Importance of Reading Strategies and Other Things

Good Evening Families,

I'm winding down after another gorgeous weekend. My husband and I closed down our RV in Maine and are now settling in to our new home once again. We still have boxes to go through but it is more like home these days. We did manage to have breakfast with family on Saturday and a quick visit to Smolak Farm as well.

I just finished updating all the kiddos on Raz.Kids. As I read through their stats, I noticed a few kiddos have not visited the site in quite awhile. RazKids is a very valuable reading tool and I hope you encourage your children to visit it at least twice a week. The text are of high quality and the quizzes are very telling. If your child does not score well, please have them reread the selection for accuracy and comprehension.

Have you chatted with your children about reading strategies lately? I wonder how many strategies they could tell you. There are many. Reading strategies are taught in all grade levels through out your child's life. Looking at the pictures, do the words and pictures match,  back up and reread, reread easy text, be a voracious reader, tune into interesting words, ask good questions while reading, make text connections and read "good fit books" are just a few to ponder. Strategies are an integral part of reading and many I'm sure you use to this day. Beginning Monday, October 27, your child will begin intensive reading with children on their same reading level. They will be working on similar skills daily. Along with their reading teacher, your child will set goals in reading and will be given strategies specific to their needs. When you receive a PARENT PIPELINE (you received one a few weeks back on GOOD FIT BOOKS), it means a new strategy has been taught. The information will help you better understand the language to use when working with your child in the reading process. Reading Strategies will have your child unlock new words, key information and becoming more proficient fluent readers. I encourage you to have a book talk with your child if you don't already do so. Happy reading!

It looks like their calling for rain on Thursday, the day of our community field trip. There is no raindate so stay tuned. Please have your child dress appropriately because if it is just drizzly, WE WILL GO! Remember that your child need a DISPOSABLE tree nut/peanut free lunch including a drink. It such a fun day, I hope the forcast changes as it often does.

Thank you to all who offered supplies and to volunteer for our Halloween centers. I have several enjoyable craft activities planned. It is always an exciting time. Please send in supplies by Wednesday, October 29. Thank you to Norah Daly for organizing this for us.

Our Star Student of the Week this week is Molly. I look forward to hearing and witnessing some interesting things from her. Thank you to Sofia, our former Star Student. I love your bracelets and your art work.

Lastly, I will be assessing Chapter 2 of the InFocus Math program on Tuesday which was addition within 1,000. We will then work on Subtraction and learn some important subtracting strategies. In Fundations, we will be beginning Unit 4 of the program which is suffix endings. There will be new and review trick words this week as well.

Please stay tuned for conference information. We were told you will be asked to submit questions ahead of time as talking points. I will be filling out a conference form with data collected by that point in the year. Your children are all working hard academically and practicing their school expectations.

Enjoy your week! Make it a STRATEGIC one.

Communities Within Communities

Hello Families! I am anxiously watching the Patriots game as I write this post. I still believe in Tom Brady but I can't believe all of the penalty calls. Team work and community building is the key.

Speaking of communities, our Room 14 community has been very busy over the last two weeks learning about rural, suburban and urban communities. They are experts now and are learning about goods and services, service workers and government. Our community field trip permission slip went home on Friday. Please return it as soon as possible. Everyone who is interested in chaperoning is invited to come along that day so please sign the chaperone sheet as well. I will remind you all before the field trip about the disposable nut free lunch. The date is Thursday, October 23 and we will be visiting the police station, fire station, town hall and cable studio. The children are quite excited about it and it is a fun day.

Our Grade 2 community has begun working in the second chapter of our Math program. The chapter focus is on adding to 1000 with and without regrouping. The children will continue to work on place value throughout this chapter as well. They need to carefully line-up their problems vertically for accuracy. This precision is important and their understanding of place value will validate that. Please refer to Math Infocus parent letters on Edline.

The focus of Unit 3 in Fundations will be the Closed Syllable Exception. The spelling of these exceptions are: ild, old, ost, ind and olt. The result of this Closed Syllable Exception is a long vowel sound. New trick words will come home on Tuesday and this unit will last only ONE week. So, there will be another Dictation assessment on Friday. Our first Dictation went very well!

In writing, your children continue to work on narrative writing. Ask them about the watermelon and the seed. The watermelon is the big picture (attending a birthday party) and the seed is the small moment (playing in the bouncy house). We are working on details, capitals and end marks. I have read some very interesting pieces and we have many good writers all ready this year. I am very proud of them.

Room parents for our class community are Mrs. Daly (Liam's mom) and Mrs. Tittemore (Molly's) mom. They may be emailing or calling about supplies, goodies and  volunteers for our Halloween Celebration on Friday, October 31. Our activities will be happening from 9-11AM. Please consider helping out that day. I will need 4-5 volunteers to run centers (crafts). Thank you in advance for generous donations and your time.

Lastly, kuddos to Abby for doing such a great job as our first STAR STUDENT of the Week. She was really cute, talented and handled herself with confidence. Our class community is looking forward to hearing from our STAR this week; Sofia.

Have a great week everyone. Remember to send in the permission slip and sign up as a chaperone to join us.