Today we had 3 Guest Readers!
Dr. Chochol, Dir. Of Elem Education
Mrs. Balestrieri, Madilyn’s mom
Mrs. Khuja, Ahmad’s mom
Thanks readers!

Today we were visited by 2 more readers. Jennah Saad’s mom read “snow” and Mrs. Fitzpatrick read ” A Leprechaun’s Gold. . Thanks readers!

Yesterday we enjoyed hearing from 2 more readers.

Mrs. Saad, Jennah’s mom read Snow and Mrs. Fitzpatrick read A Leprechaun’s Gold.  Thanks readers…we sure do love books!

We are all excited in here and checking out all of the GREEN and SHAMROCKS that people are wearing!  We made a leprechaun and have had a great discussion about what they would do if they found the leprechaun’s pot of gold.  Today they are writing their thoughts about how they would spend the money.

Tuesday my class will visit the Book Fair.  Wednesday will be Purchase Day for my class.

We are hearing some great stories from our Guest Readers.  Thanks Parents and Grandparents!

READING-We begin Unit 8-Plants.  This week’s theme is How Trees Grow.

WRITING-Writing stories and directions in sequence.  First, Next, Last

I will relate some of our writing to trees and how they grow.

SPELLING-Weekly words are “little  said” and our letter/sound focus is

“K k” “ck”.   For our spelling chunk this week I chose “ot” (to go with pot of gold!  🙂 )

Mrs. Smith

As we finish our unit ” How Weather Affects Us” we did a science experiment to show how blubber keeps animals warm in cold weather. Ask your student about how we did this. Take a look at 3 students. I would like to have taken pictures of all but It’s difficult to hold a camera with only one hand while ” blubber” is on the other hand. br />

Look who read to us today…
Natalie’s Grandpa, Mr. Barsczowski
and Princess Amanda Balaka

Today we had our first guest reader—a former Kindergarten student of mine!!! Miss Amanda Balaka, reading ” The Middle Child Crow” by Kristyn Crow. Thanks Amanda!

FYI…I have a student with pink eye.  Note coming home today with information.

MATH MOMENT-Practice number facts from 0-10 with your student.

2+6=      5+3=   1+7=  etc.

These need to mastered so that they can make connections to numbers greater than 10.

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