Dear Families,
The smiles and hugs that I got the first day of school started
2017 off to the right start. We jumped
right back in to our curriculum this week and also started off with a reminder
of our community expectations. Your
children are all working to be a cyclops during each and every school day. They are trying not to be a cake. Cyclops are kind, responsible, respectful and
safe, while cakes often forget the rules and expectations of the
community. This somewhat silly way of
reminding them what the rules are is based on the book, Rude Cakes, seems
to be working for them.
As for the rest of our curriculum, we started on measurement
in math. This week we are looking at
measurement with non-standard units of measure (tiles, cubes and clips), while
next week we will use our body as well as other things. We are talking about standard units of
measurement, but the unit does focus on non-standard measurement. We will also look at time (another unit of
measurement) and fractions, ½ and ¼. In
writing, we are working on informational writing. This is not a research paper yet, but more
about writing facts that they already know.
They will practice writing how to books, or facts about Legos, Star
Wars, and all the other topics they are experts in. Although they are sad, we will finish up our
author study on Robert Munsch next week.
We are looking at connecting characters and the themes of two
books. Next we will start a unit on
questioning. This unit has the children
asking questions before, during, and after they read to help improve
comprehension. We started discussions on
Civil Rights Day (MLK Day) this week and we will finish up next week. We have had some wonderful discussions about
Ruby Bridges and connecting that back to our behaviors. I hope your children have been discussing
some of this at home with you.
Please remember that there is no school on Monday, January 16th. That means that there is no early release on
Thursday. If that changes your child’s
after school schedule, please let me know.
On Friday, January 20th at 6pm there is a Science Night. Please look at the Sunrise website for a
description. In your child’s folder today
are class pictures, December results from DIBELS, this week’s homework, and a
ton of graded work. As always, if you
have any questions or concerns, please send me an email so we can get the
conversation started.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Mrs.
Berk