Language Arts
We have continued to work on sentence writing to ensure that everyone is aware of the proper conventions (capitalization, punctuation and spelling) and elements required to create a sentence. Students discussed how they come up with a sentence in their mind and then get that sentence accurately on paper. One student shared their strategy of focusing on two to three words at a time and then repeating the sentence over and over until all of the words are written down properly. This may seem like common sense to us but you would be surprised how many students struggle to get what is in their head, down on paper. We even took about 15 minutes to review proper formation and placement of letters. Several students were not forming or placing their letters properly when writing and it was difficult to tell the difference between upper and lower case letters. I'm hopeful that we are all on the same page now.
We also discussed paragraph writing this week. Students understand that a paragraph focuses on one topic and contains: a topic sentence, supporting detail sentences and a concluding sentence. We started working on a paragraph on thankfulness. The topic of October's assemblies has been focusing on being thankful so the students have a lot of experience with this topic. This week we will continue to fine tune these paragraphs and publish them in a shared book. This book will make it's way home with each student next week!
In reading we focused on spooky Halloween books which was so much fun! The reading strategies that we focused on were:
Tuning into interesting words
Reading with expression
Checking for understanding
Backing up and rereading
During read to self time, I was able to conference with the remaining students that I hadn't read with yet (with the exception of one student who was absent). During reading conferences, the students and I decide on a reading strategy that they need to focus on for the next few weeks. Students need to focus on this strategy every time they read at school and at home. Ask your child what their strategy is. If they have forgotten, they can check our CAFE board...each student has a post-it note under their strategy heading (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expanding Vocabulary) with the number of the strategy beside their name. I was also able to do further reading testing with some struggling readers. These assessments help me target their reading instruction.
Our Words Their Way program is going well! I am eager to hear how it is going for you at home during our Parent Teacher meetings. Students are quickly grasping the reasons for their sorts each week which is great to see! We are heading into our second 4 week stretch. With Remembrance Day week being only 3 days, we will not have a word sort that week. This week, being 4 days, will have a word sort. If you ever have any questions or concerns about the sorts when you are working on them at home with your child, please feel free to email me. I check my email often and should usually be able to respond quite quickly.
Just a reminder that the WTW- Home duotangs should be returned to school each Friday so that I can mark them over the weekend.
Math
We have continued our work on patterning, focusing on number patterns instead of figure patterns. Students were working with increasing number patterns using a hundreds chart for assistance. This week we will investigate decreasing number patterns using a hundreds chart for support. I'm hoping to finish up this unit by November 14th.
We continue to spend time working on our basic facts and developing our number sense with How Many Ways? throughout the week.
I look forward to meeting with each of you on either Tuesday or Wednesday evening during our Parent Teacher conferences. If you have any pressing concerns or questions that you want to address at that time, feel free to email me so that I have time to gather all of the information we need to properly address your concerns.
Take care,
Jolene Milson
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