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