Monday, October 8th
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October PTCs are scheduled for Monday, October 8th.
We apologize for the mistake in the date sent out last week at the parent orientation meetings.
Please take a moment to pick a time that works well with your schedule and sign up using the Google Sheets form above. Your child will need to attend the conference with you. The beginning of the conference will be an opportunity for your child to share his/her goals and thoughts about school. A form will be sent home later this month to help you prepare for our PTC. Thank you!
Dear Parents,
We have had some questions sent to us regarding how to best support your child while he/she completes homework assignments. Specifically, how much assistance should be given to your child when you see a mistake in the sentences he/she has written for Spelling homework.
We are in the process of helping our students become more independent in their school work and are strongly encouraging them to read, evaluate, then correct their own work before bringing it to the teacher to be checked. As we work toward independence, these skills are still new and we are asking parents to check their child’s homework and provide support to correct it as needed.
We are recommending the following steps to helping correct your child’s homework:
Ask Questions
Start with questions when he/she has finished, such as:
- "Have you checked that you have everything you need, such as capital letters, end marks, and correct spelling?"
- "Can you see any words we should check for spelling?"
- "Have you used your best handwriting?"
- "Is anything missing?"
Guide Their Attention
If you see mistakes, guide his/her attention toward the area that has the mistakes.
- "Let’s check the end of the sentence again."
- "What should we do at the beginning of a sentence?"
If he/she still hasn't picked up on any mistakes, you can give your advice to your child on what you would do.
- "I think we should fix that spelling here, what do you think?"
- "Maybe we should use a capital letter here, what do you think?"
- Spelling Correction - If it’s a weekly word from school, it should be spelled correctly in your child’s work. If it’s a new word, ask your child to sound it out and do his/her best to write the letters he/she hears. You can write the correct spelling above your child’s spelling. We will be able to look at the word and know if your child should be spelling that word correctly based on what letters and sounds have been taught at that point in the school year.
We believe that if you keep correction student-led and positive, this will help your child’s confidence while also encouraging him/her to speak more at length about his/her work and writing process. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email us.
Thank you for your support!
- Mr. Hassey & Ms. Allison
Extra Note
The first unit of writing has just begun and will last until October. During this unit, we will teach students:
- how to write complete sentences (naming part, telling part)
- types of sentences (telling sentences, asking sentences, exclamatory sentence)
- punctuation (. ! ?)
- capital letters
- editing marks
Throughout the school year we will also focus on other parts of writing, including other punctuation marks, grammar, and parts of speech.
- plurals
- alphabetical order
- using the right word (homophones)
- nouns
- verbs
- adjectives
- pronouns
- commas
- apostrophes
Readers Build Good Habits
This week we reviewed our Reader’s Workshop routine (mini-lesson, independent reading, closing). We also started a new Reading unit focusing on how readers build good reading habits.
At the beginning of the week, I introduced Real Reading vs. Fake Reading. During independent reading time (Read to Self), students are practicing how to stay focused, show "real reading" and build their reading stamina.
Read to Self
- Eyes on own book
- Read whole time
- Stay in smart spot
- Read quietly to yourself
- If you are done, get another book quickly
Students also learned that there are different ways to read a book.
3 Ways to Read
- Read the Pictures
- Read the Illustrations
- Retell the story
Sentences and Paragraphs
This week students learned that a complete sentence is a group of words that tell a complete thought. We also practiced putting words in the correct order and checking if the sentence makes sense.
Writing Sentence Rules
Rule 1 - Start each sentence with a capital letter
Rule 2 - Leave space between your words
Rule 3 - End each sentence with an end mark
Writing Vocabulary
Complete: has no missing parts
Order: the way things follow one another
Related: words that go together in some way
Sentence: group of related words in the correct order that states a complete thought
Naming Part: tells who or what the sentence is about
Telling Part: says something about the naming part
Weekly Focus: short a, short i
At the beginning of the week I introduced our weekly words and students helped sort the words into groups.
Week 1 Weekly Words
Short a: jam, sad, glad, flat
Short i: win, if, list, fix, dig,
Rule Breakers: want, was, been
During the week students practiced reading and spelling the words by participating in different spelling activities.
Spelling Activities
- chant spell the word
- unscramble sentences
- word clue riddles
- same beginning sound as...(word / picture)
- find the word that rhymes with...
Next week I will teach students a spelling game called Sparkle and we will start practicing how to put our weekly words in alphabetical order.
These words will be on display on our class' Word Wall and added to each student's Word Dictionary in the back of their Writing workbook. The Word Wall and Word Dictionary will be used during the school year to help students spell words correctly during Writing activities.
Numbers to 10
We completed our first chapter in Math. Students have been learning how to count objects to 10, how to compare numbers (more, fewer, greater than, less than), and how to complete number patterns (1 more, 1 less). Students took our chapter 1 test on Friday and were encouraged to do their best to show how much they have grown in their Math learning! Our class did a wonderful job following directions during the test and everyone put a lot of effort into their work!
Sound
This week we started our first Science unit, which focuses on sound. Students participated in an investigation to explore sound and vibration. We asked the question, "What causes sound?"
Making Sounds - What causes sound?
Students worked in groups using cups with rubber bands and wooden craft sticks to explore producing sound. We discussed the source of sound and found out it is vibrating. I made a table fiddle and students shared their observations when we plucked the string. Students made a smaller version of a table fiddle called a book fiddle. At the end of the investigation, we learned that sound always comes from objects that are vibrating and vibrating objects always make sound.
Science Vocabulary
vibrate
vibration
sound
sound source
pluck
back-and-forth motion
- Ms. Allison