Week of January 9 - 13

Dear Parents,

Hope you’ve had a terrific start to 2012! It’s great to see everyone back... the scholars have hit the ground running and are really, truly impressing me with their skills!

Last week we played with words with “short i” sounds and wrote a sentence with our spelling words. We worked in more detail with numbers 0-5, paying special attention to zero, and did some graphing, comparing objects.  We observed the weather (and discussed how unusual our 80 degree weather is for winter!) and are graphing the daily changes (or lack thereof!) for the next week. 

This Week’s Lessons...

We are going to continue with “short i” words, listening to rhyming words and reading Jim Wins for even more practice.  We will finish Chapter 4 in math this week and conclude this lesson with charting items around the school.  In Science, we are going to talk about conserving our resources and what it means to reduce, reuse, and recycle. At the end of the week, we’ll be taking a pledge to be more earth-friendly. 

Please Note...

This week is our last week with 4 spelling words.  Starting next week, we are upping our study words to SEVEN. Our 7 spelling words will consist of 3 sight words and 4 decodable words. Our decodable words next week will review “short a.” Spelling tests are still on Friday morning.

Also, this week will conclude our Earth Science lessons and we’ll be switching gears to History for a few months. We’ll come back to science in Spring to talk about Life Science (plants and animals). 

Volunteering...

We now have a calendar hanging on the “NEWS” bulletin board by the front door of our classroom.  Please flip through the months and sign up for a few spots.  Separate volunteer sign-up forms will go out for holiday parties (as usual, on our clipboard).

Book Club...

Here are some new titles for your perusal and shopping pleasure...

Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming

Tough Boris by Mem Fox

The Surprise Family by Lynn Reiser

Our Granny by Margaret Wild

You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman

Kipper’s A to Z: An Alphabet Adventure by Mick Inkpen

Gus and Grandpa at Basketball by Claudia Mills

Juan Bobo Goes to Work by Marisa Montes

And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel

Enjoy!

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