March is reading Month is rolling along.  I have a sign up schedule available for parents to come in and read to our class.  Time slots are 9:00-9:15 or 3:00-3:15.  Please stop in and sign up.  Then choose a book from home (perhaps a favorite of your child’s books) and we’ll enjoy your story.

To encourage reading, Howard students are participating in a required number of minutes each week for reading.  K-2 are required to read for 120 minutes each week.  As students complete the required number of minutes each week, I will place a “paw print” (to go with our “WILD ABOUT READING” THEME)  on a book posted outside my room.  I will be using our READ TO SELF/READ TO SOMEONE time for the required reading minutes.  Of course, I’m sure you will continue with daily reading at home.  WOW-lots of reading!

Reminders-Wednesday is LATE START.  Check the lunch menu on Tuesday because I will be taking lunch count on Tuesday for both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wednesday is LIBRARY DAY.  Tuesday night have your child pack the backpack for Wednesday.  Have them put in their Library Book, shoes, any homework,      Journal,  etc.  They can handle the responsibility and it helps them with Organizational Skills.

Here’s our week…

READING-Week 3 of Unit 7   “How Weather Affects us” is our theme.  We will discuss characters and their actions (verbs) in stories.  We will review our letters and words for this unit-what  and  this  do  for  you  E e  B b  L l.

WRITING-We will review chunks ed   ad  am  an  ap  at  As you read with your child, have them find these words and chunks in words.  Reading practice like this helps with Accuracy and Fluency, which are important components of reading.  We will also be writing sentences with several action (verbs) in them.  Of course we will compare texts (stories) that we read during the week.  I’m always checking and assessing Comprehension when we retell stories,   By the way,  last Friday I taught them about syllables and that each syllable has a vowel in it.  We checked it out all day.  Pretty awesome concept for 5-6 year olds!!

MATH & SCIENCE-We will be making a graph about weather and also taking a survey.  We’ll also be using the calculators.   We’ll be doing some skip counting by 2’s.  They really enjoy those calculators!  Number Families and Story Problems using Subtraction will be in this week’s Math.  They know to start with the BIGGEST NUMBER when you subttract.  They are also getting quite comfortable with fact families, without using fingers.   They don’t even get confused with 0 as one of the 3 numbers in the family.

(4,6,10)                         (0,7,7)

4+6=10                         7+0=7

6+4=10                         0+7=7

10-6=4                          7-0=7

SOCIAL STUDIES-We will continue with our unit “WHO AM I?’   We’ll explore a map and a globe.  (I’ll work in temperature with that too.)  We’ll check out our flag of THE UNITES STATES OF AMERICA.  Of course, we begin each morning with The Pledge of Allegiance and the Howard School Pledge.

I’m looking forward to another week of learning, growing, and having a great time together!

Mrs. Smith

10-4=6                       7-7=0

MATH

Yesterday we enjoyed some Paczkis and they were a big hit!  Even though the Paczkis come in different flavors, I just brought in custard.  I scored a home run with that flavor. They loved it and were still talking about them today.  Speaking of today, Jennah Saad’s mom sent in a huge pan of strawberries and you know how much they love strawberries!!  Thank you Mrs. Saad!

I forgot to add the letter L  l as another letter for his week.  (Remember we also have B  b).

Tomorrow is Picture Day.  All students will have their picture taken and parents will decide later if you want to purchase the picture package.

We made WILD bookmarks and faces to match our WILD about reading theme!

Homework will be coming home tomorrow, Tuesday, not today.

So will March reading logs.

What fun we are having with the number 100!!  In fact, we are going to continue our 100th day activities over to tomorrow.

READING-Our theme this week is Seasons.  We will talk about the weather and temperatures in each season.

WRITING-Our letter is B  b  and words are and   what.  We will be writing about seasons.

SOCIAL STUDIES-We will discuss seasonal jobs, like raking leaves in the fall, having a lemonade stand in the summer.

Since March is Reading Month and Howard School’s theme is “Wild About Reading,”  we will be reading about wild animals.  Today we read a story about a bear and then went on to make a chart of things that we already know about bears.

Look for some homework coming home tonight.  Due tomorrow.

Thanks for your help and support on the home front.

I’m looking forward to another busy, fun week.

Mrs. Smith