New Years

Poem: Happy New Year!
Sight Words: for, him

Make sure you are practicing the sight words that are coming home. The ones your child should know at this time include:

• I
• a
• see
• the
• can
• we
• is
• at 
• to 
• me
• it
• look
• up
• my
• like
• and
• go
• am
• have
• will
• on
• has
• do
• had
• got
• his
• she
• he
• did
• play
• are
• come
• for
• him

Comprehension Strategy: This week we reviewed comprehension strategies that we have already learned. Those skills include:

• retell a story including the beginning, middle, and end.
• summarize a story.
• analyze characters. 

For analyzing characters we used the story "Squirrel's New Year's Resolution". We talked about how all the characters were the same in that they all had a resolution, however they were different because they all had a different resolution.

Accuracy: This week we reviewed past word families. We practiced the strategy Stretchy Snake by stretching out the words and blending sounds together to read words like cat, mop, cup, sit, etc. We love practicing this through our word hunt.

Then we did a mixed review with Write the Slide. Pictures appear one at a time on the board, as a class we determine the word and work on stretching out the word and writing all the letters on our own dry erase boards. Then the word is revealed and we get to see if we were correct.

This week in Writer's Workshop we talked about how we can add details to our writing by adding color words. For example instead of saying "I see the dog." We can write "I see the brown dog." We read the story "Brown Bear Brown Bear" and held up color words when we heard them within the story. 

We also reviewed what a letter, word, and sentence is. We talked about the difference between each one and then finished with writing letters and words we see around the room. It's important that we know the difference between a letter and a word so that we can read and write fluently.

Vocabulary: This week our words were length and weight. Length is measuring how long and short something is. Weight is measuring how heavy and light something is.

We used a weight scale to measure weight of items around the classroom. We started with a glue stick and found things that were lighter and heavier. We put items in the scale and watched them rise or fall.

We also learned about length. We used strips of paper and compared the length of each color. The shorter strip we put on the left column and the longer strip we glued on the right column.

Content: This week we celebrated the New Year. We started the week by having our own New Year's celebration while counting down and sipping on sparkling juice. Throughout the week we learned what a resolution was and brainstormed resolutions of our own. We completed our resolution page with something we wanted to do, a new food we wanted to eat, a reading level we wanted to read, and something we want to learn. Then made our New Years craft with our picture and party hat.

SEL (Social Emotional Learning): Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

This week we spent time reviewing past social lessons and using examples to determine the best ways to handle situations. We talked about problem solving, interrupting, tattling, and friendship. Now that we have started the 3rd Quarter at school, we are shifting out focus from You Matter to We Matter. 

• January 20: MLK Day NO SCHOOL
• February 17: School Make-Up Day 
• February 14: Valentine's Day Party (20 students in our class)
• March 13: End of the 3rd 9 Weeks
• March 23-27: Spring Break NO SCHOOL