Happy New Year Room 8! I hope Winter Break treated you all well. After two weeks of relaxing myself, I was ready to come back to see my classroom full of smiling faces! We came back to school ready to work. I am impressed with all the hard work and learning that took place this week. I can’t wait to see what the rest of 2020 will bring us!
A LOOK INTO ROOM 8:
Reading- We kicked off the new year with discussing the questions that good readers ask before, during, and after reading. We explored fiction texts (I Want My Hat Back, The Mitten, and other Read Theory texts) and challenged ourselves to ask Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How questions to further our understanding of the text. We will continue our questioning strategies in small group reading and into next week with nonfiction texts.
Writing- This week we had fun creating our own fiction stories with animals as the main character after listening to Dogzilla and Brave Charlotte. We will be buiding on these stories in the coming week to see how we can make our characters unique and add in dialouge.
Math- We have begun building on our double digit addition and subtraction skills by adding estimating sums/differences. Students reviewed the steps to rounding to the nearest ten before estimating. One important step when solving these problems is paying close attention to the symbol used in the equation. This is the step that tricks us the most! Heading into next week, we will see how place value will help us solve double digit addition and subtraction problems that require regrouping.
Social Studies- Our unit on Native American tribes wrapped up this week. We learned about the Lakota tribe of the Great Plains and the Pueblo tribe of the Southwest. As we move into next week, we will switch back to Science to study animal adaptations.
A GLANCE INTO NEXT WEEK:
- READING: Questioning with NonFiction Text
- PHONICS FOCUS: R-Controlled Long E Patterns
- SPELLING WORDS: earth, learn, heard, search, earn, cheer, deer, steer, peer, sneer
- WRITING: Unique Characters & Dialouge
- MATH: Double Digit Subtraction with Regroupng
- SCIENCE: Animal Adaptations
UPCOMING NEXT WEEK:
- Monday, January 13
- WHEEL RESOURCE: Library
- Saturday, January 18
- PTO SPIRIT NIGHT @ Ashland Skateland 5:30-7:30
NEWS & REMINDERS:
- GIFTED REFERAL WINDOW: Parent referrals for gifted identification will be accepted from January 6 to January 24, 2020. As you consider your decision to refer your child, please be sure to speak with his/her teacher to discuss any gifted qualities being observed in the classroom on a consistent basis. Referrals should be submitted in writing (email is acceptable) to Jennifer Rhoden at jmrhoden1@henrico.k12.va.us during these designated dates. No referrals will be accepted after January 24. Subject line of email should state “Gifted Referral”, and the email should include student’s first and last name, grade level, teacher, and area of referral (English, Math or Both areas). An email confirmation will be sent within 48 hours. If you do not receive an email confirmation, please call the school.
- A NOTE FROM NURSE COMBEE: Parents- as a reminder, the following is the Henrico County Public Schools ill student policy. These measures are in place and must be followed to ensure a healthy learning environment for ALL students.Students should not be in the school if they have the following:
- A fever of 100.4 degrees or greater before taking a fever-reducing medication.
- Vomiting or diarrhea because of illness
- An unknown rash or possible contagious condition (requires MD note before return)
- Are unable to focus due to: pain, chronic health condition and/ or acute illness
- Flu-like illness (with or without fever)- headache, fatigue, cough, aches, weakness, and sore throat.
A child should be free of symptoms of contagious disease (fever, vomiting, diarrhea, suspicious rash, etc.) for at least 24 hours before returning to school. If your child has been vomiting or having diarrhea, they should also be able to eat a full meal without any GI symptoms.
Pro tip: if your young child does not want to eat a meal- there’s a good chance they are sick. Pay attention to clues such as not eating, sleeping more than usual, or changes in mood/ behavior as these are usually signs that your child is ill. Children are far more resilient than adults and want to continue their normal routines and play. They need us adults to tell them to take a break and allow their body to rest and heal.
Questions? Contact the school nurse, Allison Combee (amcombee@henrico.k12.va.us).
Have a wonderful weekend!