Polar Express Day

Polar Express Day was a huge success. We traveled between our room and Mrs. Percoskie's class to accomplishes as many tasks as possible. Ask your child how he or she got a "ticket punch". In addition to exciting crafts and games our class joined the entire Memorial Student body for a whole school reward. The kids viewed Frosty the Snowman as a school in the cafeteria What an exciting way to kick off the holiday break. Happy New Year!!! 

Week 13

This week was filled with amazing accomplishments. We finally displayed our persuasive posters for all of Memorial to enjoy.

In addition to completing this guided writing project, we wrote about the Best "Gingerbread" story too!


This independent project began as a way for us to assess how much the children understood how to persuade and ended as a published piece. They are terrific!!! Here are a few. I will be sending them home next week for you to enjoy.

Thank you to Aaron and Joseph who donated books to our class from the book fair. We are excited to use these book for our January theme, ocean animals.
In Phonics: 

• Letter writing, sound association for v,w,x, & y. We are almost through all of the lowercase letters

In Phonological Awareness:

• On set and rime continued, see last weeks blog. Listening for beginning and ending sound in words.

In Reading: 

• We spent more time comparing gingerbread stories and noticing repeated text. These stories were similar in many ways which helped us focus on predicting outcomes and character traits. 

In Math:

• We completed Unit 6, number patterns to 100.  Again, a very challenging unit. We are going to spend next week both reviewing teen numbers and looking for patterns. It is helpful if parent utilize any opportunity to identify or write numbers to 100. Practice counting by 1's from any number and practice counting by 10's. 

Guiding Questions:

How do you show family you care about them? 

Why is it important to ask questions?

How were the Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends similar? 

How were they different? 

If you were the conductor of a train where would you go? Why? 

Count by 2's to 20. 

Important Books:

Build and Grow Workshop

 Thank you to Lowes, of Woburn, for bringing an amazing Build and Grow workshop to Memorial School. The students had an opportunity to follow directions and build a real wooden train. Have fun enjoying this handcrafted toy at home.    

    Watch as we build our very own train cars. 

Week 12

We have lots of exciting activities planned for the next week and a half.  Let's take...

A look ahead.

On December 16th, at 9:00 am, students will attend the 4th and 5th grade winter concert.
    This is a students only dress rehearsal.

December 17th is the Book Fair.  Please remember to send your child with money if he/she will be purchasing books. Do not feel obligated, this is optional.

On December 18th, we have the Lowe's Build and Grow workshop.
Thank you to all who volunteered. The more the merrier!!!

December 23rd is Polar Express Day, kids will wear pajamas. We will also have several craft activities.

Last week...
We spent more time retelling and acting out the timeless tale of the gingerbread boy. Our theatre performances were outstanding.
We completed persuasive toy posters advertising for some of the most amazing toys of the time. We are planning to display them in the hall at memorial school. Perhaps you child's poster will convince you to run right out and add that amazing toy to your holiday gift list. Oh, I'm just kidding. Our class also talked about gift giving and the real reason why people give gifts. We brainstormed some wonderful gifts of the heart.

Phonological awareness:
Onset and rime, isolating the beginning sounds and counting words in sentences.

Phonics:
New letters: v and w, also writing initial and ending sounds in words. Reading simple three letter words.

Writing: 
We are almost finished with a unit on persuasion. We also had guest teachers from the Saugus Public Schools who came to observe and learn from our writer's workshop. They were very excited to see kids telling stories and taking risks in writing and sharing.

Math: 
Our unit five test revealed a challenge in number identification for teen numbers. As we move forward, I will review teen numbers with many kids but please take time to help your child recognize the teen number automatically. Please keep practice counting up and back from any number 0-30. This is more challenging than you might think.

Social Studies:
Winter holiday's, needs vs wants, and community helpers.

Science: 
Changes in the environment and changes in animal behavior.

Guiding Questions:
Which Gingerbread story do you like best? Why?
Do you like acting out stories?
Why do people give gifts?
How do different people celebrate holidays?
What number comes before? 
What number comes after?
Can you find the number---?

Week 12

December is in full swing. It was wonderful meeting with you last week for conferences. I love sharing stories and perspectives.  Ms. McMahan and I have been amazed at how hard working and motivated this group of students is. Let's keep up the momentum.[

We will begin to give the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessments) assessment for the district next week. This will help establish guided reading groups for all students in anticipation of January. Please continue to work with your child on letter formation and work level work as directed by Fundations newsletters. We will spend slightly less time in class on that and more time decoding words for fluency and confidence in reading.

Last Week...

Our important read alouds were The Gingerbread Boy and The Gingerbread Man. This is such a fun traditional tale for this time of year. We have continued to develop and understanding of story elements. The student have already sequenced events, identified the characters, and discussed the impact of the setting on a story. We have begun to look at proble==ms/solutions (Remember those thanksgiving tales.). In addition, the class has connected problem and outcome of a story to endings.

Examining different versions of this classic, Gingerbread, tale will help student make the connection between ending and outcome.  I am looking forward to introducing students to the Gingerbread Girl next. She is one smart little cookie.

In Phonological Awareness:
We are learning to isolate beginning and ending sounds.
For example, "man", begins with the sound, /m/. The last sound we hear in "man" is /n/.
This skill will help students sound out words and recognize patters in similar words for spelling.

Previously taught skills: rhyming, syllabication, alliteration, onset and rhyme.

Phonics:
Letter identification, sound association, letter formation: t,b,f,m,n,a,g,o,c,p,j,r,u,e,d,l,h,k,i,s

Songs:
We all Celebrate, Counting by 10's, Months of the Year

Writing:
The students are learning to persuade...watch out parent they can be very convincing at times. Our first task is to create a poster persuading other kids which toys is the best. We looked through some toys books and newspaper ads to collect just the right toys. We will then work to identify statements of opinion and fact. ( This race car can loop-de-loop). This race is awesome.

Math: 
Understand the teen numbers
Writing teen numbers
Using a tens frame to count on
Identify what number comes before and after

Social Studies: 
Family traditions
Needs vs wants

Science:
Changes in the season, environmental observations and animal behavior

Guiding Questions: 
What are some of the similarities between the Gingerbread Boy and the Gingerbread Man?
Why do you think people use the phrase; as sly as a fox?
Do you remember any other books with repeated text?
What are some of our families traditions?
What are some things we need?
Why do people give gifts?
What are things we want but don't really need?
What changes in the winter?

Reminders: 
Friday, December 18th.  Build and Grow Workshop
 Thanks to all of you for volunteering, the more the merrier for this project, it's not too late is you  would like   to join.
Wednesday, December 23rd Polar Express Day, 
 More information to come, we will need four volunteers to help with craft projects.
 Thursday.