Busy and Fun Week!

Reminders:
Reading/Math Logs due on Monday.
Decorated Writer's Notebooks due on Monday.
Wednesday, September 11: 5:45-pizza, 6:00-PTA Meeting, 6:30- Watch DOGS Kick-off, 6:45-Volunteer Orientation
Thursday, September 12: Girl and Boy Scout Informational Meeting
Friday, September 13: Math Assessment on Place Value and Numeration
Wednesday, September 25: Early Release Day 12:45pm
Friday, September 27: Dads in Class at 7:30, Dads in cafeteria for coffee and donuts at 8:15

We had a busy and fun week!

In reading, the children read poetry books and wrote a letter to me about one of the poems in their book and explained the aspects of the poem that they liked best. The children also read different editions of National Geographic Explorer magazines. They each wrote a letter to me telling me the text features that were helpful to him/her and what he/she learned in their article. We read aloud a book called, How Many Days to America? by Eve Bunting. As I read, the kids wrote their questions, connections, predictions, and thoughts on post-it notes. We call this strategy, "Keeping tracks of our Thinking." This helps them to notice what they are thinking as they read, focus their attention, and monitor their comprehension. We will begin book club groups next week and will practice this strategy in our novels.

In writing, we published our important poems! The students conferenced with me and added metaphors, similes, and sensory words as they revised and edited. They did a great job and the poems are in our hallway for all to see! Next week, we will work on personal narratives. We will write focused seed stories and not giant watermelon stories. (something that happened on the trip to Disney World rather than the entire trip to Disney World). As always, we will work on using capital letters and punctuation appropriately. We will begin using individual spelling lists soon. More information to come.

In math, we are continuing to learn about place value, numeration, and problem solving. We ordered larger numbers using a number line, explored using strips of numbers in expanded form, and played games arranging digits to create numbers in order from least to greatest. Addition with regrouping and subtraction with regrouping especially regrouping with zeros was another focus of the week. We had fun solving logic problems using clues and will focus on estimation and rounding. An assessment of place value and numeration will be given on Friday.

In science, we continued to work on our fantasy stories from the point of view of science safety equipment.

In social studies, we began our virtual bus trip around the regions of Texas. We explored the Mountains and Basins Region and the Coastal Plains Region. We will continue our trip this week.

We met with our first grade reading buddies on Friday afternoon and had fun sharing and reading with them. Our class does some reverse inclusion with our younger functional academic classroom during their adapted PE time. Eleven of our students will assist the teacher in the gym for about 20 minutes on Fridays. The same group will work with the younger children for the first quarter than we will change our group each quarter for the rest of the year. While that group is out of the room, the rest of us are working on math extension and/or remediation activities. Helping with these groups of younger children is a great way for our children to learn acceptance and gives them the opportunity to be role models. I am grateful for these character building and fun activities!

Have a wonderful weekend and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew