Weekly News

Wouldn't you know it! I want to start posting pictures and videos of kids at work and my camera died on me this week...right in the middle of a recording I was making of Kendall reading. And....can't even upload to my laptop the pictures that I had already taken...dead as can be! So, until I can get a new camera...we will all have to visualize!!! Good practice for all GREAT readers! We had a busy week as we are learning about character traits. We have learned that we have to look at what they say, what they do, and what they think. We are using our last read aloud (Gooney B. Greene) and our new one, My Rotten Red-Headed Brother by Patricia Polocco. When we finish we will have a list of character traits we can use in our writing and reading. But....that's just the tip of the iceberg as we dig deeper into text. Common Core State Standards are all about digging deeper. Although I know EXACTLY what reading reading level each child in my classroom is at, reading levels aren't important when we start digging deeper. So, if you child brought a book home this week and you are thinking "they read every word without a single mistake" -that's great. It's the comprehesion beyond the literal level we are working on. Students also finished up writing personal narratives and we will start the publishing piece next week. If I can get a camera quickly we will be able to record them reading their stories as well. In math we continue to work on math facts and strategies for learning math facts. Yes----students MUST know their math facts to 20 fluently by the end of the year, and I have a benchmark assessmet of how accurate and quickly can they do them right now. BUT----ACCURACY is the key to being fast. I am backtracking with some of the students to make sure they understand how numbers come together and how they come apart to help with number sense. Accuracy MUST come first so I do not focus on time right now. It's ACCURACY first...speed later. Xtramath.org focuses more on speed at times, so if your child is not accurate use the Everyday Math games first! If you child can be accurate but just goes slow...use the games first and then XtraMath.org. Understanding leads to accuracy and that is first! Progress reports will go home on Tuesday, along with MAP scores and a sign up for conference sheet. Please indicate on the sign up a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice. I will do my best to accomadate as many 1st choices as I can, but DO give me 3 choices. It will be first come..first served....so get those back ASAP! Looking forward to hearing what everybody read over the long weekend! Happy Reading!