Newsletter
Room 109
May 1, 2017
Theme: Ocean and Space
We continued our unit on the ocean. Last
month we focused on shell creaturesespecially hermit crabs and sea turtles. We
sequenced the ocean animals in the book
House for Hermit Crab and practiced
retelling the story. We read books about
sea turtles and compared the two nonfiction texts. This month we will work with
the same concepts but focus on fish, sharks,
and ocean mammals. The children loved
working in the dramatic play area – our deep
sea ocean laboratory. They have a
submersible to dive to the ocean floor and
record their findings. They have sand to
explore shell creatures and take notes.
Once we finish our ocean unit we will
investigate space. Our production will also
focus on space!
Math:
This month we continued to work on teen
numbers, addition and subtraction and shape
identification. We focused on adding and
subtracting with 0 to 5. They will play Top-It (a
number game comparing numbers –like the card
game “war”). We will compose and decompose
the teen numbers. Children will be introduced to
measurement and work with taking shapes to
create other shapes and pictures.
Writers’ Workshop:
The children continued working on
writing a fact piece or informative piece.
They will also begin work on opinion
pieces. They will give an opinion and a
reason for their opinion.
Fundations:
We will begin Unit 5 this month. The
children will focus on sentence structure
and continue to work with 5 consonant
digraphs: th- thumb-/th/, sh-ship-/sh/,
ch-chin-/ch/, wh-whistle-/wh/, and scsock-/k/. They will continue to work with
long and short vowel sounds. They will
write and make pictures in their journals
with these letters. We will also work with
our trick words-do, have, they, away,
little, down, play, all and on.
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, May 2nd- 9:30 AM PTA Meeting
Thursday, May 5th- Happy Cinco de Mayo
Sunday, May 14th- Happy Mother’s Day!
Friday, May 19th- Pennies for Pages ends.
Saturday, May 20th- Mayfair
Thursday, May 25th- Pennies for Pages
Celebration
Saturday, May 27th- Happy Birthday
Faith!!
Monday, May 29th- School Closed for
Memorial Day
May Updates:
Our production is June 9th at
9:45. The children are so
excited!
This week’s Bucket Filler:
Bia
We continue to work as a
community and try to follow the
classroom and
school
rulesMrs.
McGowan
I will be kind
or Library and
I will be safe
I will be respectful
Parent Tip of the Month:
Home-School Reading Connection
This Month’s Tip: Here are several helpful ways for your child to read an unknown
word on their own. They will still need you there as a coach but as time goes on the
will begin to use these strategies on their own. We also use them each day in the
classroom.
Monday- Art with Ms. Reyes and
Mandarin with Ms. Lin
Tuesday- Music with Ms.
Pereia and P.E. with Mr. Eder
-wear
Eagle Eyes
your sneakers!!!!!
Look at the
pictures.
Look at the
picture for
clues!
Skippy Frog
Wednesday P.E. with Mr. Eder
-
wear your sneakers!!!!!
Thursday- Enrichment with Ms.
Mussa or Technology with Mrs.
McGowan and Library with Ms.
Arnold every other week.
Lips the Fish
Friday- Mandarin with
Ms. Lin and Drama with
MS. Blasi every other week
Stretchy
Snake
Chunky
Monkey
Get your lips
ready!
-Say the first
few sounds.
-Read to the
end of the
sentence and
say it again.
Stretch it out!
-Stretch the
word out
slowly.
-Put the sounds
together.
Chunk the
word.
-Look for a
chunk (-an, at).
-Look for a
word part (-th,
-ed).
Flip the Dolphin
Tryin’ Lion
Helpful
Hippo
Skip it, hop
back.
-Skip the word.
-Read to the
end of the
sentence.
-Hop back and
read it again.
Flip the vowel.
-Try the short
vowel sound.
-Try the long
vowel sound.
Try it again!
-Try to reread
the sentence.
-Try a word
that makes
sense.
-Try to switch
b and d.
Ask for help.
-Ask for help
after you have
tried all of the
other
strategies.