This week we will begin Topic 13 about telling time to the hour and half hour on an old-fashioned clock. You know, the one with a minute and an hour hand and numbers 1 through 12. Yep, we are going back in time!
Our focus books in reading are "Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type" and "Clarabelle". We will be comparing and contrasting fiction and non-fiction. Being able to identify the two by specific features is a learning standard for fourth quarter. We continue to practice retelling a book by including the characters, setting, problem, solution, beginning event, middle events, and ending event. Kids have a hard time remembering what they just read once the book is closed. Practice retell habits such as previewing stories by predicting what will happen in the book then by retelling while pointing to the pictures after reading. Phonics focuses on ending blends such as sk, st, nd. Sometimes kids don't hear one sound or the other so they misspell the word. Spelling tests continue on Fridays! I will send a new list home Monday. I see improvement in several kids. Words may not be correct, but I can see that they have practiced because tricky parts are being spelled correctly in some words. Practice all of the sight words frequently. Narrative writing is continuing with a twist. Kids can write realistic-fiction narratives! They still need to focus on a small moment of time with one specific moment that happened. Writing about an entire day loses the main point kids wanted to share. Upcoming Events: Tuesday, April 2nd - Hat Day (bring 25 cents or a canned food item) Wednesday and Thursday, April 3rd and 4th - NWEA testing - Be sure your child is at school on time both days so they don't have to take the test during recess or specials. Friday, April 19th - No School Tuesday, May 7th - Field Trip to Bass Pro for Animal Adventures. A note will be sent closer to the date. Admission is $3 each I believe. Parent Survey for Leader In Me schools - click the link to share your opinion of our school and the Leader in Me program. Mrs. Crighton-Smith said only 84 families have completed the survey. She would love to have more input. Summer School Enrollment Link (click to enroll your child/children) Enroll NOW for K-8th Grade Summer School. Registration is now open for K-8th grade summer school. Registration is ONLINE only. You must fill out a separate form for each child attending summer school. The deadline to enroll is Tuesday, April 30th. Every student is invited to attend! Parent Survey for Leader In Me schools - click the link to share your opinion of our school and the Leader in Me program. Mrs. Crighton-Smith said only 84 families have completed the survey. She would love to have more input.
Summer School Enrollment Link (click to enroll your child/children) Enroll NOW for K-8th Grade Summer School. Registration is now open for K-8th grade summer school. Registration is ONLINE only. You must fill out a separate form for each child attending summer school. The deadline to enroll is Tuesday, April 30th. Every student is invited to attend! SUMMER SCHOOL INFORMATION --Dates: June 3 thru June 28 --Time: 7:30am to 2:00pm --Cost: Free to all students --Locations: Willard South Elementary (4151 W. Division St., Spfld) & Willard East Elementary (518 Kime St, Willard) and Willard High School (515 E Jackson, Willard) --Willard South will be a K-8th site --Willard East will be a K-6th site --Willard High School will be a 7th-8th site --Eligibility: Students entering Kindergarten-8th grade and are enrolled in the Willard School District --Meal Prices: Students attending summer school at any site will receive FREE lunch and breakfast everyday --Students will be assigned homeroom teachers to whom they will report to each day. We will also be offering additional special classes for them to attend on a daily basis (for example: PE, Library, Computer Lab) --There is NO bus transportation service for summer school. --Students MUST be pre-enrolled by completing this online form. Students who are NOT pre-enrolled will NOT be accepted at summer school --Each student enrolled will receive their summer school assignment packet the last week of the regular school year --TIGER TALES Before and After School Program will be offered for students in grades K-6th who are enrolled in Summer School Tiger Tales. Melissa Hurt, Principal Melinda Miller, Principal Willard South Elementary Summer School Willard East Elementary Summer School REMINDER: TOMORROW NIGHT IS STUDENT-LED CONFERENCING! Please pop in with your child for 30 minutes between 3:45 and 6:30. Your child will share progress and learning with you. That's it! Easy and quick. This is open to all families.
We were to learn about volcanoes last week, but discussion of magma (melted rock) and minerals led to sharing rock collections from home. I haven't seen the kids so excited about anything else this year. We learned important vocabulary words and how to determine what they mean. Many times we just tell our kids what something means. Next time you are asked what a word means, ask your child to think about what was said or read. Ask them to thing about what the word could mean based on the clues they find. Use a dictionary or google to get more information. Determining the meaning of unknown words is something kids need to know how to do during reading. Skipping unknown words leaves gaps in learning and comprehension. Writing has returned to Narrative writing which is telling a story from a small moment of a larger story. It is just like speaking the story to someone. We will be using quotation marks, commas, and adjectives. Often kids want to tell about an entire day or weekend. This is too difficult and needs to be zoned in to one specific thing that happened. An example would be crossing the monkey bars for the first time - not the entire recess period. Phonics: patterns o/consonant/e, oa, o by itself. Knowing when to use oa is tricky. With practice reading and writing these words, kids will learn to recognize when a word doesn't look right. Measuring length is our new topic that began last week. We will review this week and assess learning. Kids are using string to measure wiggly or zig zagged lines, then line cubes along the string to get an accurate measurement. Summer School registration begins Monday, March 25th. Every child is welcome to attend. The link will be available on the 25th. Dates, hours, and more information will be on the link. Upcoming Reminders: Monday, March 25th - Student Led Conferences 3:45 to 6:30. Thursday, March 28th - Report Cards Go Home Friday, March 29th - No School Lots of new pictures have been added. Check out the Snapshots of Fun page. We had several Dr. Seuss activities throughout the week and Literacy Night to celebrate. Taylor was our February MVT. Our class was voted the class with the most spirit during Community Time and got to lead the Wednesday leadership song. They kids were stoked! I recorded them with hopes to share with you. I did it! I got the video linked!!!
Over the past two weeks reading time was spent with students and the DRA (developmental reading assessment). These take a huge amount of time to get through with each child. The kids were pretty great to hang in there with me. Many kids reached their one-year-growth goal. Some also completed the retelling goal for 4th quarter. The successes will keep rolling in as we near the end of our year together. The opinion writing unit is finished. Fourth quarter we return to narrative writing. Spelling has improved. Using conventions has improved. Speech errors have improved. This should be easy for the kids once they determine a "small moment" they want to share. Expanding on details will be our focus. Phonics is really tough. I don't expect that kids to remember when to use which spelling pattern. The exposure and practice seeing the words in print will help them to recognize when a word looks wrong. Math Topic 11 was assessed. The kids are "just knowing" answers now. I promised them it would happen. We're on to measuring when we return from Spring Break. Upcoming Dates: Tuesday, March 12th - DISMISS AT 12:30 Wednesday, March 13th - Friday, March 15- SPRING BREAK!!!! Thursday, March 21st - Spring Picture Day Monday, March 25th - Student Led Conferences- schedule coming out soon! Friday, March 29 - NO SCHOOL! BOOK ORDERS ARE DUE TODAY - order online or by using the flyers sent home last Friday.
Scholastic Class Code: GK83B Frindle is finished this week! The kids were able to relate to this book much better than previous book reads. I am actually excited to stay late next Thursday for Literacy Night. Our grade level has a variety of crafty stuff to decorate "frindles!" Please join us from 6 pm to 7 pm Thursday, March 7th for FREE activities throughout our building provided by each grade level. Mr. Stockton has the book fair open as well, but it isn't free. Wouldn't a free book fair be so cool? We'll be having spelling tests for our 110 sight words. Random tests during reading groups have proven that most kids are able to read their sight words, but they do not spell them correctly. We'll start with words from the first list because those were Kindergarten sight words and should be easy. I'll send home a list to study. This week we switched gears in math to subtraction using two-digit numbers. Thank goodness there will NOT be borrowing. We will stick with using tens. I expect this to be an easy topic with testing March 8th. Our focus book this week was The Invisible Boy. I love the illustrations because this little boy had no color until other kids started including him. Such a visual! This fits wonderfully with our 7 habits. We discussed vocabulary words: invisible, whines, complains, scurry, and introduces. Kids felt badly for the main character, Brian. They seemed to understand how he felt. Phonics: ey, y, ie e_e patterns. Our language is so tricky. Words from phonics may be included on our spelling tests as bonuses. If kids can memorize words that use these patterns, they will find it easier to transfer their learning to other words. Opinion writing continues. Kids are really good at this. We are inserting persuasive writing into pieces to get others to share our opinion. This stretches thinking into considering others' thoughts. Time will be given for the assessment March 7th. Important Dates: Monday, March 4th - Wear clothing with Dr. Seuss or Dr. Seuss characters on it, or dress with a Dr. Seuss hat, gloves, and bow tie. Tuesday, March 5th - Hat Day for a canned good or quarter, crazy socks Wednesday, March 6th - Dress as your favorite BOOK character, bring the book if possible Thursday, March 7th - Wear WORDS on your clothing Thursday, March 7th - Literacy Night and Book Fair 6:00 to 7:00 Friday, March 8th - Tiger Tee, dismissal at 12:30 Tuesday, March 12th - early dismissal 12:30 Wednesday, March 13th through Friday, March 15th - Spring break Thursday, March 21st - Spring Pictures Thursday, March 28th - Report Cards sent home |
AuthorMrs. Christine Bailey Willard South Homepage
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May 2019
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