Spelling Words October 30 - November 6

This weeks spelling words are high frequency and short 'o' words. Remember our test will be Friday November 6th.

1. does
2. into
3. he
4. this
5. water
6. job
7. dog
8. log
9. frog
10. rock

Don't forget that we are going on our zoo field trip this Tuesday Nov. 3rd. Please send your child to school with a bagged lunch in a disposable bag. We are looking forward to a fun-filled day of learning! :)

Narrative Writing

This week, we are finishing up our work on narrative writing and we will begin a new genre of writing next week. Talk to your child about the elements of a narrative story and make sure they understand all of the parts. This is a picture of a checklist that your child has to fill out with a teacher when they are finished writing a narrative story. In order for their story to meet the standard, they have to have all of those elements checked off.
Something you can do with your child is make up stories together and tell them to each other orally. You can start a story with an engaging beginning such as..."One cold and snowy morning..." This is something easy you can do together while cleaning the house or driving in the car.
Thanks for your continued support from home!

Story Problems

This year we will be doing A LOT of story problems in math investigations. This is something you can orally practice with your child. An example of a story problem would be: "There were 5 students on a bus...the bus stopped and five more students got on. How many students are on the bus now?" Or to practice subtraction you could say: "There were 8 students on the bus...when the bus stopped, 4 students got off. How many students are left on the bus?" As your child figures these out at home, encourage them to use their fingers if needed, draw pictures, or use any 'hands on' manipulatives. Here are some pictures of us working on a story problem in class this week.

Spelling Words October 23 - October 30

This weeks spelling words are high frequency and short 'i' words.

1. how
2. many
3. on
4. why
5. they
6. fix
7. mix
8. six
9. in
10. him

Word Families

Today we explored the 'en' word family. If we know how to spell 'en' then we can spell lots of other words too...pen, men, when, ten, then...
How many more 'en' words can you and your child come up with together?

Spelling Words October 16 - October 23

This weeks spelling words are high frequency and short 'i' words.

1. went
2. walk
3. did
4. saw
5. me
6. it
7. sit
8. hit
9. pick
10. kick

The Game of Ten Turns

We have learned a new math game called Ten Turns. In this game, students accumulate counters as they practice connecting the oral counting sequence and written numerals with the quantities they represent.
To play, students have 1 number cube, some counters, and the Ten Turns game sheet. To start, one player rolls the number cube and takes out the number of counters that is shown. They record what was rolled and their "total number". The next player rolls the number cube and also takes out the number of counters shown and they add it to their pile. They record the number rolled and the new "total number" in their pile. This repeats over the coarse of 10 turns.
We are encouraging students to use the strategy of 'counting on' so that they don't have to count the entire pile of counters each turn. For example: if their pile has 12 counter in it, and they are adding 3 more...instead of starting to count the entire pile "1, 2, 3, 4...", we encourage them to put the number 12 in their head and count up 3 more "put the 12 in my head and count up 13, 14, 15". See all of our learning in these pictures! :)