IMPORTANT DATES:
• Nov. 10~ Early Release Day: Students dismissed at 12:45
• Nov. 11~ Veterans Day
• Nov. 12~ Career and Fine Arts Day
• Nov. 12~ Family Free MOVIE Night,TOY STORY III will be shown at 6:00!
• Nov. 15-19 ~“Be a Buddy Not a Bully!” Westminster Elementary Bully Prevention Week
SNACKS: Thank you for remembering to send a snack each day. These should be healthy snacks, not cookies or brownies or candy. Also, please try to send finger foods only. We often work through shack, and foods that need spoons or need cutting and peeling can be messy.
TAKE HOME READERS: These are going so well! The children are really growing as independent readers! Thanks for your help with this. There are just a few children who are not reading every day. Please use the Take Home Reader as a part of 15 minutes of reading daily.
FARM UNIT: We have been reading and writing about life on the farm. We’ve compared and contrasted different types of animals, learned about different crops, and seen how farm products go from the farm to our homes. We’ve learned about living and non-living things. We’re finishing up this unit, and we’ll begin our Thanksgiving unit this week.
Language Arts: We are learning about setting purposes for reading, such as reading to find out certain information, to find out the answer to a question, or to check a prediction. We’re working on summarizing the main idea of a story and retelling it with proper sequence. We have been learning about a variety of “genres.” Ask your child to tell you about non-fiction, realistic fiction, and fantasy. We are continuing to increase our independent reading time. So far, our longest time is 15 minutes! Please continue to remind your child to touch each word as he or she reads, and remind them to use strategies such as “get my mouth ready,” looking at pictures for clues, or making “guesses,” then returning to see if our guesses make sense.
We’re reviewing rhyming word “families” to help us with reading and spelling. We’re reviewing the sounds of ch, sh, th, and wh.
In writing, we are focusing on getting good ideas for writing. We’re continuing to work on spelling basic high frequency words correctly, and stretching out other words. We are trying to hear the beginning & ending sounds, as well as a vowel sound. We’re going to be working harder on including finger spaces in between the words as we write. We are working on writing complete sentences, with capital letters at the beginning and a period or question mark at the end.
We are beginning a renewed emphasis on HANDWRITING. You can expect to see handwriting practice sheets coming home for homework.
Math: We’re beginning to learn combinations that equal a sum of 10. (7+3, 5+5, 8+2, etc) We’re adding and subtracting through number stories. We’re continuing to memorize some “doubles” facts, such as 4+4, 5+5, etc. We’re working with numbers up to 110 on our Number Grid. We will continue to work on telling time to the hour this week.
Health and Safety: In conjunction with Walk to School day, we have learned about ways to get more activity into our day! We also celebrated Red Ribbon Week by talking about things we can do to lead a healthy drug free life.
Social Studies: We will be learning about family traditions for Thanksgiving, as well as the story of the “first” Thanksgiving. We will celebrate Veterans Day on Thursday.
Science: We’re learning about the needs of living things, comparing and contrasting animals and plants.
