October 5, 2015

Hello Everyone!

I can’t believe we are starting a new month already! The students will be excited because we have new seats today.

On Monday, look for your child’s homework calendar in his/her folder! These homework calendars will come home at the beginning of each month. These calendars give you the flexibility to do the activities when you have time during the week. Even the little ones have busy schedules! In addition to the daily activities, please read to your child each night or listen to your child read aloud so they can practice the new reading skills they are learning in the classroom.

***Please remember to send towels back for rest timeJ

Upcoming events:

• October 9: Homecoming- Wear Black and Orange and Crazy Hair
• October 9: Homecoming Parade
• October 16^th: Math Morning
• October 20: Grandfriends and Goodies Family Night-Tell your grandfriends to mark their calendarsJ
• October 22-23: No School
• October 27th: Field Trip to Heckrodt Nature Center

o   If you are interested in attending field trips or volunteering in the classroom this year, let me know and I can send home a background check form!

PSC

·         Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the Simon's Cheese fundraiser! Whether you helped host, came to shop or sent others to shop, your support was much appreciated.

·         Join us! The next PSC meeting is Monday, October 5, at 6 p.m. in the school library. 

·         Save the Date: Roller Skating at Skate City, October 29th 5:30-­8pm. Come join us for a fun school-wide event.

·         Questions? Email ​NDLC.PSC@gmail.com   News

Reading: We celebrated the end of our first reading unit on Friday! Look for the video on NDLC’s Facebook page!  Here is a picture:

The students are getting really good at retelling their old favorite storybooks. This week, we will focus on what characters say and do in books. We will talk about how these give readers clues to figure out how the characters feel. As you read with your child at home, you can practice echo reading. This is where you read the page, then your child can read the same page and try to add more of the story. Students are enjoying books like Harry the Dirty Dog, Caps for Sale, and Bunny Cakes.

Writing: I will be sending home work from the last writing unit. If you are able, look through it with your child. They worked really hard! We begin a new writing unit this week and I believe it will be extremely exciting for the kiddos! The writing unit is called Looking Closely: Observing, Labeling, Listing. Students will learn that writers are like scientists because they look closely at what they are writing about. We will be taking nature walks, gathering items, and writing about what we find. Using Fall objects will be a great way to integrate science into our writing. Hopefully the weather corporates!  

 Math: In math, we will work on adding, subtracting and number order.

1. Students will create a number parade of their own. This is the “number parade” that we reference throughout our math lessons and other parts of the day as well.

2.  Students will use pictures to tell addition and subtraction math stories. They might see a picture of three cars. They could say, “There were three cars. One drove away. How many are left?” Try doing these story problems at home tooJ
3. This center will be filled with supplies for the students to create their own shapes. The will be able to use all sorts of materials to create and identify characteristics of circles, rectangles, square, and more.
4. Students will work on dot to dot pictures to practice number recognition and sequencing. They will also practice forming numbers using playdoh.

Word Study: This week, we will begin studying sight words in word study. These sight words will help us to gear up for reading! Our sight words this week are a, the, is, I, & and. We will spend time each day working with these sight words. We will also continue to work on identifying all the letters of the alphabet and saying their sounds. The students will work on color words as well.

Social Studies: The students have been interviewing school helpers and creating books about each person we interview! It is great to visit the different offices in the school to learn about what our school helpers do. This week, the students will be writing and illustrating books about our school nurse, custodian, and an educational assistant! It is exciting to see how things we are talking about in writing, such as speech bubbles, are transferring to the work we do throughout the day, especially in these books!

Feel free to email or call me with any questions or concerns!