Family Newsletter

Dear Families,
The weeks seems to fly by.  It is hard to believe we're in fall already.  Please remember that the weather changes quickly so make sure your child comes to school ready for outdoor fun.  Long sleeve jackets, fleece jackets or hoodies are great at recess now!  Thank you.

Reading:
This week, the students continued to practice what good readers do when they read books.  They learned that good readers find a quiet spot to read and good readers stay in one spot for a longer period of time.  The students also continued practicing what their own "Just Right" books might look like.  We discussed how readers choose books for a variety of reason.  Sometimes, we want to read a book because of the author, or series that it is part of, but sometimes, we choose books because it interests us and the topic appears interesting.  Learning to choose appropriate books is a process.  Your child will slowly learn what he/she needs as an independent reader.  You can support this learning process at home by engaging in conversations about your child's particular book choice for homework.  For example, if you think your child's book appears "too easy", why do you think so?  Ask your child to read the book out loud to you, so you can encourage your child to focus on fluency, intonation and prosody.  Encourage your child to pay close attention to the punctuation to make the read aloud sound like spoken language, with proper inflection and phrasing.  If your child comes home with a book that appears to be "too hard", ask yourself why?  Encourage your child to express to you why this particular book might be too hard.  Ask your child why he/she chose the book?  Was it because the pictures, or the topic, was interesting, or because a friend read it and your child wanted to read it too?  The students are learning about the "5 Finger Rule".  If the reader cannot read 5 words on a page, it is probably too hard.  The 5 finger rule applies to both decoding, ie can your child read it out loud, but also to comprehension of the word.  Lastly, the students are also learning that we try to limit our challenging books inside our book boxes at school.  It is okay to keep 1-2 challenging books inside our book box (books that the student cannot read, but that is appealing because of the pictures) but we are really trying to find book that we can read.  Reading has to make sense.  If it does not, we have to make other choices.  Next week, the students will dig deeper into specific strategies that will help them decode books and words and deepen their understanding of these books.

Writing:
The students love to write!  I think this is their favorite class right now.  Everyone is fully engaged and the stories are terrific.  I am already excited about sharing these with you in October at conference time.  Currently, we're building a community of writers.  We are focusing on finding good ideas what to write about.  We are also learning about the different kinds of writing writers engage in.

Math:
First grade mathematicians continue to work in small group instruction in our busy classroom.  We are currently working on number sequences.  The students are learning that numbers make up other numbers and to be efficient in math, we "chunk" our numbers.  Ask your child to explain the game Bump or Egghead.  Ask your child to explain our number scrolls.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:
We have School Pictures scheduled for Tuesday September 27th next week.  If you want to order a photo packet, please send in your form before Tuesday.  Thank you.

Our field-trip to Mt Philo is scheduled for October 6th.  We will leave ABS around 9-9:30 and return around 1pm.  If you wish to chaperone, please let me know.  Thank you.

We have no school on October 12th due to Yom Kippur.

Have a great weekend,
Maria