Week of February 25, 2013

Hello Room 4 Families!

Here is what is happening in Room 4:

Friday, February 22-Friday, March 1: parent/teacher conferences; shortened days. Students will be dismissed from the cafeteria at 12:20.
Friday, March 8: (tentative) State Capitol field trip. I am still waiting on the transportation department to make sure we have buses.
Friday, March 8: Science Night, 6-8 pm

Language Arts:
This week we will begin a unit titled, "Red, White, and Blue". The kids will be learning about patriotism and our national symbols.
We will continue to work on blending sounds to make words both orally and on the board. The kids are doing a super job with this, and they are very proud of themselves for learning how to blend words like they will in first grade.
We will review and focus on the sounds of /d/, /n/, and short o.
Our writing this week will be a narrative in response to "The Cat in the Hat" (Dr. Suess's birthday is Saturday, March 2, so we will be celebrating this week).

Math
This week we will finish our unit on numbers to 30 and begin a unit on time. We will work on estimating during the beginning of the week, then take the chapter tests, and move on to times of the day and the days of the week.

Social Studies
We are going back to social studies this week after spending a long time talking about animals in science. Our new social studies chapter is "Our Country", which ties in very well with our language arts theme. The kids will be learning about our country's symbols, how people use them, and how symbols remind us of America's greatness and our national heritage.

Thank you to everyone who helped out in the room this week, especially on Friday when I asked for help at the last minute!
Have a great weekend, and please email me if you have any questions or concerns.
carrie-relles@scusd.edu

Week of February 18-22, 2013

Hello Room 4 Families!
We had a great week in room 4. Thank you to all of you who helped this week, especially with the 100th Day and Valentines activities. The kids had a super time.

Important Dates:
Monday, February 18: Presidents' Day, no school
Friday, February 22: Free dress
Friday, February 22-Friday, March 1: parent/teacher conferences and shortened days. The kids will be dismissed from the cafeteria at 12:20.

I am working on scheduling a field trip to the State Capitol to go with our next unit, Red, White,and Blue. The tentative date for this will be Friday, March 8 in the morning. I just need to secure buses, and will keep you posted on this. If you would like to attend this trip and you have been fingerprinted, please let me know.
I would like to have 5-6 chaperones.

Language Arts:
This week we will finish up our Stick to It unit.
We will review previously introduced sounds as well as focus on the /l/ sound.
New sight word: my
The kids will be finishing up their opinion pieces on their favorite story we read during this unit.

Math:
We are continuing our unit on numbers to 30. This week we will begin estimating.

Science:
This week we will finish the animals unit by talking about how animals grow from babies to full-grown animals.

Parent/Teacher conferences: I apologize for not scheduling these sooner! To be honest, the date snuck up on me. Please watch for an email about this soon. During these conferences I will share your child's report card and most recent work and answer any questions you have.

Thanks again, parents for everything! Enjoy your 3-day weekend!

Week of February 11-15

Happy Friday, Room 4 Families!

Thanks for checking the website. Here's what we have going on this week:

Monday, February 11: NO SCHOOL. Enjoy!

Thursday, February 14: free dress (red and pink spirit day); 100th day of school; Valentine's Day (see below for information)

Monday, February 18: NO SCHOOL

Friday, February 22: Free Dress day

Friday, February 22-Friday, March 1: Parent/Teacher conferences. Dismissal will be at 12:20 from the cafeteria

100th day of school/Valentine's Day

THANK YOU to those parents who have volunteered to help with our festivities on Thursday! At this point we have plenty of parent helpers. We do still need some items for the 100th day trail mix. If you want to send in a bag of something we could add to trail mix like dried cranberries, yogurt covered raisins, chex cereal, or popcorn, we would really appreciate it. 

Again, the kids are welcome to bring in Valentines for the class. We will be passing them out and celebrating Valentine's day after lunch.

Language Arts

This week we will continue our Stick to It unit. The kids have been enjoying reading stories and poems about characters who don't give up. Thank you to those who sent in books related to this theme. 

I have been able to challenge the kids a lot with reading and writing words. I tell them that this is what they will do in first grade, and they love it! I hope you have noticed at home that many kids are really starting to read on their own! Please encourage them to read to you as much as they feel comfortable.

This week we will review the /p/ sound and learn the sound of short i.

New sight word: has

The kids will be writing an opinion piece on their favorite story from our Stick to It unit. 

Math

We just started a unit on numbers 20-30. The kids will practice counting objects to and writing numbers to 30. We will also begin practicing estimating. This week will focus on numbers 21-25.

Science

This week we will finish up our unit on animals. We will talk about how animals stay safe and how they change as they grow from birth to adulthood.

Thanks for reading! Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. 

carrie-relles@scusd.edu

Week of February 4-8, 2013

Hello Families!
We have been very busy in Room 4. The kids have been working so hard. I am very proud of them!

Here's what's happening in our room:

Important Dates
Friday, February 8: PTO family dance, 6-8pm
Monday, February 11: NO SCHOOL
Thursday, February 14: Red and Pink Spirit Day (free dress with those colors); Valentine's day (see below); 100th day of school (see below)
Monday, February 18: NO SCHOOL
Friday, February 22: Free Dress
Friday, February 22-Friday, March 1: Shortened Days/parent conferences. Dismissal will be at 12:20

Valentine's Day/100th day of school:
These two are VERY important to our kids! We will celebrate both of these on Thursday the 14th. We will celebrate the number 100 during morning centers time. I hope to have 1 or 2 more parents volunteers for that morning. We will do centers until 9:10. For this day I am also going to ask each student to bring in a collection of 100 items. This can be something very simple, like 100 pennies, or you can get creative. It's completely up to you!
We will celebrate Valentine's day after lunch (11:45am). The kids are welcome to bring in Valentine cards for each other to pass out at this time. I would love to have a few (3-5) parents help out during this time as well.

Language Arts:
We are continuing our Stick to It unit this week.
We will review the sounds of /t/ and /h/.
There are no new sight words this week.
This week we will begin writing simple fictional stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The characters will have a problem they need to solve.

Math:
This week we will finish up our chapter on measurement. We will work on weight and capacity this week and will take our chapter tests on Thursday and Friday.

Science:
We are continuing to learn about animals this week. We will talk about birds and fish this week. A big thanks to Jacqui DeBoo for bringing in their parrot Jordan today! The kids loved it.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks for everything you do!