Weekly Update

Dear Families,
My apologies that this post is a little late, but as you have probably heard from your children, I was out sick earlier this week.  I am finally getting better. 

The children celebrated their hard work in our writer's workshop and shared their first published stories with their reading buddies in Ms. Davison's Kindergarten class.  It was wonderful to see, and hear, their pride as they read their own stories to their new friends.  Here are some pictures from that celebration.

Next week, we will learn that authors sometimes write on specific topics. We will learn that authors write about things they already know.  Sometimes, those topics are about things we all know about, such as our class, our school or our community.  The students will also continue exploring different ways authors generate ideas for new stories.

The students filled our classroom buzzy jar again!  I am so proud of their hard work and desire to be safe, kind and responsible every day.  The students voted on a classroom celebration and it turned out that the majority of the class wanted to use our ipads!  I know we will fill the jar again soon and I look forward to another classroom celebration.

In reading, we started a unit on the author Todd Parr. He write wonderful stories on a variety of topics and he is also known for his art.  He uses strong colors, with sharp outlines. This week, we visited the computer lab to create self-portraits using artistic ideas from Todd Parr.  The students used the program "Paint."  The pictures came out great.  We hope you will come down and see our new mural taking shape just outside our classroom.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know that the students reading logs and book bags will come home this week.  The students will pack books from our classroom library. These books are due back on Friday.  Your child does not have to read these books for the reading log.  We send them home to encourage parents to read them at home again, as studies show that repeated reading builds not only confidence, but also skills.  If your child has a book he/she reads at home and he wishes to record that book instead, please do so.  We have not started guided reading groups yet, as I have not assessed all the children yet.  I will be out on Wednesday and Thursday this week to do just that and I hope to start groups shortly thereafter.  Please note that the reading log is due on Friday as well.  It also asks for a parent signature.  Thank you for supporting your child's learning at home.  Math homework is also due on Fridays, which means that the entire homework folder and the Thursday folder can come back on Fridays.  This is a change for our second graders as we used to return homework on Thursdays.  Thank you!

I hope you all had a great weekend,
Maria