Reminder that tomorrow at 1:30 is our Clean Up Parade!!  Wear your blue shirts and we’ll carry our signs.  See you tomorrow.

East on N. York

South on Hollandar

West on ?

North on Lawrence

Just listen for the band…they’ll be leading us.

We are excited!

A few things before I post next week’s plans…

Mon-Fri my class will be leading the entire school in reciting “The Pledge of Allegiance!”  I will send a different group of 5 down to the office in the morning.  They are excited about this special moment.

Tuesday Howard School will be having our “Clean Up Parade.”  This event has been going on in Dearborn since I was in Elementary School in Dearborn.  We loved being able to walk in the streets and carry our sign.  What does that mean for you??  You can make a poster at home this weekend for your child to carry in the parade.  “Don’t be a Litter Bug…Keep Dearborn clean”  or “Recycle, Reduce, Reuse” or “Clean Up, Paint Up Fix Up” or whatever you and your child would like to state.  We would like the Kindergarteners to wear their Howard T-shirts or any blue shirt they have.  Just a fun afternoon.  Parade starts at 1:30 and will travel from N.York to Wilson to ? to Lawrence to N. York.  Following the parade, there will be a short program out on the school lawn.  Bring your camera.  🙂

BIRTHDAYS-I understand there is some confusion about the birthday celebrations.  If your child has a summer birthday, I would like to have a special day to honor your child, like I do when birthdays fall throughout the year.  Please contact me for a date when we can celebrate your child’s summer birthday.  If your child’s birthday has already and you missed sending in cookies or cupcakes for their day and would still like to do so, please contact me and I’ll see what I can arrange.

Friday is our Moments with Mom.  I hope you can join us.  9:00-9:45 ish .

Thursday, May 18-Greenfield Village Class Field Trip

Lots going on and many wonderful things to celebrate as we move through these days.

Any questions…please catch me on Monday.  I will not be here tomorrow.

READING-MOTHERS!!!!!!

WRITING-MOTHERS

SPELLING-come  us  bed  fed  led  red  wed  sled  shed  shred=10 Words

MATH-Inequalities  <  >  =

Enjoy your weekend and thank you again for my board, the flowers and watching my class during the luncheon for the Teachers.  Lovely.

P.S.  Since I won’t be here tomorrow, I gave them their weekly spelling test today.  Surprise!  Most got 100%.  If they missed words it was due to incorrect letters…bad (bab)   lad (lab)   I discussed this a lot with them throughout the week.  So, gentle reminders during your daily practice of the words to write the correct letters.  Have them practice writing the words, which will help them see what they are writing.  Are all the letters going in the correct direction?

Mrs. Smith

Look at what I saw as I walked into my classroom on Monday morning…

So bright and cheerful…Thank you Homeroom parents!

Today my students delivered these flowers to me.

Aren’t they lovely?  and my room smells nice too! Each one of the students wanted to point out their flower to me.  They were very proud.   Again, thank you parents.

NWEA schedule was changed yesterday morning to

Thursday PM-Math

Friday AM-Reading (first thing!!)

I hope you are enjoying these delightful spring days.  I will be taking them outside for some of our writing and reading in this relaxing weather.

READING-Week 3 of Unit 9 Animals Then and Now.

COMPREHENSION STRATEGY-Asking Questions

COMPREHENSION SKILL-Distinguishing between Fantasy and Reality

WRITING-Informational   What we know and learn about Dinosaurs.

SPELLING- “ad” family     bad  dad  glad  had  mad  sad  lad      so    some=9 words

MATH-I will really be focusing on Number Stories   You may remember them as “story problems.”  I also will be working with different tools to use to help move numbers in our heads…a number line (in front of room) 100 chart (in their book box), tape measures (in MATH CENTER) , rulers, yard sticks, etc.   I often will give them a math moment, where I toss out a story problem.  While I am interested in the correct answer, I am also interested in their mental strategies.  For example, today I asked them, “How much is 10 + 15” ?  I purposely put the numbers in that order.  Two students answered correctly with “25.”  When i asked each one how they got their answer, one  started with 15 and added 10 to it.  The other student took 5 from the 15, leaving 10 + 10 =(20) and then added 5 to 20 and got 25.  Fantastic strategies and great number awareness!

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES-Dinosaurs!!

We have had 2 fantastic days “cleaning up our Earth.”  I sorry I don’t have any pictures of my Scientists in Action…my phone is full.  They were just so much to watch participating in cleaning up our school yard!!  They were pretty disgusted with how much litter they found.  LOOK OUT…they will be watching you!!

Looking ahead…

Tuesday and Friday my class will be taking the NWEA test.  PLEASE make every effort to have your child here ON time and no early leaving! Good sleep and a healthy breakfast are important too.

Enjoy your weekend.

Mrs. Smith

READING-Week 2 of Unit 9  Amazing Creatures.  We will begin reading Fish Faces.  We’ll make a list of some of the fish we read about in the book.  (Looking for Listening and Comprehension)

Tuesday we will create a word web about 4 fish. Again, remembering what we read the day before.  I will model writing 2 sentences, using the Word Web.

Wednesday they will write 2 sentences about fish, using the Word Web.

Thursday I will revise and edit their writing with them.

Friday they will Publish their writing and share with the class.

This is my weekly writing schedule that we have been doing since the fall.

SPELLING-bug  rug  tug  hug  jug  mug  plug  slug  has look

MATH-Function Machines    Once you see these you’ll be ready to work with them at home.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES-EARTH DAY all week   We’ll be taking about ways to “Save our Planet Earth.”  Recycle  Reduce  and Reuse

Message from Mrs. Beydoun, homeroom mother …Your child is bringing home a large envelope that she would like returned on Monday.

Message delivered Mrs. Beydoun 🙂

Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Smith

I took some pictures of the kids doing READ TO SELF.  They are so cute!!!  Take a look.  I didn’t catch a picture of Sarah because she was all curled up in a little bench that I have.  I’ll have to catch her next time.

Aren’t they precious!!  So engaged and focused.

Here are my April Students of the Month

Evelyn Sherding  Noah Zahr   Jenna Skinner

Mrs. Smith

Would someone PLEASE slow down the days!!  I have so much I want to do with my kids and I’m running out of days with them.  YIKES!

Anyway, here are  my plans for next week…

READING-We will start Unit 9 Amazing Creatures.  Week one of Unit 9 will be about  Beetles.

My mini lessons will focus on Asking and Answering Questions.

WRITING-We will write about Beetles.  (Informational Writing using a text.  How do we get information from our reading?)

SPELLING-he  she  cot  dot  not  hot  got  shot spot = 9 words  Please spend some time every night reviewing these words with your child.

MATH-“Number Bonds”  You’ll understand when your child brings home their work.  On Friday we are going to play a game called “Quack Attack!”  They will enjoy this game.

SCIENCE-EARTH DAY all week

Spring Pictures will be Friday, April 21.

Happy Easter to each of your and your families.

Mrs. Smith

Evelyn and Dad                                           Maya and Mom                                       Noah Zahr and Mom

Nevaeh and Mom

Many many thanks to each of the readers!  The kids always enjoy having their parent/grandparent read to them.  Thank you again.  (One of my daughters teaches first grade on the west side of the state and every year she always puts out an offer to her families to be a guest reader.  Each year she has 1-2 parents who offer to read.  This year I had 28 readers in here.  A couple were parents of former students of mine and their kids don’t even attend Howard anymore!  The kids are at Bryant or DHS.  Isn’t that a wonderful show of the value of reading!)

Here’s what coming up next week..

READING- We will finish our Unit about Plants.  Our focus will be “What is in your Garden?”

WRITING-Descriptive writing (writing with adjectives) about a flower.

SPELLING-“it” family     bit  hit  fit  kit  lit pit slit       red  yellow  blue  (color words to be used when writing about the flowers)

MATH-Function Machines  (You’ll see some examples of these coming home next week.)

-Clocks

Have a glorious Spring Break!

Mrs. Smith

“Being soft-hearted does not make you a weak person.  It takes courage to stay delicate in a world that is sometimes cruel.”

Noah Beydoun and mom                       Mousa and mom                                    Mr. Salame (PTA President) and former                                                                                                                                                                          Kindergarten parent of 4

Rami and mom                                          Sophia, Madleen, and mom          Mila and mom

Chloe and mom                                          Laila, Noor, and mom                         Sarah and mom

READING-We will continue learning about PLANTS.  Our theme this week will be  Seeds and Plants.  We will begin with a book titled  Seed Secrets.  It’s a story about how seeds travel so we will be talking and learning about similies!  Watch for some comparisons to be made at home.

WRITING-Informational   We will continue with First, Next, Then, Last.  I have broken down their writing for them and they are doing well with this form of organizing thoughts for their writing.  This week they were writing about what they do before school in the mornings.

First I get up.

Next I make my bed.

Then I eat my breakfast.

Last I brush my teeth.

The Informational Writing will be sequencing steps about planting seeds.

SPELLING-den  hen  pen  men  ten  here  was  plant

Most of the students are getting all of the words correct each week.  thanks for the help on the home front!  It shows and they get soooo excited when they recognize a Spelling Word in their reading or writing.

MATH-Introduce the quarter next Friday    We also will start “Function Machines.”  What’s my Rule—you’ll see when they bring home some examples.

Next week is full of events.  Take a look…

All Week is Spirit Week  Check out the events.  They came home on a green piece of paper.

Wednesday-Conferences (I have already sent home the conference notes for those that I scheduled for this round.)

Thursday-6:00 Bingo for Books  White note came home regarding details.

Friday- (just an FYI for you) we will have an Assembly to wrap up March is Reading Month.  A huge thank you to all Parent Guest Readers.

Another case of strep and a case of stomach flu has visited our room again.  Keep those hands washed.

Hope this lovely weather stays so we can have some recess!!

Have a good weekend.

Mrs. Smith

“Worrying doesn’t take away tomorrow’s troubles.  It takes away today’s peace.”