opportunities at home to reinforce these concepts (“I spy” car games, grocery store treasure hunts, laundry matching, etc.). 

In math, we are going to start picking apart numbers to add and subtract them. We again will take the concept of “seeing” numbers in a different way... a hand’s on approach.  Also, the scholars are having a great time tackling each page in their workbooks. Please keep an eye out for the “note home” each time we start a new chapter. This page, directly from our workbooks, gives you an idea what we will be learning.  You can also refer weekly to the right column on our blog for a brief explanation.  Right now, we are completing one chapter every 2-weeks. We end each chapter with a “test” and I am thrilled with how well everyone is doing! I hope you have enjoyed seeing the results! 

In keeping with the idea I had a few weeks ago to give you some reading suggestions, here is a new list of some great stories to share with your scholars:

The Amazing Bone, William Steig

Blueberries by Sal, Robert McCloskey

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, Mordicai Gerstein

Nobody Rides the Unicorn, Adrian Mitchell

Old Turtle, Douglas Wood

One Fine Day, Nonny Hogrogian

Raising Dragons, Jerdine Nolen

Strega Nona, Tomie de Paola

More to come... just in time for the holidays!

In Science, we will continue to explore the idea of making observations in order to see the world in a different way. Expect to see homework concerning this topic for the next few weeks.

As Always...

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to email me, stop by the classroom, talk to Ms. Diane, or leave a comment on our blog.  Please become a “follower” of our blog and “like” our school’s Facebook page, if you haven’t already done so.

Have a terrific week!

Mrs. Stuhr

Boat that Floats Presentation (Optional)

Week of November 14 - 18

Dear Parents,

Well, the weather has definitely changed and our classroom is buzzing with Fall activities... 

Last week we donned our scientists’ caps and starting making observations about the world around us. We will continue these observations this week  and even go into the science lab for a demonstration on sinking and floating (and making observations accordingly). 

Starting on Monday we will begin reading Max, our first phonics reader in the short vowel series.  We are going to pay attention to the rhymes and patterns to help us form words. We will also be doing exercises with our new sight words.  We will be doing a lot of “looking for clues” in our reading.  This involves looking at pictures to help us figure out the text.  This is a very important exercise to work on at home as well during your nightly reading time. Some fantastic books with quality pictures are

Corduroy by Don Freeman, Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback, Snow by Uri Shulevitz

(such an incredibly shoooort list (for now). There are so many wonderful books out there! I will add more and more and more as the school year continues...)

This week, we will finish reviewing our alphabet letters. We will continue to work daily with their sounds to build even bigger words!  Please continue to work with your scholar to stay fresh on the letters, how to write them, and what sound(s) each make.

Also throughout this week we will continue to look at “patterns” in our math workbooks. By midweek, we will go onto “movement” and learn how to follow directions with left and right.

As Always...

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to email me, stop by the classroom, talk to Ms. Diane, or leave a comment on our blog.  Please become a “follower” of our blog and “like” our school’s Facebook page, if you haven’t already done so.

Have a terrific week!

Mrs. Stuhr

Week of November 7 - 11

Dear Parents,

Last week was a lot of fun! Thanks for coming to our Costume Parade and for your help making our class party on Monday a success. It’s always fun to use our imagination and play with the ideas of Halloween... my hat’s off to the students for their bravery with all our games. 

Speaking of bravery, the scholars did an outstanding job this week listening to sounds and building words.  We will continue to play our phonics games in class (see last week’s post) to prepare us for reading.

This week’s spelling list has FOUR words. I’m adding three new sight words and one word we’re learning in Max (see below). Also, we’re are almost done reviewing our alphabet letters. This week we’ll be doing P, Q, R, S, T... yes, one letter per day!  

Drum roll please... This week marks our first leap into beginning reading! We are starting a phonics series that has been around since the 1970’s. It’s a great tool to help the scholars hear sounds, implement sight words, and build rhyming words.  Our first book is Max, from Series A (short vowel sounds). Working with a partner, we will read this book throughout the week with the goal of learning to read the whole thing by ourselves. 

We are beginning Chapter 2 in our math workbook. My original thought was to do a chapter per week, but I think we’ll go slower and do a chapter every two weeks (and pick up the pace in the last half of the year). In terms of our number recognition, we’ve started to explore the concept of counting by two’s and putting things in pairs.

Thanksgiving Project (OPTIONAL)

In this week’s homework packet is the project assignment for the month of November. It is due on Wednesday, November 23rd (the day before Thanksgiving vacation).  It’s a family project that I hope you’ll have fun completing. 

To incorporate physical properties of matter into Thanksgiving (because, really, what holiday of giving thanks would be complete without it?), we are going to build the Nina, the Pinta, or the Santa Maria!  In class, we are going to learn about how boats float (i.e. the bigger the boat, the more it holds). Your assignment is to build a boat that 1) holds three Thanksgiving objects of your choice and 2) floats!  See the assignment for more information (like the “optional” clause!) 

As Always...

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to email me, stop by the classroom, talk to Ms. Diane, or leave a comment on our blog.  Please become a “follower” of our blog and “like” our school’s Facebook page, if you haven’t already done so.

Have a terrific week!

Mrs. Stuhr