Week 3

Week three went very well.  I’ve taken a few fun pictures, but I lost the cord to hook my camera to the computer, so hopefully I’ll be able to post those pictures soon.  Here are week three highlights:

Behavior: This week we’ve just been reviewing here and there how to act at school, and I’m sure we’ll continue this to some degree throughout the whole year.

Homework: Remember, I’m sending home weekly homework now.  It basically consists of a nightly reading sheet, a nightly math sheet, and the weekly spelling list.  Let me know if you have further questions.

Social Studies: We talked about the need to make fair decisions, mostly through the aid of a ladybug that was caught at recess.  The kids wanted to keep it for a class pet.  We read a book about ladybugs and discovered that they eat tiny bugs (aphids) that are generally too small for humans to see.  We talked about whether it would be fair to the ladybug to keep it as a pet and make it starve because we couldn’t catch any food for it.  We let the ladybug go.  Then we transferred that into relationships with people and the need to be fair and responsible in all we do.

Math: We're still reviewing things from kindergarten, with only a few new concepts.  Mostly we’ve been reviewing counting, calendars, +1 facts, and writing all the numbers.  We had a test today, so I’ll be able to see if the class is ready to move on. 

Reading: The students are being shifted around between reading groups, as needed.  They each seem to be succeeding well in those groups. 

Project Read/Spelling: This week’s focus was the sound “ck” as the ending of a word (as in back).  The students were confused with ch at first, but now they seem to have picked it up very well.
Another spelling highlight for the kids was making “the world’s longest spelling train” out of scratch paper.  It was 120 sheets of paper long, each paper consisting of spelling words written by the kids.  They loved this activity, and I really think it helped them remember the words! 

Speedy Words and Rocket Math: We have started having daily practice and timings on the highest frequency words in the English language, along with basic addition and subtraction facts.  This is largely new to the kids, and they're doing great.  THANKS  to those of you who have come to the classroom to help students with that! 

AR: Please remember to do AR with your kids.  They’ll read books at home, and take the tests at school.  If they read a book at home, please jot down a note with the title of the book for me so that they can take the test and get credit for it. Today I sent home AR sheets with the kids so you can know where they’re at.  They need to have 20 tests passed by the end of October to get the first of four buttons towards earning their “Samurai!”

Writing: We’ve been focusing on capitals and periods.  We’ve had some fun writing projects, including a class project entitled, “If Our School Turned Into a Jungle. . .”  The kids thought that story was a riot!

Science: This week, I’ve tried to squeeze science in where I can.  Mostly it’s been about rocks.  We weighed rocks versus seashells to see which weighs more.  We also smashed some rocks with a hammer and made guesses (hypotheses) about what would happen.  The kids are really learning the term “hypothesis” and enjoy using it.  We also have been learning more about grasshoppers and ladybugs.