Nov 13-17

I enjoyed meeting with many of you at conferences and look forward to Tuesday!
For those of you attending conferences on Tuesday, please remember to stop by our Appreciation Station!

This month New Directions is showing how to BE Thankful!  As a way to bring us together as a school community we are going to have an "Appreciation Station" set up for students and families to use at conferences.  At this station you will be able to write a note to someone you are thankful for in your lives. It can be someone from the school or someone from somewhere else in your lives.  Please look for the station outside the cafeteria by the 4K classroom and stop by to let someone know you are thankful for them!

Important Dates and Reminders:
11/14: Conferences 4:00-7:15pm
11/17: 11:30 dismissal (no lunch served)
11/20: Badger Day
11/22-11/24: NO SCHOOL
12/1: Afternoon with Astronauts 2:30-3:00 (more info to come)

Here is a peek at our week:

Math: We will continue to work with the counting mat this week as we explore the operations of +1 and -1.  We will look at how numbers increase and decrease by 1 as we count forward or backward and will work to write equations that reflect this.  We will learn two poems that will help us to become more automatic in solving +1 and -1 equations.  We will also work to identify and create hexagons.

Reading: We are continuing to get stronger as readers each day now that we have learned about our reading super powers!  This week your child will bring home a book each night to read to you!  This week we will learn more about rereading books to make them sound smooth and begin to sound more like grown-ups as we read!

Writing: This week we will launch a new writing unit called "Writing for Readers."  The focus of this unit will be to tell true stories from our lives and then to write them one page at a time.  We will really focus on making sure our pictures and words are easy for others to read.  This will also help us to grow stronger at rereading our own writing.

Science:  The students are LOVING our science unit so far!  This week we will continue to gather new information about the sky by rotating through different "research" centers.  Students will be using iPads to listen to facts about the sky, learning a poem that teaches about the planets, observing and writing about artifacts related to the sky and exploring non-fiction texts to learn more about outer space.  Please mark your calendars for December 1st, we will be showcasing our science learning by hosting an Afternoon with Astronauts from 2:30-3:00 and all are welcome!