Jan. 28- Feb. 1

Hello Families,

I can't believe we are almost into February.  I told you these next few months will fly by.  Please continue to read the take home books and  when the book is being read fluently, return it to get the next book.  I have seen  many books being returned daily!!!

Just a reminder, please turn in your next "Star of the Day" share.  It is 100 of anything!  You can have the collection as a display or in a container to share your 100 collection.  We have received many cute ones!  One student did 100 stickers in groups of 10. Another made the number 100 out of a hundred rocks. A student  also had 100 beads. Get creative!  Your choice of what you would like to share.  Bring it any at anytime this week or next so that we can start our next "Star of the Day".

We will continue our theme on "Polar Animals".  We learned many facts about the different types of penguins that live in the Southern Hemisphere.  We will continue to learn about penguins and will begin to talk about Polar Bears that live in the Northern Hemisphere. We will discuss how these animals adapt to live in cold areas of the world.


Math: This next week, we will be back to full weeks with counting collections, math games in centers, as well as learning to counting on, etc.  Please continue to count to 100 by 1's and 10's.

word wall word for the week: has, had

We have a few celebrations coming up.  We have our 100 days of school on Feb. 4.  and Valentine's Day on Thurs. Feb. 14. Also the Chinese New Year parade  will be the week of Feb. 4th.  We celebrate president's day with no school on Feb. 11 and 18th.

  I am wondering if anyone would like to either pick up these items at the store.  I appreciate all the help and thank you all.

 Thick pretzel sticks from trader joes "to make log cabins for Abe Lincoln".
Cotton balls for comparing Polar bears to grizzly bears
Crisco large tub "for our science experiment for blubber"
100 red cups for 100 days
white paper plates (thin ones) for Chinese New Year

Reminders:
Science Fair Wednesday night Jan. 30
Morning Assembly Friday, Feb. 1
No school on Feb. 11 and Feb. 18
Math Festival: Tuesday, Feb. 19

Thank you all! Have a great weekend!
Ms. Werner

Dear Families,

  There will be no School on Monday Jan. 21 to observe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday. We had a nice class discussion on how he had a dream for all people to be equal and be treated fairly.  We read a poem on "The Crayons that Talked".  It was about how each crayon is a unique beautiful color and when you put them all together it creates a lovely picture.  I talked about us being that box of crayons and all of us having talents that come together to create a beautiful picture.

 On Monday, we had our training on Readers Workshop. We started implementing this process into our reading program.  We will be focusing on these comprehension skills; envisioning, building empathy, inferring, questioning, predicting, determining importance, and summarizing.  We will be developing these comprehension skills in reading. This comes at a great time because this Tuesday, you will receive the first book in our take home books.  Another thing we learned at our training is that having a book that is at their level that is not too hard and not too easy can help them to build fluency and comprehension.  When you read these books at home, please remember to talk about the characters and events in the story. If a your child reads the book without stopping to sound out (fluent), please return it for the next book.  We have noticed in the past, students who read these books daily become more fluent and confident readers by the end of the year.  

This training on Readers Workshop is that same structure as our Writers Workshop.  So the transition to Readers Workshop will be  easier.  In Writers Workshop, we are still writing books on "How to".  We can't wait to celebrate when we are done with these books.

Language Arts:

 Our new theme is winter animals!  We already introduced owls (snowy owl).  We will talk about how winter animals adapt to their environment during the winter months by hibernating, growing more fur, storing food, etc.  This week, we will have center activities with penguins.  We will learn about different types of penguins and talk about the life cycle. 

In the next few weeks, we have a few holidays to celebrate.  We celebrate Chinese New Year, Ground hog day, and 100th day of school, Valentine's Day, and President's Day.  This makes these next few months go quick!

Word wall words: this, that

Math:  We will continue to practice word problems and learn a few more strategies to solve word problems.  

  Please practice counting to 100 because our next trimester is ending and we will be assessing students and math skills.  

We started subtraction and using vocabulary words for subtraction.

Math Festival coming up on February 19th!!!! We need parent volunteers.  

We need 2 volunteers for both sessions:

First Session: 7:55-10:35

Second Session 11:35-2:10

Volunteers will be assisting with classes, grade K-6th, as they filter through the MPR to explore math activities and games.  

You do not need to teach any math or know the skills, you will be more of a facilitator at a center- cleaning up materials  between each class, helping younger students read the directions, etc.

If you are interested and can commit to one of the sessions, please email alyssa_davis@pvusd.net(our academic coordinator).  We definite need volunteers for this to run smoothly.

Thank you!!!

Reminders:

No school this Monday- Jan.21

No school Monday Feb. 11

No school Monday Feb. 18

Math Festival Tuesday, Feb. 19

Have a great week!

Ms. Werner