I wanted to clear up the topic of homework. I have had a couple of questions about it. I send home math homework most Fridays. The homework is due back the next Friday. I look over the homework that comes in, but do not resend it home. I send homework home for students to get extra practice as well as for parents to see what we are doing in math. It tends to be different from how we learned math in school :) Please let me know if you ever have any questions. Also, I would like the kiddos to be reading about 20 minutes every night. I totally know that some nights can get busy, so just most nights. I know that sometimes reading can be a struggle to get in at home so here are some ideas to help with that :)
* You read a page and they read a page
* You read a page and they read that same page back to you
* You guys read the page at the same time
* Make a fun place to read in your house - like a hideout, tent, or cozy corner
* Call or FaceTime a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or close family friend and read them a book
Our class Halloween party will be on Tuesday, October 31 from 2:45 - 3:30. If you signed up to help I will get ahold of you later this week. If you haven't signed up and would like to help, please let me know. The costume parade to The Laurels will be at 1:00. More details will be coming out soon.
In math the kids are learning how to write and solve addition and subtraction equations. We are also introducing story problems. We will be doing a lot of work with story problems this year so we are giving the kids an introduction to them now.
In writing we will be focusing on writing with the reader in mind. We will focus on our spelling, handwriting, punctuation, and how to make the important part of our story even better. We can do this by adding in more detail, adding in dialogue, or feelings. Last week we had a writer's celebration as a way of celebrating the good writing the kids have been doing. They have been working SO hard and their efforts are showing! The kids met "coffee house" style in small groups and shared their stories with one another. While they were listening, the kids enjoyed some donuts or animal crackers and sipped on juice boxes. At the end of the story the kids had to write one "star" or one thing that they liked about the story. I stapled these stars to their stories. I will hand them back in the next week after I get a chance to sit at home with a good cup of coffee and read through them myself :)
Our last unit in reading focused on the content of the book and how we can immerse ourselves in our books and make sure that we know what is going on in the story. This unit we will continue with those things, but we will be focused on reading strategies and how to use them in our daily reading.
We will be scheduling our parent teacher conferences on Thursday, so if you haven't turned your pink slip back in, please do so by Thursday. This will help me schedule a time that will work for you to meet with me. I am looking forward to chatting with you about your child!
Here are quite a few pictures of the fun things that we have been doing in the classroom over the last couple weeks. Enjoy!
These group of pictures are from the visit with our firefighters. We LOVED having them and enjoyed all the things they taught us about fire safety. We had the pleasure of having Kaden's dad and grandpa from the fire department join us :) Peyton knew one of the firefighters too! It is so fun seeing people we know! We even had a yummy "fire" snack afterwards!