February 2-6

Reading
We will be changing our reading block a bit to have more of a focus on comprehension strategies. Students will hear a variety of different books during our 8-9 comprehension block and then focus on different comprehension strategies during read to self time. This weeks comprehension strategy is inferring (using prior knowledge and the text to form new ideas/knowledge). Our "book of the week" time will move to 11:45-12. We will focus on one or a pair (fiction and non-fiction) of books per week and dig into the social studies and science aspects of the book. This week we will be reading Dig, Dig, Digging and a childhood favorite of mine Mike Mulligan and Maryanne. We will be focusing on machines that help community workers over the next month or so. We will also sprinkle in some Black History Month books as well as 100th Day books.

Phonics
I am working on changing our phonics instruction to focus more on small group needs. Students will be grouped based on phonics needs. Groups will be reviewing/learning short and long vowel sounds, consonant blends like bl, fr, spl, and word attack strategies like chunking (wonderful is won/der/ful).

Writing
We will be writing stories about different feelings this week. Students are expected to write a story about a time they felt a feeling like sad, mad, frustrated, happy, bored... They should be able to write 3-4 sentences. We are still working on the abstract idea of "What is a sentence?" and when do you put an end mark.

Math
We will be learning numbers 21-79 this week. Students will learn how these numbers are represented by tens and ones like in 51 (5 tens and 1 one). Students will work on ordering numbers 21-79 too.

Social Studies
Machines that construction workers use.

February Challenges
IXL- pizza party after school with a friend
Raz-Kids- a brand new book

Students will "hopefully" be bringing home a baggie of letters on Monday. These letters can be sorted to form their spelling words. That is what all the index cards were for. Students can practice their spelling words by dumping out the letters and then making their spelling words from them. I will show them how to do it Monday so they will know.

I restarted the Dojo points and we have already started earning February Dojo points. As stated in the email yesterday, students getting more than 50 points will be able to use their extra points to buy things from the classroom store.

Happy "Super" weekend,
Mr. E