REVIEW WEEK: Literacy Unit: Celebrations in Neighborhoods and Community Workers

Reading: Alicia’s Happy Day, Elves and the Shoemaker, Is this the job for you?, Why is the moon in the sky and Valentine’s Day stories

Writing: “For You” heart book. We will discuss things that will make us happy and create a book with sentence stem: “This___is for you.” It will be in a shape of a heart.

Spelling words: split, pit, hit, for we, see

Letters of the week: Review (Hh, Dd, Rr)

Word Family: -it (bit, hit, fit, kit, lit, pit, sit, wit, zit, split, slit)

Math: It’s all about coins. We will review the value of pennies, nickels and dimes. We will count coins with similar values and combine different coins and write its value. We will be adding using coins. Students need to know numbers 0-100. Students will need to know how to count by 5’s and 10’s to 100. So we will continue to practice for those who struggle. Please complete number charts that will be coming home if not complete.

Science: We will continue to discover and investigate landforms and document in our science journals. We will look at mountains, rivers,

Social Studies: We will continue to create a maps and explore different types of maps. We review compass rose and map keys. We will practice using a map and move within a map. We will differentiate among  globes and maps.

Important Reminders:

• Late Start: Wednesday, February 10th
• St. Valentines Day Party: Thursday, February 11th- for those who are interested in sharing valentines, we have 27 students (15 girls, 12 boys)
• No school/Mid-Winter Break: Friday-Monday (February 12th-15th); return to school Tuesday, February 16th

The Ronald McDonald House at Children Hospital in Detroit. Please send $1 in tomorrow.  Our school is collecting money for this charitable organization that provides families a place to stay while their child is being treated at Children’s Hospital at little or no cost.

Thanks for your support!

-Ms. Mohamed

As of today, we started 2nd semester and card marking 3! We are half way through the year already! Can you believe it????

Literacy Unit: NEIGHBORHOOD.  This week’s theme is People and Places.

Reading: We’ll read a story called Bus Stops, The Park, Ms. Mouse needs a friend, Acrefoot the Barefoot Mailman. We will continue to discuss community places and people. Remember a community is a place where we live, grow, learn and play.

C.A.F.E. Strategies: 

• Comprehension: STRATEGY-Summarize, SKILL-Identify Main Idea and Details
• Fluency: WORDS- For  for   You  you, LETTER- D  d
• Accuracy/Expanding Vocabulary: WRITING-Directions    First, Next, Last.  We’ll make a book about First,  Next,  Last.

Spelling Words: mat    hat   flat   the  you  I 

I will choose some words from a word family (this week is the “at” family), one word will have a blend at the beginning (“flat”), and the remaining words will be sight words (words that they should know by heart).

Word Family: -at (flat, cat, mat, hat, rat, sat, that, bat)

MATH-We will continue to work on “tens and ones.” We will revisit the penny and its value. We will explore the nickel and its value. We will practice exchanging with the nickel and pennies. We will make a survey and graph it. We will also revisit shapes.

For example, “16  is _?__tens and ___?__ones.   16 is  1  10  and 6 ones.”

“10 is 1 10 and 0 ones.”

SOCIAL STUDIES-Map making!  Last week we made a map of our neighborhoods.  This week we will add to it land forms. We will continue to review a compass rose and how to read a map.

SCIENCE-We will work with PHYSICAL SCIENCE.  We’ll start with Landforms (mountains and rivers, plains, and oceans). We will explore these areas and record them in our science journals.

REMINDERS: 

• JANUARY  CALENDARS are due today.
• Second Semester will bring WEEKLY SPELLING TESTS.  I will post the words each week and the tests will be on Fridays.  Our first Spelling Test will be February 5, 2016.  Of course, we will begin with an easy start.   To give the students a chance to practice the words, you can go to SpellingCity.com and type in the words on my list.

We are finishing our endangered animal posters…..

We will begin Unit 6 NEIGHBORHOOD.

READING-We will read about who is a neighbor, what jobs do some of our neighbors do, and what are some special places in our neighborhood.

COMPREHENSION STRATEGY-Summarizing

COMPREHENSION SKILL-Identifying Main idea and Details

WRITING-Opinion Writing    You can work with this at home…Ask your child what is their favorite pet, color, book, season, number, place to visit, thing to do on the weekend, vacation…  Then (here comes the important part) ask them “Why is that your favorite pet, color, book, season, number, place to visit…  

WORD-“Are  are”

LETTER-“H  h”

SOCIAL STUDIES-Maps  We will be using maps to explore locations near and far.  This will go along with our Reading Unit of NEIGHBORHOODS.  We’ll use a globe, a World map, a Michigan map, use Google Maps, and maybe we’ll make a treasure map!  I’ll show them a Compass Rose.  I’ll give them directions to find an object in the room or school.  ie “Facing North, take 8 steps North, 7 steps east, 15 steps north, etc.  Who knows where they’ll end up??

MATH-We’ll use the ones units and ten rods to make numbers.  Then we’ll read them.

A few reminders…

Reminders:

• Half day Friday, January 29th. No lunch will be served. Dismissal at 11:45
• Friday are library days. Please make sure your child has their library book.
• The district is sponsoring a bottled water drive to help the families in Flint. We will be collecting bottles all next week. While we will accept individual bottles of water, it would be helpful if people donated packages.
• Our class is need of glue sticks, please donate if you can.
• Pizza kits are due today.
• Next week: Kindergarten begins weekly SPELLING TESTS. Practice those sight words.  I will always post the SPELLING WORDS for the week.

Thanks for your support!

– Ms. Mohamed

Review week!

We will read a story Mole and the Baby Bird and discuss habitats of these animals and others.

Endangered animals project continued…

• Each child will create a research project in school where they will choose one endangered animal to discuss how they appear (fur, feather, thick skin, scales, tails, wings, etc),  what they eat (herbivores, carnivores, omnivore), where they live (habitats and continents they originate from), why they are endangered and and how they can help. We will use the internet, books and videos to help develop our research. We will categorize and classify types of animals in specific groups. We will assemble our projects this week.
• The homework is the fact from home part of the project.

Vocabulary

• Endangered animals: animals that are close to extinction. (ie. koala, sea turtle, panda, rhino, Siberian tiger, African elephant, etc.)
• Extinct: no longer living. (ie. the dinosaurs, mammoths, saber-tooth tiger, etc.)
• Habitat: a place where you live
• Herbivore: plant eater
• Carnivore: meat eater
• Omnivore: plant and meat eater
• Climate: the long term weather the animal lives in

Sight words: (review: play, has  I, we, can, , a, the, like, is, it, in, am, see, go, to, have, and, because)

Letter of the week: Review all letters learned

Writing: We will continue to practice writing descriptions of animals. We will also practice writing our opinions.

Math:We will practice counting 0-100, by 10’s to 100 and by 5’s to 100. We will practice measurement using the standard and non-standard measurement of a foot. We will explore using a yard stick. We will explore a number chart 0-100.

Science/Social Studies: Each child will choose an animal to research. We will investigate what they look like, what they eat (plant/meat eaters-herbivore/carnivore), where do they live (location on a map and types of habitat), why they are endangered, and what they can do to help. We will also revisit our time lines. We will discuss past, present and future.

Reminders: 

Late Start: Wednesday, January 20th

To go along with our Endangered Animals Project, your child needs to complete the worksheet titled “Question: In what climate does your animal live?”  Climate refers to temperature and weather conditions, not habitat nor continent.  Student needs to finish the sentence “My animal lives in __________” on the worksheet and draw their picture of the animal in the climate.

Please return on Tuesday, January 19, 2016

***NO SCHOOL, Monday, January 18th: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Ms. Mohamed

Brrr! What a cold morning! Make sure your child is dressed appropriate for the bitter weather. Winter finally kicked in.

Literacy Unit: Animals continued…

The next 2 weeks we will focus on types of animals: Endangered vs non-endangered. Each child will create a research project in school where they will choose one endangered animal to discuss how they appear (fur, feather, thick skin, tails, wings, etc),  what they eat (herbivores, carnivores), where they live (habitats and continents they originate from), why they are endangered and and how they can help. We will use the internet, books and videos to help develop our research. We will categorize and classify types of animals in specific groups.

Vocabulary

• Endangered animals: animals that are close to extinction. (ie. koala, sea turtle, panda, jaguar, bald eagle, etc.)
• Extinct: no longer living. (ie. the dinosaurs, mammoths, saber-tooth tiger, etc.)
• Habitat: a place where you live
• Herbivore: plant eater
• Carnivore: meat eater

Sight words: play, has (review: I, we, can, , a, the, like, is, it, in, am, see, go, to, have, and, because)

Letter of the week: Ff (review all letter learned so far)

Writing: We will practice writing descriptions of animals. We will also practice writing our opinions.

Math:We will practice counting 0-100, by 10’s to 100 and by 5’s to 100. We will learn about measurement using the standard and non-standard measurement of a foot. We will explore using a ruler. We will practice counting using tally marks. We will create a graph using a tally mark survey of which endangered animal they researching. We will continue practice counting by 5’s by creating bean raft as a concrete way of counting by 5’s.

Science/Social Studies: Each child will choose an animal to research. We will investigate what they look like, what they eat (plant/meat eaters-herbivore/carnivore), where do they live (location on a map and types of habitat), why they are endangered, and what they can do to help. Your child will listen to stories, watch videos, read articles, and use the internet to collect information. The choices will be: bald eagle, koala, panda, jaguar and sea turtle. Please discuss with your child on the animal they choose.

Note: We are in need of snack, please donate if you can! Thanks!

-Ms. Mohamed

Congratulations to the students of the month of December:

Dania Taha

Adam Khanafer

Keep up the great work!!!!!

Welcome Back Everybody!

Literacy Unit:  ANIMALS- Theme: ANIMALS WE KNOW. What animal do you like best?  Why?  Would it make a good pet?  How does that animal move?

Reading: We’ll read a story titled Mama Cat and Her Kittens.

Comprehension: READING STRATEGY- Recognizing Story Structure, READING SKILL-Make and Confirm Predictions

Accuracy: Blending 3 sounds to together, identifying medial sounds, recognizing and producing rhyme

Fluency: sight words and letters of the week

Expanding vocabulary: spacing between words, and punctuation

WORDS-(Note: 3 words this week.  We will use these words in our writing this week.)

  is    because   animal

LETTER–O  o

MATH-Review Calculators, count by 5’s, 10’s and 1’s to 100. Write numbers 0-50, add and subtract fluently within 5 and patterns.

SCIENCE-Comparing and Contrasting Animals

How they look    What they eat     How they move

Social Studies:  Timelines. We will create our own timelines. If you have not sent in a baby picture yet, please do so.

WRITING-Our district Writing Prompt will be in 3 weeks and the students will need to write an Opinion Piece.  To help prepare for this, I will be asking for their opinions on a multitude of topics.  They will then write a few of their opinions in sentences.  You can help with this at home.  Ask them questions, like “What’s your favorite cereal?   WHY?”  WHY is the opinion part of their answer.  They need give a reason (opinion) for their favorite cereal choice.

P.S.  “because” is not a reason!

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Lots of singing and tons of celebration! Hope everyone has a great holiday and Happy New Year!!

Ms. Mohamed