Mrs. Lewis' Classroom News

 December 14, 2009

Reading: Target Skill - Compare and Contrast

• Comparing is finding out how things are like each other. Contrasting is finding how things are different.
• Using a Venn Diagram we will compare and contrast The Polar Express Movie to the story.
• Genre Study - Understand characteristics of fiction and fantasy
• Practice summarizing a story as a strategy for comprehension
• Practice reading fluently. Students will have a fluency check each week starting next week. At this time students should be reading between 20 -30 words per minute. Please practice reading the decodable readers. Practice will help increase fluency and comprehension.

Practice the following words

• High-Frequency Words - again - feel - house - know - loud - Mrs. - put - say
• Robust Vocabulary - approached - energetic - pace - blunder - reassure - excel
• Spelling Words - No spelling test this week

Phonics

• Review vowel y - long /i/ sound of vowel y and long /e/ sound of vowel y
• Introduce combination er - When two letters come together to make an unexpected sound, we call those letters a combination.
• Code and read compound words
• Review suffixes -s, -ed, -ing
• Introduce suffixes - less, -ness, -ly

Math

• Write a number sentence to solve a problem
• Practice measuring length using nonstandard units
• Identify pairs
• Exploring Fact Families
• Identify characteristics of shapes (cones cubes, sphere, rectangular prism, cylinder)
• Patterns

Writing

• Write sequence stories using sequence words (first, next, then, finally).
• Write poetry
• Practice proofreading sentences
• Grammar - use capitalization skills to capitalize proper nouns

Reminders

• Dec. 16th - We will be watching the Polar Express Movie in a train setting while enjoying popcorn and cocoa. Students are allowed to wear their pajamas on this day. Please wear shoes because we have P.E. We will also be making trains from candy. It will be a fun filled day building memories.
• Dec. 16th - Book due for gift exchange
• Dec. 17th - Items due for Christmas party
• Dec. 18th - We will be having a book exchange during our Christmas Party. Your child will need to bring in a wrapped book with your child's name on it by Dec. 16th. Please be sure the book is something a boy or girl would like to read. We play a game with the book and don't know who will end up with it. Scholastic Book Club has some nice books (examples - Dangerous Animals or The Mitten). Book should not cost more than $4.00 or $5.00.
• Dec. 18th - Early Release at 11:00 am
• Jan. 4th - Back to School