Weekly Update

Dear Families,
Another week is almost over. I cannot believe how fast time flies.
This week, we started reading assessments and our formal guided reading groups will start shortly. The students have worked very hard on establishing good norms inside our classroom for Reader's Workshop and we wanted to share some of these with you. For starters, the students have learned that reading takes place all the time. It is the same as thinking and it must make sense all the time. We think about what we are reading, and we look at the pictures and the words. We have also learned that it is important to find a good, quiet spot to read. Furthermore, the students have learned that we choose books for many different reasons. Some books are "Just Right" for us and when we read those, we feel like we are riding a bicycle on a straight road, with not too much trouble. Some books, on the other hand, are too hard. Then we feel like we are riding our bike up a very steep hill. If the book is too easy, we read it too fast and it does not feel right. Please see our visual displays to help us remember these important rules, and please visit our classroom to see them.




This week, we also celebrated our first school-wide "Swarm Party". All the students at our school have worked diligently on showing safe, kind and responsible behavior and this week we had filled up our school Bee Hive!! The entire school met in the gym for a very special celebration, singing our new school song. We also decorated special celebration hats, which will remain in our classroom until the end of the school year. We hope to wear these hats many times.




This week, we also got a new classroom pet; a little caterpillar who lives in our classroom window. We started our unit on butterflies and insects this week and will carefully observe the changes in our caterpillar's body over the next few days and weeks. Here is a picture of it. We still need to find a name for it. Any suggestions?


Thank you all for sending in the Homework Folders today. The reading logs were fantastic, with so much writing inside on each day. Please remember to read with your child every night and write something about the book on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday nights. The Book Bags stay home all week, Monday through Thursday and are returned to the classroom on Fridays. New books will come home next week. Thank you!

Have a great weekend and keep visiting as many new videos and slide-shows will be posted in the days to come.
Maria