October 22nd-26th

Happy Friday! We were happy to have a normal week in our classroom. 😁 Students were excited to begin word sorts again and did great on their first week!  We also began our American Heroes unit and talked about what is a hero and what characteristics a hero has.  We will study many different athletes and heroes such as Wilma Rudolph, Jackie Robinson, The Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong, Rosa Parks and MLK Jr, Helen Keller, and Eleanor Roosevelt.  Our American Heroes play will be on Thursday, January 17th at 10:00 AM.  Be sure to mark your calendars! This is my favorite play that we do.

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:45 AM: Parents are invited to come watch their child walk in the parade.  Your child needs to dress up as their favorite book character and will carry the corresponding book with them in the parade.  No weapons or scary masks.   Please have them come to school already dressed in their costume.  They may bring a change of clothes for after if wanted.  Parents of students in 1st grade are asked to stand in the Middle School Gym to watch the parade. 

Laurel Nursing Home Dates 10:30-11:30 AM: Below are the four dates that we will go to the Laurel's Nursing Home if you want to put them on your calendar.  Parents are welcome to join us!  You may ride the bus or meet us there.  We load the bus at CSD at 10:00 AM and the program is from 10:30-11:30 AM and we return to CSD by 12:00 PM.  

• Tuesday, November 13th
• Tuesday, January 8th
• Tuesday, March 12th
• Tuesday, May 7th

November 12th Hurricane Make Up Day and Veteran's Day Celebration 

November 14th Charlotte Children's Theater Field Trip: Please have your child to school by 8:00 am on this day.  The bus will leaving CSD at 8:30 am sharp.  

Math:

As we finish up Cluster 2 in math, we are working heavily on addition and subtraction.  Cluster 3 will be learning about place value.  I taught the students about number bonds this week and we practiced solving different equations where the addend was missing or the sum was missing. Below is an example. These are GREAT to practice at home! We differentiate by choosing different numbers to meet the needs of all students. 

                                             

Literacy:

Students did a great job as I introduced word sorts back into their normal routine.  Below is our weekly literacy schedule.  While I am pulling small groups for guided reading and word sorts, Mrs. Rumburg is pulling small groups for Handwriting Without Tears.  During our writer's workshop time this week, we worked on the skill of "writing for our readers" and made very detailed and interesting books.  

Monday: Daily 5 and Word Study

Tuesday: Daily 5 and Guided Reading Groups

Wednesday: Daily 5 and Word Sorts

Thursday: Writer's Workshop

Friday: Daily 5 and Spell Check

Thematic:

As mentioned above, we began our American Heroes unit this week!  We have already started practicing the songs for the play.  We will study all of the famous athletes first and then move into the heroes.  Wilma Rudolph was our first athlete that we studied and we had many conversations about hard work, dedication, and not giving up even when things are hard.  We read the book Wilma Unlimited which told us the story of Wilma and how she persevered and became the fastest woman in the world.  We also set and wrote three personal goals for the school year and these can be found out in the hallway.

Have a great weekend!
Love, Mrs. James 

October 8th-12th

Happy Monday!  It seems that a "normal" week of school is hard to come by these days. 😊 Thank you all for coming to pickup your child promptly when we lost power last week.  I know it can be tricky to have to leave work early so we appreciate it.  We are excited to see all of you this Thursday and Friday at the CSD Kickball Festival and the Fairy Tale Ball!  Your child brought home an invitation today for the ball that had all of the details on it and they are also listed below.

October 18th CSD Kickball Festival 4:00-8:00 PM: This event is for the whole family. See you there!

October 19th Fairy Tale Ball 8:30-10:30 AM: Please have your child come in their fairy tale costume to school.  They can bring a change of clothes for after the ball if they would like.  Please arrive to the elementary gym at 8:15 AM to get a spot around the perimeter of the gym to watch the student's dance.  The two dances they learned in music and Spanish class will begin at 8:30 AM.

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:30 AM: Parents are invited to come watch their child walk in the Parade of Fiction! Your child needs to dress up as their favorite book character.  They will carry the corresponding book with them in the parade.  No weapons of any kind and no scary masks.

Math:

Cluster 2 of our math curriculum has mainly focused on addition and subtraction within 20.  We have practiced through story problems, roll and record, and many other games.  Students have recorded their equations on paper as they play the games so they practice number writing and equation writing.  Tomorrow we are learning how to play roll and record subtraction (instead of the normal addition).  It is important for students to learn addition and subtraction at the same time so they understand how they are related.  Our next cluster that we will move into is all about place value and how it relates to addition and subtraction.

Literacy:

Last week we moved onto another unit during our Writer's Workshop time.  We finished up our small moment stories and learned about "writing for your readers."  We talked about all of the qualities and characteristics that make up a good book and what we should include in our own books so that others want to read it.  We talked about including lots of details in our pictures, multiple sentences, an interesting storyline, many different characters, and an attention-grabbing picture on the front cover.  The students did great with their first week on these books!  We continued with our Daily 5 and guided reading groups.

Thematic:

Last week we studied Rapunzel and talked about the storyline in this fairy tale.  Students got to make popsicle stick puppets so that they can reenact the story for friends.  They practiced reenacting it with a friend after creating the puppets.  Students also learned how to braid yellow yarn and created Rapunzel's tower using different art mediums.  Students also did a sequencing activity where they had to put pictures from the story in order. We will wrap up our fairy tales unit this Friday!

Have a great week!
Love,
Mrs. James