Wow, the Social Studies Timelines look fantastic!!  We took quite a bit of time sharing each student’s timeline.  They were very intrigued with the early photos.  Some of them (Claire Brice) haven’t changed all that much, while others have changed a lot.  I showed the baby-1 year old photos and they tried to guess the student.  So much fun.  I want to keep them for a while because they are so interested in them.  Mrs. Chami and Mrs. Fawaz, they had A LOT of questions for you as to how you could tell “Which baby is which??” So cute! They also enjoyed reading the words that they wrote under each picture.  I love this interest.

To go with their growth, I am sending home a picture that they made last September.  Some tried to hand it back to me saying that it wasn’t their picture, that they don’t write or draw like that.  I told them to look at how much they’ve grown from September to now.  Just 5 months!

READING-I am sticking with the general theme of ANIMALS, but I’m going way off the grid for the next 2 weeks!  I’ll be doing ENDANGERED ANIMALS.  We’ve already started talking about some of the animals and I showed them how I used technology to find information.  They are very intrigued and excited about this unit.  I have chosen 4 animals and we will study, research, and chart information about each animal.  Look and listen for new vocabulary to come home regarding the animals.

WRITING-The animals

LETTERS-Q q  Z z

WORDS-lives  habitat

MATH-We will continue to create numbers with the math manipulatives.  You can do this at home…use pencils to represent the 10’s and buttons, pennies, Cheerios, to represent the 1’s.  Ask your child to “Make the number 36.”  That would be 3 pencils and 6 buttons.  Place the pencils on the left side and buttons on the right side, just like we read (left to right).

It will look something like this.

Today we went up to 138.  Keep going as long as they get the process.  Practice counting by 10’s and adding on 1’s.

SCIENCE-Weather

Another suggestion…many of them keep asking me how to spell words, which is VERY typical and expected.  I’m sure they do the same at home.  That’s a good thing-that tells me they are interested in writing.  So, give them things to write that they will need to sound out the words.  Not just copying your words!  Copying doesn’t make them”power through” the word, stretching it out, listening to the sounds that their mouth is making.  Have them write Thank you notes to Grandma/ Grandpa/Aunt/Uncle/Cousins/Neighbor.  Have them write the grocery list, the things you need to do this Saturday, etc.

Make my bed

Put away my shoes

Go to the bank

Grocery shop (have them make the list)  milk,

bread,

eggs

chicken

They can do so much.  Set your expectations and hold them to those expectations.

Have a great week.

Mrs. Smith