week of October 28, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of October 28, 2019)

Handwriting:  We will continue with letters k, y, j, that are familiar from the capital letters.  We will be focusing on careful line placement and size. We are trying to keep our letters with the middle line and bottom line (unless they have a line that goes above or below the lines) so that we practice staying within a boundary. We have also been writing single words in our Handwriting book after every couple of lessons to reinforce the taught letters. 

Math:  We are moving into our next unit, Unit 2, numbers 11-20.  We will be working on: counting, cardinality, subitizing, number sense, write/represent numbers, and composing/decomposing numbers.  We have been practicing our teens when we do the calendar and when we were counting our days of school as well. We are still working on missing numbers in our Spring Math skill.  We have been practicing with a number line for what comes before and what comes after a number as well as practicing our number writing.

Reading:  We will be reading more informational text and making connections to our own experiences or other books.  We have been talking about what we know about different living things. We have been talking about main ideas and supporting details as well as asking and answering questions.  We are also working on initial, medial, and final sounds in words.  We have been practicing every letter and every sound as well.

Science/Social Studies:  We have done a science spin on nocturnal animals.  We briefly learned about them when reading our back to school book, “The Kissing Hand”.  We are also going to have some fun Halloween books next week and have been so lucky to work on some Halloween centers to improve our fine motor skills.

Reminders:

Party Money is due as soon as possible, thank you!

Please remember to practice your sight words each night and read each night and log it on the sheet in the folder. 

Important Dates:

Monday, October 28- Day 4

Tuesday, October 29- End of the 1^st Marking Period

Trunk or Treat 6-7 om

Thursday, October 31- Fall Celebration (please refer to the note previously sent home for all of the guidelines)

week of Oct. 21, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of October 21, 2019)

Handwriting:  We will be moving onto the rest of the vowels: u, I, e and letters k, y, j, are familiar from the capital letters.  We will be focusing on careful line placement and size.  We are also going to work on our numbers 7-10 to coincide with our Math Unit.

Math:  We have been working with our numbers to 10.  Our writing numbers 1-6 has really improved this past week and we will be working on numbers 7-10 shortly.  We also talked about a number line and what number comes before and after a given number.  That is going hand in hand with our Spring Math skill of Missing Number.  We are working on numbers 0-11 and are given a set of 3 numbers, but one is missing and we have to write in the missing number.  Here is an example:

3 ___ 5 (the students would write 4)

Reading:  We will be starting a brand new Unit, Unit 2, “Living Together” and our unit essential question is “What do living things need?”.  We have been talking about what plants need to thrive (sun, water, soil) when talking about our apple trees and pumpkin patches.  We will now be looking at animals as well.  We will be finding out why some animals eat, move, and live like they do.  We have been exposed to informational text in our everyday read alouds as well as our past reading unit, but we will have many more this unit. 

Science/Social Studies:  We have been talking about Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!!!  We talked about how they grow, what they look and feel like, what you can do with a pumpkin, and the parts of a pumpkin.  We will also be exploring some bats and spiders leading up to Halloween.  We have been practicing our “thinking eyes” which means we are looking at the person talking or focusing on the task at hand and reinforcing our “Whole Body Listening”.

Reminders:

Party Money is due as soon as possible, thank you!

Please check the folders for important information regarding Halloween and Red Ribbon Week, thank you!

Important Dates:

Week of October 21- Red Ribbon Week (see handout for activities)

Monday, October 21- Day 7

week of October 14, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of October 14, 2019)

Handwriting:  We will be moving into the Magic “c” lowercase letters (a, d, g).  These high frequency letters begin with the familiar Magic “c”.  Starting with the “c” placed correctly helps children make and place the “d” tall and the “g” descending.  We will also review our lowercase letters that we have taught as well as numbers 1-5. 

Math:  In our numbers to 10 unit, we will be counting objects and identifying the correct number or writing the correct number.  We will also be finding the correct number of items when given a number.  We will also be working on filling a 10 frame correctly when given a number.   

Reading:  We will be finishing up our unit on “Going Places” and we will be discussing our last few stories and what made those places special (like the library, an art store, the forest, and new apartment).  We will also be talking about what makes a museum special.  We will be working on medial or middle sounds in words using short /a/ and short /i/.  We will also be working on the rhyming families of “at” words and “an” words as well as “in” words and “ip” words. 

Science/Social Studies:  We have explored Fire Safety this past week and have talked about what it is like to be a firefighter and what kind of gear and tools they may use.  We also talked about how to keep safe if there would ever be a fire.  We are talking about Columbus Day and the Pumpkin Life Cycle next. 

Reminders:

*Please review sight words and read for your reading log each night.  Please also check folders each night as well, there is lots of good information in there!  Thanks for your help. J

*Thank you so much for the donations to our classroom library!  We appreciate you shopping at the book fair and purchasing these books.  We can’t wait to read them this week! J

Important Dates:

Monday, October 14- No School for Students, Teacher in-service

Tuesday, October 15- Day 3

Friday, October 18- Spartan Dress Down Day ($1 donation)

week of October 7, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of October 7, 2019)

Handwriting:  Our handwriting is improving each day!  We have started the lowercase letters that match the capitals, but are just smaller and will finish them this week.  We have talked about if the lowercase letters are tall (they go above the midline) or small (they stay within the midline and bottom line) but still have to learn more about descending (they dip below the bottom line).  We have been coloring each day for morning work to strengthen our hands and continue to work with lacing cards, putty, beads, Legos, and clothespin for our fine motor skills.

Math:  We are excited to work on Unit 1, numbers to 10.  We will count objects, write numbers, count in order, and identify numbers to 10.  We have been working so hard on making the correct number of lines when given a number to 10 in our Spring Math and hope to reach our goal soon!  We are also working on: counting to 100, identifying and writing numbers to 20, what number comes next in the count sequence, and reviewing shapes.

Reading:  We have been working on character, setting, and plot of stories.  We have also been talking about fiction and nonfiction texts and what would make the story either fiction or nonfiction.  We have also been working on some short vowel sounds and chopping out sound in words to find the beginning or end sound.  There is also a little handout from Reading Rockets on characteristics of beginning readers and some things you can do to help when reading at home each night.

Science/Social Studies:  We have been talking about leaves in the Fall.  Especially since there were a few chillier days, some leaves may already be making their way to the ground.  We were able to read a few books about leaves and enjoyed a Weekly Reader about the same topic.  We are also getting ready to talk about Columbus Day this week.

Reminders:

Please also check your child’s folder daily and remove the papers that have been put on Left at Home.  If there is something to be signed or filled out, please do so as soon as possible.  Thanks for your support!

Important Dates:

Monday, October 7-Free Dress Down Day if you wear a blue shirt for Bullying Prevention, Book Fair Family Night (4-7pm), PTO Meeting, 6:30

Wednesday, October 9- Picture Retake Day

Thursday, October 10- Kindergarten Fall Festival (Gym clothes and sneakers are allowed, we will be outside, please dress accordingly)

Friday, October 11- Act 80 Half Day, Dismissal at Noon

Monday, October 14- No school for students