This blog update is going to cover both this week and the week of Thanksgiving. I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Enjoy the time with family and friends! 🙂
*Important Announcements*
*Veteran’s Day Assembly: Friday was supposed to be our annual Veteran’s Day assembly. Due to the rain forecast, it was moved to this Monday Nov. 12. It will be held outside this year on the lower grade playground. Please check the weather forecast and make sure that your child has a jacket (and hat and gloves, if it is very cold!) to wear during the assembly. Your child may also want to bring a towel or a blanket to sit on during the assembly. We look forward to watching the 1st graders honor our Veterans.
*Treats for the Troops: THANK YOU very much for all of your support with Treats for the Troops! We collected hundreds of items to send to the members of the military serving both at home and overseas. The students also worked hard in class writing cards to the troops! It is always exciting to see if anyone writes us back!
*Square One Art: On Thursday, Nov. 8, Mrs. Dornik sent home your child’s Square One Art order form. Please go online to order any keepsakes you want by the deadline next Friday, November 16th. All the ordering information is printed on the brochure. Feel free to contact Mrs. Dornik with questions! Thanks to the many families who have already ordered, I know you are going to love these one of a kind treasures! All money raised will benefit your child directly in the SPES Art program! Here’s is the website address: https://shop.square1art.com
*Thanksgiving Break Reminders: If you know that your child will be absent either Monday or Tuesday before break, please let me know so that I can have your child complete any graded assignments before break. This will be so much better than having to study over the holiday break. Thank you for your help with this. Additionally if you know that you will be picking your child up early on either of these days, please send in a note because it helps the office staff stay on top of things. We greatly appreciate your help with this, too.
*What Are We Learning In Class?*
*Reading:
This week we will continue working on the important skill of making inferences when we read. Students will continue practicing using this strategy that we learned last week. To make inferences, readers need to use evidence from the text (“What I read”) + something that they know in their brain (“What I know”) to make an inference (“I infer/I conclude”). Later in the week we work on using context clues to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words.
During small group rotations, students will meet with me in small groups and we will continue using comprehension strategies using leveled texts. We will also learn about our word study features and discuss how to spell words with this feature throughout the week in our small groups. Students will also read to self and work on their writing in their rotations.
Students will take an assessment on inferences on Wednesday 11/14. There will be a short context clues assessment on Monday, 11/19.
We will also begin patterned word study this week. Students have a detailed description of word study homework expectations in the front of their word study notebook. Students will need to learn the word study feature and the meaning of the words. Students will have 2 assessments during the week. On Thursday, they will be given 10 of their word study words that they will use to write sentences. They will need to use the words correctly and show the meaning of the word in their sentences. Students will have their Word Study Test on Friday 11/16. They will be assessed on how to spell their words and ALSO apply the word study feature to new words that are not on the list – but have the feature that we have been studying.
*Math:
This week we will begin our unit on multiplication. We will take a pretest on Monday so that I can determine students knowledge on the topic. We will also spend some time on Monday working on basic facts strategies. Please be working with your child on learning his or her basic multiplication facts. A good way to focus on these basic fact strategies is to start with the 2 times tables, and then use those facts to figure out the 4 times and 8 times tables (by doubling and doubling a double). Then work on the more challenging 6s, 7s, and 8s. I think that it is helpful to stay with a certain times table so that your child can begin to see patterns within the table and learn to use friendly facts. For example, if your child knows 9 x 5 = 45, then they can use that “friendly fact” to help them know 9 x 6 = 54 (add 9 more to 45).
During the rest of this week and into next week, we will learn the following topics of multiplication:
- estimating products by rounding to the greatest place
- 2 digit x 1 digit
- 3 digit x 1 digit (including $)
- word problems with multiplication – single and multi-step problems
- 2 digit x 2 digit
Students will take a short multiplication quiz on Monday, 11/19.
*Social Studies:
We will be finishing our Jamestown unit this week. We will learn about the interactions between the Jamestown colonists and the Powhatan Indians and how they changed over time. We will also review all of the Jamestown unit in preparation for the Jamestown Test on Friday 11/16.
*Science:
This week we will continue our unit on Virginia’s natural resources (SOL 4.9). Students have their unit vocabulary and notes in their science notebook. Please be sure that your child is reviewing a little bit each night. We will review all of the natural resources unit this week, in preparation for the Natural Resources Quiz on Monday, 11/19.
Have a great week ahead!
-Mrs. Jacobsen