Week of Dec. 4

We have a lot planned this week and we can't wait to share it with all of you!! Let me begin by informing you that Mrs.Croft will be out of the classroom two days this week to assist the Upper Grades with Scrimmage Testing. 

This week we have Polar Express Family Literacy Night on Tuesday, December 5 at 5:30. I'll be there selling Chimney Lakes School Magnets, so spread the word to your friends!! We also have Eithan joining the Six-Year-Old Club!! And on Friday we have HAT DAY! We can't wait to see all the different hats... we're expecting a lot of santa hats to be worn. haha (We bought our's so we'll be ready to join the masses.)

We have a Resource everyday. MONDAY: #1-18 Media & #19-39 Art (Phillips), TUESDAY: P.E. for both groups! , WEDNESDAY: #1-18 Art (Schmidt) & #19-39 Art (Phillips), THURSDAY: #1-18 Music (Broach) & #19-39 Music (Biernacki) and FRIDAY: #1-18 P.E. & #19-39 Computer Lab.

And don't forget... we are still collecting items and donation for Holidays Around the World. Thanks goes out to the students that sent in items and donations!!!

MATH

We are immersed in measuring with Non-Standard Measurement!! The students remind us every day that the items we compare both need to be at the same "starting point." This means that if they were measuring how tall two items were using the table. One item could not be raised up in the air to compare. :) 

Please make sure when measuring your child uses the vocabulary~ taller than, shorter than, longer than... we have quite a few students that want to use the words BIG and LITTLE and we do not use those words.
Here is a video we watched in class. Enjoy!

READING
We are taking a break from Duval Reads and focusing on Retelling Stories using Winter Holiday Books. When possible we will work on comparing two texts. (We are so happy!! We have decided to do this the rest of the month for reading comprehension.)
We are beginning with the book There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow! by Lucille Colandro. Then we will follow that up with Frosty the Snowman by Steve Nelson & Jack Rollins.
Check out the youtube videos to see both books. I should warn you... the readers for both books sing. haha



SAXON/SIGHT WORDS/ SKILLS
Saxon is moving on to letter f and the final blend sound -ft as in soft and lift. Plus we are discussing the fl- and pl- They are still reviewing the blends made with letter s. So be sure to ask your child about them.   We are also learning a NEW CODING RULE!! The students will learn to slash through the second letter in a double consonant. For example: the word WILL. The second L will be slashed. This allows the students to chop us the word without making the consonant sound two times.
Our Sight Words for the week are in the slideshow below. Also, check to see if your child made it into the new 2nd Quarter Sight Word Club.
We are reviewing rhyming, syllables and CVC words. If your child is not chopping up CVC words PRACTICE!! We work everyday on chopping in Reading and Writing. This is the skill that will help them read independently.


WRITING
Thanks to Saxon we have noticed an increase of participation in "Class Sentence Writing!" The students are noticing the blend sounds and we are writing them down. :) The one area of concern is spacing in between words. We notice a lot of "car crashes" (This is when the words touch each other.)
Below you will find the rubric we are using to grade your child's writing.