Important Dates:
- October 3: Field Trip to Colorado State Capitol (chaperones - Erica Ryan, Miranda Voss, and Jami Thompson... see email with further info)
- October 7-11: Scholastic Book Fair!
- October 10: Donuts with Grown Ups 7:00-7:45 am
- October 15-16: Conferences (sign up here)
- October 17: NO SCHOOL Teacher Work Day
- October 18: NO SCHOOL
- October 22: Picture Retakes
- October 31: Halloween! Class Parties- 1:45-2:05 Parade - 2:05
- November 1: NO SCHOOL Teacher Work Day
- November 8: End of Trimester 1 AND Gold Merit Assembly!
Sign up to help with Halloween Party here.
Curriculum Updates:
- Math: We have wrapped up Unit 1 of our Math curriculum! As we are moving into our 2nd unit, please be aware that students should be practicing their Count By songs at home. All of these can be found in my Google Classroom under the Math Topic. In Unit 2, we explore the connection of multiplication to area. We look at real world situations where area would be used. We also explore decoposing rectangles to find the area of more comples shapes.
- Reading: In Reading we are in Module 2 and exploring how people express themselves with words. We are going to read several stories that involve letters and poems. We further explore point of view, figurative language, and elements of poetry. I love the kids curiosity in this unit - they love to experiment with poetry and find rhyming words.
- Writing: In Writing, we are moving onto our next unit which focuses on the RACES strategy. R: restate the question A: answer the question C: cite text evidence E: explain your evidence S: summarize. This strategy can be used to answer prompts about nonfiction and fictional text. This is a wonderful strategy for short answer questions (ones we will be seeing on CMAS testing in April/May). It allows students to write strong, complete, well-written responses. We use these videos to help guide our learning. Feel free to explore and practice at home!
- Social Studies: We are wrapping up reading Capitol Ghost Mystery! The kids are trying to solve the mystery of the missing Lincoln portrait and how Silvie Blake is connected. We met the author, Michelle Barone, who taught us all about how she became a writer and her process to writing such amazing stories. She also signed books for us and the kids were SO excited! If you would like to order one or both of her books, please reach out ASAP so we can email her and get you an order form. She will come back one time in October to sign books that weren't signed during her first visit. We will wrap up our Colorado history/capitol learning with a field trip to the Colorado Capitol. The kids have been researching different parts of our history the past couple months and have created a book in Book Creator! Ask them to share it will you after next week!
- Science: As we wrap up Social Studies, we will begin our first Science Unit. This unit focuses on forces and motion. Kids will explore the idea of bouancy by building their own boats to carry treasure (pennies) in water. They will also explore how and why magnets work. This unit is very hands-on and I think the kids will really enjoy themselves!
- Second Step: In Second Step we have learned how we make new networks in our brains. We will move into a unit on bullying soon. In this unit, we will learn how to identify bullying, how and when to report it, and the role bystanders play in preventing bullying. There are parent handouts that will be coming home when we start this unit. Make sure to continue these conversations at home and encourage your students to be kind and respectful friends.
As always, email me with any questions and concerns! Thank you so much for supporting your students' learning so far this year! I have seen massive growth already! I can't wait to see everyone at conferences.