Thank you to all who attended Back to School Night.

It was great to see you again and discuss an overview of the year.

Please feel free to call or email if you would like to discuss more. 

Please see the top tab "Upcoming Projects"

for information on the Landform project that is due Oct. 25th. 

We will host an Author's Party on October 25th.

Here are a few suggestions for studying the weekly spelling words: 

-Write the words in cursive.

-Rainbow roll-n-write the words.

-Write each word 3-5 times each. 

-Write the words in a sentence. 

-Draw a picture with each word. 

A strong foundation in phonics helps with decoding more difficult words. 

In Math, we're continuing with the second half of our module on multiplication and division.

We will continue using the terms Labeled Tape Diagram, Array, Number Bond and Equation.

This helps students develop a deeper understanding of multiplication and division. 

Reading:

 "Just Right" Reading

We have been focusing on how to choose "just right" books and why it is so important to choose

books that we are able to read. Research shows when children are reading independently,

they should be reading books they can read and understand. Reading books that are too

challenging can lead to frustration, inability to understand the story, thus causing reading to no

longer be enjoyable. We want children to love reading, which means it is important they are

reading books they are interested in and on their just right level! 

Research also shows that children are motivated to read when they can choose their own books.

The strategy we will use in class to choose just right books is called IPICK.

You can use the poster to help your child in picking good fit books at home.

This year we will be focusing on applying reading strategies to a variety of literary genre. Our class will learn how to read fiction stories and nonfiction articles carefully. We will learn the basic skills that we will use in our reading throughout the year.  Ask your child what genre we focused on this week. (Hint: It has characters, setting, or events that can not exist in real life, animals have human-like characteristics, and these stories teach a lesson.)

During our reading time we will focus on:

• Ways to talk about their reading with partners and the class.
• Strategies to help pronounce long words.
• Strategies to figure out the meanings of hard words.
• How to find important details in fiction stories and nonfiction articles.

• How to analyze what we read and write about it.

Here are a couple of activities you can do to help your child.

• Read together a fiction story. Discuss what happens in the story and who the characters are.
• Read together a nonfiction book or article. Ask your child what the story is about. Discuss what kinds of photos and images they see. What can they learn from these images?

Writing: Writer's Workshop is well underway and students have been having a lot of fun learning about what writers do to "gather" ideas for writing true stories. Students have gathered ideas by recalling "first times" in their lives, writing about moments they experienced strong emotions such as sadness, happiness, embarrassment, and fear. They also generated ideas based on things they love. This week they will choose two of their ideas to take to a quick write, share those quick writes with partners, and then select one of those ideas to begin drafting their stories. We love the ownership this process gives them in their writing. One student told us that, "I feel like Writer's Workshop is like our own secret club!" It's so wonderful to hear that kids call out, "Yay!" when we announce it's time for writing. They have been so open and willing to share their ideas for writing as well (and boy did we hear about some VERY embarrassing moments). It's really a happy time in our classrooms.

Accelerated Reader 

Each student has been assigned an "AR Goal." The goals were calculated according to each student's performance on the computerized AR star test.  The Accelerated Reader program ("AR") is a computerized program that tests reading comprehension. Students select books on their reading level, read independently, and take an independent comprehension test on a school computer. Each book is worth a certain number of points based on its length and reading level. You can look up a particular book in AR Book Finder. Students get a percentage of these points based on how many of the test questions they get right. The program tracks their progress over the course of the school year. You may track your student’s progress in Home Connect. Here is a link to the Parent's Guide to AR. Accelerated Reader Hopefully, this will answer your questions.