Week of March 5 - 9

Dear Parents,

A fantastic book turn-out for Dr. Seuss’s birthday on Friday! Thank you to everyone who participated.  We made great Cat in the Hat hats and wore them all day long while we rhymed and laughed with Dr. Seuss, Horton, and the Lorax.  Continue the spirit of Read Across America by reading with your scholar at least 15 minutes each day/night.  I’ve suggested some great Dr. Seuss books below to keep the momentum going...

This Week’s Lessons...

In Phonics, we will start “short e” sounds with words such as ten and pet (see the spelling words to the left).  We will start a new book in our phonics series, Red Hen.  Our spelling test is Friday.  Keep up the great work studying with your scholars at home.  I’ve heard from other parents there are great resources online to help the kids study.  If you have come across any you particularly like, please post the sites in the comment section below so everyone is in the loop.

In math, we will continue our chapter on money and have our test on Friday.  This week we will be taking the concept of the penny and expanding it to nickels, dimes, and quarters.  Just as we learned two weeks ago about grouping ones into tens to help us count faster and easier, so will we learn about why we use nickels, dimes, and quarters.  Continue to reinforce this at home by taking your scholar with you to run errands and help with purchases you make.

Family Project

I will be assigning a new family project for the month of March (due in April) next week.  Please keep an eye out for the information to come home next Monday.

Book Club...

Some perhaps lesser-known Dr. Seuss books for you to peruse:

Enjoy!

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).

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 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