October 3-7

 Hello Families!

Parent-teacher conferences are underway.  I am so excited to be meeting with you about your child.  If you haven't already signed up, please sign up.  If you need to schedule for a different day or over Zoom, I am happy to accommodate.

This month in reading we are focusing on sequencing stories.  I had planned to read the book There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat with the class.  This story is about an old lady who swallows a bunch of different items.  This book is actually a part of a series.  The book I am planning on reading with the class is about an old lady who swallows a bat, ghost, witch and cat.  Please let me know if you are not comfortable with this story.  If I don't hear from you, I will assume all is well.

October 31 is a half day.  Students can dress up like their favorite book character.

Moral Focus: "I can show respect by taking care of others and my environment."  We are talking about showing respect by saying "please" and "thank you", cleaning up after ourselves, being patient while others are talking, coughing into our sleeves and showing others we care.  You can continue these conversations at home.

Reading: "I can determine if a text is fiction.  I can retell the story."  We are talking about the characteristics of a fiction text, (illustrations, beginning-middle-end, characters, setting, problem, solution, animals that talk, etc.)  You can continue this work at home when you read with your child.

Phonics: "I can identify the letter Ii and say it's sound."  Students have been working on naming things in the world that start with Ii.  They have also started working on reading 3-letter words and writing 3-letter words that have the short Aa and short Ii in the middle of a word.  You can continue this practice at home by having your child write and read words like "cat", "van", "lip", "tin", etc.

Social Studies/Science: We have continued working on our 5 senses.  We are going to be doing more exploring with this as we start "investigation walks" around the school and record our 5 senses while we eat popcorn!

We started book buddies this week with one of the 6th grade classes.  Both classes are absolutely loving it!  This week we paired each student up with an older buddy and they read books together.  This is every Thursday morning after recess.

I am still missing some field trip money/ permission slips.  Please remember to get those to me ASAP, unless you would like to keep your child home that day, or have them stay at school with the office staff or a buddy class.

Thank you all for your support and participation in making this a successful school year.  

Katie Powell