Yes, we have early dismissals for the rest of the week. If you are scheduled for a conference and cannot make your time due to weather concerns, please call me or email me at school and we can have a telephone conference. It is preferable that we meet in person but I understand if it is not possible.
This week we are working on measurement in Math. In Reading we are working on long e (/ee/ and /ea/) and cause and effect. In Writing, we are adding more descriptive language to our sentences. In Science we are working with liquids (by the way snow and ice are solids).
Last week we read a story about "Snowflake" Bentley a man who 100 years ago photographed snowflakes. You can see some of his works if you go on our Storytown site and look at book 4 story 18. Here is a fun activity I found on-line last year. We cannot do it at school but maybe you can try it at home:
Chill pieces of smooth glass (pie plate or casserole or maybe even a small mirror) and aerosol hairspray or artists’ fixative in the freezer or outdoors. (Note: These items need to be chilled so they don’t melt the snowflakes.) When you’re ready to catch snowflakes, spray one side of the glass with the hairspray or fixative. Have students hold out the glass, sticky side up, to collect falling snowflakes. Next, place the glass in a chilly area where it won’t be disturbed for several hours. Once the snowflake imprint is dry, it doesn’t need to be kept cold. For added fun, examine the snowflake imprints under a microscope.
Report cards get mailed home this weekend. Please remember that expectations and skills change as the marking periods progress. Math, Science and Social Studies are not necessarily cumulative skills. Your child may exceed 1st grade proficiency in arithmetic, be near in geometry and meet in sorting and data collection. In Science and Social Studies, each unit of study is distinct. In Reading, words and skills get more complex and fluency rates become higher. Starting with this Marking Period and continuing through later grades, reading comprehension becomes more of a focus. Reading assessments will become more difficult!! That being said, go through our first story Tap Tap Tap from our first book and then look at what we are reading this week - it is hard to believe how far we have come!
How can you help your child with comprehension? Ask questions about what they read (or listened to). Who is the main character? What is the setting? What happened in the beginning, the middle and the end of the story? What was the problem? How was it solved? Why did (some event in the story) happen? What was your favorite part of the story? WHY? (My favorite question - it makes everyone, including me, think about what actually happened in the story.) Did the story remind you of anything? Has something like that happened to you? Why did the author write this story? These are all questions that I ask in the classroom (not all of them every day) and your child will have to answer them from now until they get their PhD!
Questions, comments? Please call or email.
Enjoy the weather!
Dave Ostheimer
This week we are working on measurement in Math. In Reading we are working on long e (/ee/ and /ea/) and cause and effect. In Writing, we are adding more descriptive language to our sentences. In Science we are working with liquids (by the way snow and ice are solids).
Last week we read a story about "Snowflake" Bentley a man who 100 years ago photographed snowflakes. You can see some of his works if you go on our Storytown site and look at book 4 story 18. Here is a fun activity I found on-line last year. We cannot do it at school but maybe you can try it at home:
Chill pieces of smooth glass (pie plate or casserole or maybe even a small mirror) and aerosol hairspray or artists’ fixative in the freezer or outdoors. (Note: These items need to be chilled so they don’t melt the snowflakes.) When you’re ready to catch snowflakes, spray one side of the glass with the hairspray or fixative. Have students hold out the glass, sticky side up, to collect falling snowflakes. Next, place the glass in a chilly area where it won’t be disturbed for several hours. Once the snowflake imprint is dry, it doesn’t need to be kept cold. For added fun, examine the snowflake imprints under a microscope.
Report cards get mailed home this weekend. Please remember that expectations and skills change as the marking periods progress. Math, Science and Social Studies are not necessarily cumulative skills. Your child may exceed 1st grade proficiency in arithmetic, be near in geometry and meet in sorting and data collection. In Science and Social Studies, each unit of study is distinct. In Reading, words and skills get more complex and fluency rates become higher. Starting with this Marking Period and continuing through later grades, reading comprehension becomes more of a focus. Reading assessments will become more difficult!! That being said, go through our first story Tap Tap Tap from our first book and then look at what we are reading this week - it is hard to believe how far we have come!
How can you help your child with comprehension? Ask questions about what they read (or listened to). Who is the main character? What is the setting? What happened in the beginning, the middle and the end of the story? What was the problem? How was it solved? Why did (some event in the story) happen? What was your favorite part of the story? WHY? (My favorite question - it makes everyone, including me, think about what actually happened in the story.) Did the story remind you of anything? Has something like that happened to you? Why did the author write this story? These are all questions that I ask in the classroom (not all of them every day) and your child will have to answer them from now until they get their PhD!
Questions, comments? Please call or email.
Enjoy the weather!
Dave Ostheimer