Jan. 21-25

Dear Families,

   No School on Monday Jan. 21 to observe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.    We had a discussion on how he wanted all people to be equal and be treated fairly.  We read a poem on "The Crayons that Talked".  It is about how each crayon is unique and when you put them all together it creates a beautiful picture.  I talked about us being that box of crayons and all having talents that come together to make a beautiful picture.

 On Monday, we had our training on readers workshop.  We started implementing this process into our reading program.  We will be focusing on envisioning, building empathy, inferring, questioning, predicting, determining importance, and summarizing.  We will be developing comprehension in reading. This comes at a great time because this Tuesday, you will receive the first book in our take home books.  Another thing we learned at our training is that having a book that is at their level that is not too hard and not too easy can help them to build fluency and comprehension.  When you read these books at home, please remember to talk about the characters and events in the story. If a your child reads the book without stopping to sound out (fluent), please return it for the next book.  We have noticed in the past, students who read these books daily become more fluent and confident readers by the end of the year. 

This training on readers workshop is that same structure as our writers workshop.  So the transition to readers workshop was easier.  In writers workshop, we are still writing books on "How to".  We can't wait to celebrate when we are done with these books.

Language Arts:
 Our new theme is winter animals!  We already introduced owls (snowy owl).  We will talk about how winter animals adapt to their environment during the winter months by hibernating, growing more fur, storing food, etc.  This week, we will have center activities with penguins.  We will learn different types of penguins and talk about the life cycle.

In the next few weeks, we have a few holidays to celebrate.  We celebrate Chinese New Year, Ground hog day, and 100th day of school, Valentine's Day, and President's Day.  This makes these next few months go quick!

Word wall words: this, that

Math:  We will continue to practice word problems and learn a few more strategies to solve word problems. 
  Please practice counting to 100 because our next trimester is ending and we will be assessing students and math skills. 
We started subtraction and using vocabulary words for subtraction.

Math Festival coming up on February 19th!!!! We need parent volunteers.  
We need 2 volunteers for both sessions:
First Session: 7:55-10:35
Second Session 11:35-2:10
Volunteers will be assisting with classes, grade K-6th, as they filter through the MPR to explore math activities and games.  
You do not need to teach any math or know the skills, you will be more of a facilitator at a center- cleaning up materials  between each class, helping younger students read the directions, etc.
If you are interested and can commit to one of the sessions, please email alyssa_davis@pvusd.net (our academic coordinator).  We definite need volunteers for this to run smoothly.

Thank you!!!

Reminders:
No school this Monday- Jan.21
No school Monday Feb. 11
No school Monday Feb. 18
Math Festival Tuesday, Feb. 19

Have a great week!
Mrs. Sandman