SCHOOL NEWS
Grades Three and Four
2012 came in with a whirl of time and new multiplication concepts for our class. In Number Corner we are working with elapsed time (and strengthening our time-telling skills) the patterns are slowly evolving as the month unfolds and we wind around the clock! We have started ‘Quick Facts’ a program to help with multiplication fluency. We are also working on models to understand what ‘multiplication’ is really all about.
In Language Arts we are wrapping up a unit on the parts of speech and now have the knowledge to tackle some fun ‘Mad Libs’ in class. These are little stories that allow you to plug in some of the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. We get some pretty hilarious results!
In Readers Workshop we have been working in the SRA LAB (individualized reading program) as I assess each student’s reading level. The class is anxious to begin their new novels, which we will start soon. Biographies have been started and we all anticipate the visit of some famous people in February.
Science has been the exploration of the Scientific Process with exploding soda bottles and the feeding of our new class fish. More investigations will be coming with our planet earth and Erosion.
~ Jeanna Foote
Grades One and Two
In grades one and two we are learning about the weather. We are keeping records for the temperature on Tuesday mornings and are creating line graphs to display our data. We are focusing on the water cycle, clouds, and snow.
Grades one and two students have been completing mid-year assessments. We have completed the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment in reading and the Dibels assessments in both reading and math. We will also completed the MAP Assessment for both reading and math on February 1
and 2. Please make sure your child is well rested and has a good breakfast so that he or she can perform at his or her best.If you are concerned about your child’s progress, please contact me and we can set up a time to discuss his or her progress.
In reading, we continue to have Fundations lessons daily. We gain letter and sound knowledge as well as work on comprehension and fluency. Our focus has been on the /ng/ and /nk/ endings.
In writing we are researching animals for our animal report. Each child has chosen an animal and is researching that animal. The final paper will be written on the computer.
In math we are working on place value. We also focus on our addition and subtraction facts.
We celebrated the hundredth day of school on Thursday, February 2. Students brought in one hundred items either to show or one hundred items to add to a "snack salad." Ideas for snack items include: one hundred raisins, sunflower seeds, nuts, etc. Items to count could include: one hundred Legos or any other small item that we can count in groups of ten.
Just a reminder, we are outside for recess every day that the weather permits for about 30 minutes. Thank you for making sure that your children dress appropriately.
~ Sue Rondeau
Grades three and four learning about erosion