Week Two--Check!

Here is a look at what we've been up to this week!

If you have missed a post from last week, feel free to go back to the main screen, scroll, and read. Typically I will update with a post (newsletter) every two weeks at a minimum.

Have you seen our #classroombookaday virtual bulletin board? Visit by clicking here. 

Do you have a Twitter account? I will occasionally post snippets of our day using my personal Twitter account, @Betsy_writes and will include @FPE_Olivet and #EagleNationPride. You can search any of these to see our latest tweets. 

We finished our first chapter book read-aloud, The Hundred Dresses. It is a favorite of mine to share at the beginning of the year. Our new classroom chapter book read-aloud is The Night Crossing. 

Reading

Students continue to choose books that are part of a healthy reading diet. We discussed selecting books that are not only at our reading level but that also are of interest or maybe different from what we typically read. It is always my goal to stretch students' reading lives to explore books that include both a variety of text types but also grow them as readers.
Every morning we do something called, "The Reading Minute." Through next week I will continue to "host" the reading minute portion of our day. This week I read two different page spreads from a favorite nonfiction picture book and two poems. After next week I will be putting a sign-up sheet in the classroom to open up the reading minute for student led selections. Any day that is left available I will fill in myself. Students can share a favorite paragraph from their independent reading, maybe a news article, a poem, or anything that takes about a minute to read and is appropriate for a school audience. This gives students an opportunity to practice reading in front of a group and a chance to share text they enjoy. It is completely optional but I will be encouraging students to give it a try. Consider starting to collect text for the reading minute that your child might like to read for the class. Maybe even practice a few times at home!

Writing

Writing exercises have been a focus as we begin to expand our writing workshop routines. This week we did a stamina challenge exercise, people/memory exercise, and a four box exercise to work our writing muscles. 

Math

We continue to work on noticing groups and efficiently multiplying items within groups to find solutions to both word problems and equations. This week we focused on determining what information was shared within a problem and what was unknown. Ask your child to explain our two math vocabulary words of the week: factor, product. 

Spelling

This week students reviewed a handful of consonant sounds and we explored the many different spellings that can take the "shape" of these sounds. We will continue to review and discuss all 44 phonemes (sounds) as we launch into our individual spelling plans. Our main focus for a majority of the school year will be on the many different vowel patterns that occur in print. There will be occasional spelling homework with a majority of the tasks completed during the school day. Spelling tests on frequently misspelled sight words that are expected to be mastered this year will occur as needed. I base most of my spelling instruction on student needs and what they are doing within their writing pieces. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding spelling instruction or expectations.