January 26th-30th

Reading
We will be doing a one week author study on Jan Brett and reading some of her stories. We will connect animal homes and people homes as we wrap up our homes unit. We have also been working on our comprehension skills and students are learning words terms like "infer" and "think aloud". Please encourage your child to practice these skills at home as they read. Inferring is simply using your prior knowledge and knowledge from a text to make new knowledge. Thinking aloud is exactly what it sounds like. I am encouraging the students to talk to themselves as they read. Students should be saying things like "I wonder if..." or "I predict..." or "One time this happened to me and...". Those are all comprehension strategies that will be easier for your child to understand if the think it out aloud.

Writing
We will continue to work on making multiple sentences and adding detail to our words and picture. Students will use a writing web for the first time to organize their writing.

Phonics 
We are still reviewing/solidifying our short vowel sounds and also learning some word patterns that make a long vowel sound (the CVCe pattern also known as the silent e).

Math
We will learn to skip count by tens and also review skip counting by fives and twos. Please be practicing this at home. Students should be able to group objects in pairs (twos), fives, and tens and then skip count them. *At least to 20

Social Studies
We are wrapping up our "Homes Around the World" unit this week with a display of the homes we have built (Wednesday 1:15-2:45) and going on a field trip to Lego Discovery Land on Thursday.

The end of the month (and quarter) is this Friday so we will be having our end of the month prize on Friday. All students who earned at least 50 Dojo points over the month will be able to wear pajamas and bring a bag of popcorn to school to enjoy with The Lego Movie. I will notify you by Thursday if your child is participating.

Thursday is our field trip! Please send a "heavy" snack as well as a lunch (unless eating school lunch) with your child as they will be eating right before and right after the field trip. Chaperones please be to school by 8:45 because we will be leaving at 9/9:15ish.