October 3, 2016

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend with your families.  The past two weeks we have really settled into many of our routines, and we are working nicely as a classroom community.  Below are some highlights I’d like to share…

Daily 5 is off and running great!  The children now have 4 choices to make during our language arts blocks.  Those choices include:  Listen to Reading, Work on Words, Work on Writing, and Read to Self.  We are doing 3 “rounds” each day, each lasting 15-20 minutes.  It’s neat to see kids working on a variety of tasks independently for such a lengthy amount of time.  Now that we have our Daily 5 routines down we are excited to begin reading groups next week!

At this time they have 2 choices for Listen to Reading:  Raz- Kids and Tumble Books.  Hopefully you all received your login information for Raz-Kids.  This is a great program to use at home because it is tailored to your child’s reading level.  Also, the kids can use their Raz-Kids time towards their 15 minutes of reading on their reading log.  Tumble Books is a free program offered through the JV Fletcher Library where children can listen to 100’s of picture books!  As long as you access the website through the library page http://www.westfordlibrary.org/pages/JVFletcherLibrary_JustforKids/index you can use the program without a username and password. 

In Social Studies we completed our Apples Economics Unit this week.  The children had several opportunities throughout this unit to work in groups and do some fun, interactive activities that helped them learn the concepts.  I hope your child enjoyed learning all about apples- what a fun way to get excited about the fall!!

We have been talking about Personal Narratives during our writing time.  We learned that these are true stories about things that have happened in our lives.  We will all begin by writing a personal narrative about a celebration as we learn about the structure of personal narrative.  After that the children will be able to write about other topics of their choice.

Over the next few weeks we will be turning our focus back to Science.  We are lucky to have a chance to visit the Living Lab at the Day School on Wednesday to explore more about Plant and Animal Survival.  We will be taking a bus to get there. The permission slips were sent home at the beginning of the year.  I have already received a signed permission slip from everyone so we should be all set!  We may spend some time outside by the Reed Brook, so please keep an eye on the weather so that your child will be comfortable during the outside portion of our visit.

Please note that WEDNESDAY IS PICTURE DAY!!  Our picture time is at 10:05.  I will give the children an opportunity to change clothes and/or shoes before we head to the Living Lab at 11:00.

Here is what some kids thought about this week...

"My favorite part of the week was Language Arts.  I like doing rounds."
                                                        - Katelyn H.

"My favorite part of the week was Art because we drew pumpkins."
                                                        - Alison A.

"This week I learned how to make a new friend on the Buddy Bench."
                                                        - Vineeth G.

"My favorite part of the week was when I listened to Tumble Books."
                                                        - Troy O.