News from the Jungle

Happy Snow Day! I hope everyone is safe and warm today.

We will take our spelling and math test on Monday.

If you have questions about the NWEA report that was sent home, please email me and I will be happy to answer your questions.

Please continue to do NWEA practice with your child over the next few months. Not only is it good practice for the test, but these are skills that they will need to know for First grade. This website can help reinforce skills we are learning each day at school. Please find the Prepdog link below:

https://www.prepdog.org/

Coming soon on homework, the math story will include making a number bond. We also call this part, part, whole. For any of you that may not be familiar with this concept, here are a few videos in order to help you support your child’s learning at home:

If you need help on how to support your child in completing the homework packet, please refer to the homework packet instruction video. You can find this video at the top of our blog under the new tab called “How-To Videos.” This is where I will put any videos I have made for the class in order to make it easier to find the videos.

PLEASE PUT YOUR CHILD ON READING EGGS AND MATH SEEDS EACH NIGHT!!!! This is a great way to supplement and support their learning!

If you misplaced your child’s login and need the information again, please email me at dimitrm@dearbornschools.org

Upcoming Events

2/13 Valentine celebration (Your child may bring Valentine’s to pass out)

2/13 – 2/14 Valentine Gram Sale (delivered on 2/16)

2/16 Assembly – Journey to the Center of the Earth

2/16 +7 Math Facts Quiz

2/16 Spelling Test: no, he, of, we, men, hen, ten, pen, then, when

2/16 100th Day (Please turn in 100 day projects on this day)

2/19 – 2/23 Mid-Winter Break

2/28 PBIS celebration – Solo Cup Competition

3/1 +8 Math Facts Quiz

3/1 Spelling Test: are, here, was, sit, hit, pit, fit, kit, bit, split

Agenda for the Week

Spelling Words for our next spelling test on 2/16: 

no, he, of, we, men, hen, ten, pen, then

Plus a bonus word which will be one of the following words: when, Ben, Jen, den

The purpose of the bonus word is to assess whether the children understand the word family pattern of each word ending in the same two letters -en.

These words will be in the homework which will come home on Monday!

Please remember the spelling booklet will come home on the Monday after the children take the test and will be expected to be reviewed, signed, and returned to school on Tuesday. This will be the protocol for the test booklets each week. At the end of the year, the test booklets will be sent home for you to keep.

Reading and Writing: This week we practiced writing more informational writing by writing facts about penguins. The children learned new facts about penguins and wrote a topic sentence and three facts on our blueprint. The children also created a penguin craft. These are hanging in the hallway.

Math: The children will take their +6 math test on Monday! Next week, we will focus on learning +7 math facts. Our test will be on Friday, February  16th.

The scope of our math curriculum for the rest of the year will be addition, subtraction, and greater than or less than concepts.

The children continued learning about base 10 blocks and how to count tens and ones to make a number. For example one bunch of 10 and 2 ones makes 12. We included many base 10 activities in our math centers this week and we played base ten bingo as a class.

The children also learned how to play a game called around the world where they verse each other in identifying shapes, or finding sums to addition equations. This game can be used for many skills and is a fun way for the children to practice material they are learning throughout the day.

Here are some addition, subtraction, and greater than/less than videos to support your child’s learning:

Here are some addition videos:

Science: We continued learning about polar habitats! We completed a few more cut and glue activities to label body parts on polar animals and learned facts about the penguins.

Social Studies: We began talking about maps and landforms this week. The children are very interested in following directions on maps, identifying landforms, and loved learning about a compass. We have been discussing buildings, people, and jobs which we see in our community and have been coloring pictures of buildings and community jobs. These drawings will be used next week to create a huge map of a made up city from your child’s imagination. This activity will be completed with our fourth grade buddies from Mrs. Izbicki’s class.

Housekeeping Items:

Spelling booklets: Please be sure to return these promptly on Tuesday!

Snack Time

**** Due to a peanut allergy in our room, please do not send in any snacks that contain nuts.*****

Folders

Please make sure to empty the green folders each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before. Remember to initial the communication log and feel free to add any notes to me!