Week of October 23rd-27th

Hi Families,
What gorgeous weather we have had recently! I hope you are able to enjoy it in a special way this weekend. Here in the classroom, we were busy at work this week, learning about narratives, adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers, writing about characters, and getting used to our new comfy chair privileges. 

Important Dates

• Monday, October 30th: Elizabeth McManus (Caroline’s mom) will be our special guest to share about data and communication! Also, a Secret Snack bag will be coming home for parents to fill with a special treat that students can enjoy for their snack on Halloween day.
• Tuesday, October 31st: Fall Party in our classroom! Thank you parents for volunteering! We have Diane D’Angelo (Emma’s mom), Laurie Wasta (Reilly’s mom), Kristin Szopa (Charlotte’s mom), and Lauren Howland (Audrey’s mom) leading games and crafts. We have Jess Fernandes (Zev’s mom), Kristen Costa (Calvin’s mom), Jason Hall (Charlie’s dad), and Lisa Parsons (Abe’s mom) supporting. 

Important Notes

• A packet of student work went home this week plus each student’s collection of poetry. You may also have noticed that the Unit 1 Student Workbook went home as well. Please review these and reach out with any questions or concerns!
• If you or a loved one is a veteran, we would love to honor you/them at our Veterans Day Assembly in November. Please email our librarian, Ms. Becker, at [email protected] to register your Veteran and be recognized at the assembly. Please do this no later than Monday November 6th.

Here are some highlights from this week:

Community Building
The school enjoyed 2 events on Wednesday: our All School Assembly where the entire school sang a few rounds of Frere Jacques in 6 languages; and a special presentation from the RMHS Drama Club about their upcoming play, “Something Rotten.”  We also continued practicing and modeling what it means to focus our attention and listen during school.

I surprised everyone with the addition of “comfy chairs” this week. Students got used to this new privilege and we navigated how to share and take turns together as a class.

Literacy
This week we began reading as a whole class the chapter book called, “The Stories Julian Tells,” a fun narrative about a young boy who is a quick fibber, a wishful thinker, and a great storyteller. We have been studying the elements of a narrative and identifying them in the story. We have also been frontloading each chapter with important background knowledge and vocabulary to maximize students’ comprehension, and then following up with literal, inferential, and evaluative questions.

Phonics and Foundational Skills
This week we read and analyzed words beginning with 3 consonant blends at the beginning. We practiced reading and spelling words with suffixes. We targeted the suffixes -es, -ing, and -ed. We learned about how those suffixes change the meaning of words and how they are related to verb tense and parts of speech. 

Writing
We dipped our toes into some narrative writing, working on brainstorming character traits of someone we know and turning that into a paragraph description. We also continued short narrative texts with our decodable story practice, using suffixes -es and -ing in our writing.

Math
We launched Unit 2 in math on Addition and Subtraction within 100. We worked with 2-digit numbers, learning how to model them using base-10 blocks and then turning those manipulatives into drawings on the page. Students practiced drawing base-10 blocks to subtract.

Social Studies
We alternate Science and Social Studies, and we started our Social Studies unit on communities. We learned about urban, suburban, and rural communities and what it’s like to live in each type of community. Students watched a video, read an article, and answered questions.

​​Thank you for taking the time to read the update! Please reach out with any questions.

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